This summer, Leeds Heritage Theatres’ Learning & Engagement team rounds off a year of creativity with full-scale productions from Leeds Actors in Training (The Maladies), Leeds Grand Youth Theatre (Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and The Vanishing Factory project at Kirkgate Market, inspired by the Youth Theatre’s chocolate-themed musical.
For those aged 6-18 looking to get involved, LHT Unwrapped offers a chance to explore drama through Play in a Week and fun-filled Drama Days over the summer holidays.
Leeds Actors in Training (LAIT) presents The Maladies: Seven Arts: Thu 26 and Fri 27 June
Formed in 2018, LAIT is a studio-based vocational programme for young people, aged 18-25 years, to challenge and develop their performance skills alongside industry-leading professionals. Alumni have gone on to train at drama schools (including RADA, Rose Bruford and Mountview), start their own theatre companies and work across theatre and film.
Lizi Patch, Director of Young People’s Theatre: “LAIT has always been a real passion project for me, and it was about creating something I wish I’d had when I was starting in the industry, and which didn’t exist in Leeds then. I wanted to offer a safe, supportive space where diverse groups of young adults could grow as artists and as people, connect with like-minded peers (as well as professionals at the top of their game), and leave with a strong sense of identity and purpose.”
This year, the group is staging The Maladies by British-Lebanese writer Carmen Nasr. Created for the Almeida Young Theatre Company, the play begins with a set of true, historical incidents of ‘mass hysteria’ and reaches across time to explore what such an outbreak would look like today, begging the question of why these strange outbreaks almost exclusively affect young women.
Lizi chose the play after meeting Carmen on a writing retreat at The Arvon Centre: “We got talking about the lack of meaty female lead plays for young adults. She mentioned I might like to read The Maladies. So, I did, and – well – here we are! It’s bold, timely and exactly the kind of challenging, intelligent work our LAIT actors are hungry for. It’s also, very importantly, an ensemble piece with a strong mixed cast. Finding these sorts of plays is gold dust – they are still few and far between for the 18-25 age range.”
Leeds Grand Youth Theatre (LGYT) presents Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: City Varieties: Thu 24 – Sun 27 July
A thriving, vibrant company of 8-18-year-olds where skills building and inclusivity are at the heart of everything they do, one member said of LGYT: “I have been coming for eight years now, and I look forward to it every week. It makes me feel like I am improving as an actor”. Others said: “LGYT is a very inclusive environment” and “It makes me feel a part of a community”.
Alongside Patch (Director), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is designed by Leeds Heritage Theatres’ Property Manager, Dave Greaves, with movement direction and choreography by Dawn Holgate and music direction by Pete Rosser. Based on the famous novel by Roald Dahl, it has an original score composed by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray) and a book by David Greig.
On choosing the musical for the youth theatre, Lizi said: “It ticks pretty much all our boxes: great story, plenty of quality roles, family-friendly, well-known, catchy songs… and it has the Oompa- Loompas, of course, which gives our youngest members something substantial to get their teeth into.”
The Vanishing Factory: Kirkgate Market: Sat 21 June 2025, 12.30pm & 1.30pm
Inspired by LGYT’s production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Learning &
Engagement team has been running a companion project called The Vanishing Factory. This fixed-term drama group is a participatory performance opportunity for children aged 8-11 who are not currently accessing youth theatre.
Since March, they have been meeting weekly to explore the history of Leeds’ forgotten chocolate factory and devise imaginative stories of their own. The group will perform a sharing of their work at the event space in Kirkgate Market on Saturday 21 June at 12.30pm and 1.30pm, which members of the public are welcome to attend.
LHT Unwrapped
In August, the Learning & Engagement team will also continue their school holiday provision, LHT Unwrapped, offering a variety of creative workshops for all children aged 6-14, no matter their experience.
From Tue 5 to Thu 7 August, LHT Unwrapped’s popular series of Drama Days will continue for groups of children aged 6-8, 9-11 and 12-14 respectively. These action-packed workshops will involve drama, games, improvisation and script work, drawing on the imaginative world and inspiring themes of Alice in Wonderland, just in time for LeedsBID’s City-wide celebration, Wonderland Awaits.
Taking inspiration from the second Wonka story, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, LHT Unwrapped: Play in a Week will be an opportunity for children aged 9-11 to learn alongside our experienced drama facilitators and devise creatively around the question: ‘If we had a Great Glass Elevator, where would it take us?’ With workshops running Mon 11 to Fri 15 August, the final variety show will take place at Leeds Grand Theatre Studio at the end of the week, for an invited audience of family and friends.
Book online at leedsheritagetheatres.com or call the Box Office on 0113 243 0808.
Main image: Beth Walkden, Devon Nixon and Grace Keenoy in the Maladies rehearsal room. Photograph by Chris Coote.
