Byre Youth and Community Arts, under the Artistic Direction of Ashley Foster, aims to provide young people with the skills and confidence to perform in a variety of settings, and most importantly, provide them with skills that will be transferable across all aspects of their lives. 

As well as providing drama, dance theatre and singing classes for young people, the organisation are also available for CPD sessions, bespoke schools/nursery workshops, training and team building. There is also an adult singing group, which offers a much needed sense of community, well-being and fun to its participants. 

The project supported by the Community Trust was called ‘StAnd Out from the Crowd’ and was designed to deliver a professional development programme for the senior students. This involved staff from all areas of the Byre Theatre team working with their students to teach them different elements of theatre and help them pull together a final performance. 

Ashley Foster, Artistic Director said: 

‘New writing for young people can be hard to come by and through this process, we have an original script that can be used by our students (and others!) for many years to come. We cannot provide opportunities like this to our students without the help of funding. The money we received from the Community Trust has been so beneficial!.’