Two months on from the Young Company Summer Production of THRESHOLD, we wanted to reflect on the success of the show and the brilliant work across the whole Young Company and team.

The 2024 Summer Production was created with and for the 2024 Young Company, who set and explored the themes of survival, expectations and friendship through writing, discussions, and design over the summer term. We commissioned Young Company Graduate Writers Rosa Gatley, Sharvi Rana and Jake Talbot to respond to these themes, with each writer gaining experience of responding to a brief as part of a paid commission. They were mentored by playwright Becky Prestwich, who led Writers Rooms, supported the writing of the pieces and helped tie together the connections between them. The result was THRESHOLD.

I have really enjoyed being a part of Threshold. It has been an incredible experience! I will definitely remember it as my first commission.”
Sharvi Rana, Writer

21 Young Company Performers were part of the production, as well as seven Young Company Makers, who took on the role of Assistant Directors, Assistant Designers, Deputy Stage Manager and Production Assistants. The show was directed by Tian Glasgow, who leads the Young Company performers, and involved a full creative team including Sound Designer, Lighting Designer, Movement Director and Vocal Coach, the latter two being graduates of the Young Company.

“I loved the staging and how professional the entire performance and production was”
Audience Member

“Amazing to see such interesting concepts and brilliant to see all the talent that came together”
Audience Member

The Young Company members involved in the production had the experience of working with and learning from professionals in the industry, whilst building performance and collaboration skills, increasing in confidence and building strong peer bonds. The scripts and themes that came from Young Company and Graduates made sure young people’s voices were centre stage, giving platform to the subjects that mean most to them.

“I’ve developed major skills throughout the process such as improvements on voice projection, physicality, I’ve also created a bunch of new friends in such a short amount of time.”
Young Company Performer

“I’ve learnt the processes happening backstage and what goes into making a show.”
Young Company Maker

Alongside the process of creating the show, the Young Company 23/24 Writers wrote a selection of monologues responding to the themes of THRESHOLD. They were given the brief to write a monologue from the perspective of a character who is about to cross a threshold of some kind, physically or something more abstract, but crossing the threshold would change the course of the future for that character with no going back. This resulted in some brilliant writing from the super talented writers. These fantastic monologues were displayed and some performed by the supernumeraries pre-show, and they were also filmed which you can watch below.

For 2024, the structure of the Young Company was adapted to allow for flexibility and greater inclusion. Where previously there was one production with set rehearsal and workshop dates for everyone, this year we presented three short pieces with varied and staggered schedules. We had more young people participating in the production than the past four years (there was a 154% increase in participation from 2023 to 2024), so were able to showcase the fantastic talents of the young people to a wide audience.