New Work. New Stories. Young Voices.

For more than fifty years, Canberra Youth Theatre has been a stage for ambitious new work with young people at the centre. These works have become Australian classics, schoolyard favourites, and urgent provocative stories for our time. Over the years, we’ve worked with emerging and established writers to create stories about first jobs, family, grief, joy, power, leadership, friendship and everything in between.

We make new Australian theatre with young people at the centre. New work. New voices. New ways of seeing ourselves and our world.

And after a period where funding meant we couldn’t produce — guess what? In 2027 we’re making shows again, with two brand new plays taking the stage. We’re back, baby! 

Young artists are back in rehearsal rooms. Writers are back creating new work and seeing it produced AND published. Audiences are back to hear new stories. Emerging, early-career, and professional artists are getting paid to make theatre. And young people are once again helping shape the stories that get told.

New work that centres young people matters because it:

• Puts young voices in the room. Not just as audiences, but as artists, collaborators and people whose ideas genuinely shape the work.
• Makes space for stories that haven’t been told yet. Young people experience the world differently, and new work gives those perspectives somewhere to land.
• Gives emerging artists a way in. A new play creates opportunities for young writers, actors, directors, designers and creatives to learn by actually making work.
• Keeps Australian theatre growing. New writers need places to experiment, take risks and develop their voices — and audiences need new stories to discover.
• Creates work that can travel. A new CYT play can begin with a group of young people in Canberra and go on to reach classrooms, theatres and young audiences across Australia.

We want to keep making that possible. We’re fortunate that we’re able to take to the stage, with support from Creative Australia and the S,B&W Foundations, but that doesn’t mean this journey is over. There are still gaps — our ability to hire professional creatives to mentor emerging artists, the physical costs of bringing these shows to life, the publication of these texts for future audiences, and much more. That’s the support we’re hoping to raise this AusArts Day. 

Because we’re back. And there are so many more stories waiting to be made.

Your Donation

Every donation makes a difference, from $25, to $250, or even $10,000 and beyond, your support helps us create opportunities for young people and artists, develop bold new work, and keep new Australian stories coming to the stage. Every contribution helps us build what comes next, and the very real opportunities that make impact happen.

New Work. New Stories. Young Voices.

Help us keep young people at the centre of what comes next.

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Canberra Youth Theatre is a charitable organisation registered with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission and a Deductible Gift Recipient. All donations are tax deductible. Donations of $100 and above are acknowledged on our website for 12 months