On the inside of someof thecubicle doors in the ladies’ lavatories (and maybe in the gents too, for all I know) at Chichester Festival Theatre is a mini poster showing happy young people in a drama class. It has the caption, attributed to me by name: “Chichester Festival Theatre’s Youth Theatre is one of the finest in the country”. It’s quoted on the CFT website too.
Well it was some time which ran over Christmas, I stand by every one of those thirteen words. Dale Rooks, Director of LEAP (Learning, Education and Participation) and her colleagues do a tremendous job. It is profoundly uplifting to see a vibrant show in which dozens of diverse young people achieve performance standards so high that, as my ‘plus one’ observed at , within seconds of curtain up you forget that they’re children or very young adults. Dale, herself, every inch a hands-on theatre director, directed the show.
