Our Programme
Emerging Directors
5 Local Practitioners | 12 - 24 Young Creative Leaders (Aged 16 -25)
April - July
The Emerging Directors Programme supports five directors - some established and some emerging - to guide a sequence of five performance intensives, including classical, contemporary, international, and Aotearoa works.
Through a selection process, a cohort of students (typically between 12 and 24 participants) engage in these workshops across the year, developing a series of scenes that are staged and presented publicly at ONEONESIX.
The programme emphasises performance fundamentals, self-direction, responsibility for one’s own creative process, with the goal of creating and empowering generative young leaders in the community.
Kaupapa Māori Project
Our project for 2026 is currently in development and intended to strengthen connections between Whangārei-based young artists and wider Te Tai Tokerau communities through tangata whenua-led processes. The project will bring together young people and experienced practitioners from across Northland.
This will function both as a performance event and as a relationship-building opportunity, allowing Northland Youth Theatre to deepen partnerships, explore tikanga-informed creative processes, and support rangatahi engagement with important narratives from Aotearoa’s recent history.
Dare to Devise
Dare to Devise is a 48-hour devising competition that brings together schools across Northland. Working from shared prompts, student groups create original performance pieces within a limited timeframe, encouraging quick thinking, teamwork, and inventive storytelling.
The competition offers a low-barrier entry point into theatre-making while celebrating the diversity of voices and approaches across the region’s young people.
Junior Text
5 - 6 Emerging Writers | 10 - 12 Young Directors
25 - 30 Performers (Aged 8 - 16)
The Junior Texts Programme focuses on writing and early-stage script development. Five to six writers are supported to develop short-form plays - typically between five and ten minutes in length - through a workshop process led by an experienced playwright.
Once developed, a cohort of youth directors, many drawn from the Emerging Directors Programme, undertake a directing process with junior-aged actors.
The initiative supports emerging playwrights and directors simultaneously, while generating locally rooted stories, often providing young people with their first experience of performing on stage.
The Summer Project
Industry Professionals | 8 - 20 Young People
The Summer Project provides a flexible intensive period each January that responds dynamically to the evolving creative community around Northland Youth Theatre and the needs with in it.
The exact structure of this project shifts from year to year depending on the leadership available and the needs of participating young people.
In some years it takes the form of a broadly accessible creative intensive, bringing multiple facilitators together to share skills across mediums with an existing cohort while welcoming new participants.
In other years the programme focuses more directly on the development needs of a particular group, culminating in a full-scale production process.
Fright Night
Fright Night is a mini Halloween festival that showcases youth-led performance in a lively, accessible format. The event is opened by a short promenade performance, devised, directed, and performed by young people.
Fright Night provides an opportunity for participants to experiment with atmosphere, genre, and audience engagement, while contributing to a celebratory community event.
