The Thai Youth Theater (TYT) Project is committed to furthering the art of theater throughout Thailand in order to encourage confidence and creativity among Thai students. The TYT Project promotes youth leadership and greater opportunities for youth to collaborate with peers and community members.
The TYT Project aims to provide students with opportunities for fostering or improving skills in the areas of creative and critical thinking, English language, business, artistic design, effective leadership, public speaking and presentation, community and peer cooperation, and intercultural understanding. The medium of theater, supported by a balanced community effort, offers these opportunities in one collective effort while allowing all to share and contribute in the process, performance, and sustainability of the club.in the process, performance, and sustainability of the club.
Inspired by their own experiences with theatre as students, some U.S. Peace Corps volunteers and some British volunteers saw an opportunity to bring a fun new method of learning to Thai youth. Each volunteer formed a theatre club in their towns and beginning with Shakespeare, chosen for the vastness of his body of work and the universal name recognition, each selected a play to adapt. The Shakespearean English was modified to fit the English language level of the Thai students involved.
The volunteers then worked with those students, teachers and community members to produce the play in full. The plays were then performed for audiences in and around their home communities. The culmination of their efforts was the Bangkok Shakespeare Festival.
In March 2004 each volunteer brought their theatre club to perform their play at the National Museum's outdoor stage for an audience of other theatre clubs and their friends, families and supporters, various Peace Corps staff and volunteers, the US Ambassador and embassy staff, and interested passers-by. Having experienced great success in this first effort, the volunteers have decided to make it an annual event and to expand volunteer/Thai community participation.
TYT Project Manual: A Thai-English manual for PCVs and counterparts beginning TYT Clubs at their school. Includes script resources, game and activity ideas, budget information and more. Available for download in "Documents" section below.
Workshop Lesson Plans: Lesson plans from the 2014 TYT Festival Workshop Classes are available to download below. Topics include Dance, Mask Making, Shadow Puppetry, Singing, and Sword Fighting. Use these lesson plans as inspiration for your own TYT Club lessons or to show your counterpart what your students will be learning at the Festival.
Check out our website for more information! TYT is on two of our Facebook accounts!
To see performances and more from previous festivals, check out our YouTube page
The 2004 Festival On March 22nd, 2004, four Theatre Clubs from different parts of Thailand converged in Bangkok to perform for the masses...or a small intimate crowd. Thanks to Iain in Chantaburi, the performances of all four clubs were recorded and then edited into a VCD format. The performances included: the Big Village Theatre Club (Ban Luang, Nan Province) presenting six incredibly abbreviated scenes from William Shakespeare's comedic love story As You Like It;Wiang Chiang Rung [Chiang Rai] Players presenting Much Ado About Nothing;Chumphon Shakespeare Theatre Club production of Twelfth Night; and the Chiang Kham Drama Club presentation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The 2005 Festival The festival was held from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on February 6th, 2005, at Rachapat Suan Sunandha in Dusit, Bangkok, Thailand. There were clubs from Chiang Rai, Nan, Phayao, Phetchaburi, Prachuap and Chumphon. The Festival was conducted in a one day "come and go as you please" festival style, where tickets were twenty baht a piece. The plays that were performed this year were: King Lear; James and the Giant Peach; Hamlet; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Wizard of Oz; and two Monty Python skits. Thank you for all of those that helped make the 2005 Bangkok TYT Festival a reality...Thanks Kru Chu!Thanks Kru Chu!Prachuap and Chumphon. The Festival was conducted in a one day "come and go as you please" festival style, where tickets were twenty baht a piece. The plays that were performed this year were: King Lear; James and the Giant Peach; Hamlet; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Wizard of Oz; and two Monty Python skits. Thank you for all of those that helped make the 2005 Bangkok TYT Festival a reality...Thanks Kru Chu!
The 2006 Festival The 2006 Thai Youth Theater festival was held in Chiang Mai on February 18 and 19. The clubs in attendance included Chumphon, Kamphaeng Phet, Lampang, Pichit, Sanpatong, and Ubon Ratchathani. The Festival was held at Payap University. On the first day, students attended three workshops. One workshop was acting and they selected two of the following workshops to attend: mask making, costume design, set design, and stage make-up. In the evening, the theater group from Payap performed a Thai Folk drama. On the second day, each group had a chance to rehearse in the morning and the performances were in the afternoon. The plays performed that year were: The Tempest, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Giving Tree, Baba Yaga, Why the Rabbit Has No Tail, the Three Little Pigs, Teenagers UnderstandingยHIV/AIDS, and Then the Volcano Blows. Most groups found time to sightsee around Chiang Mai in the morning. This festival was made possible by generous grants from many individuals in the U.S. through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, the American Women's Club of Thailand, and community members from each of the represented clubs.
The 2007 Festival The 2007 Thai Youth Theater Festival was held on January 27 and 28 in Korat at Wittayalai Natasin School. This is a special high school that focuses on the arts. On the property of the school, there is a beautiful national theater. The students of the school have the option to see a performance there for only 20 baht each. The clubs in attendance included Ao Luk, Bua Yai, Chumphon, Lampang, Nongkhai, Phibunmangsaharn, Pichit, Sanpatong, and Yasothorn. The students attended workshops on acting, lighting and set design, makeup, and costume design the first day. They performed on the second day. This festival was made possible by generous grants from the American Women's Club of Thailand, Beth Bowditch's theater group in the U.S, and community members from each represented club.
The 2008 Festival The 2008 Thai Youth Theater Festival was in Suphanburi. It was an exciting event for the students, most of whom had never been very far from their village. They attended workshops on make-up, stage fighting, voice projection, and acting. The students received many compliments from the new volunteers (Group 120) that attended the Festival. They posed for a few final photos before returning to their village. Hopefully, they took back some great memories and an increased confidence.
The 2009 Festival The 2009 Thai Youth Theater Festival was in Surasammanakhan in Korat Sessions: Pronunciation, Make-up, Set Design, Costumes, Stage Fighting [1]
The 2010 Festival The 2010 Thai Youth Theatre Festival in Khon Kaen was a great success.
The 2013 Festival The 2013 TYT Festival was held in Lopburi. Videos of the performances are available of TYT's YouTube page.
The 2014 Festival The 2014 Thai Youth Theatre Festival was held in Lopburi. Workshop Sessions included Dance, Mask Making, Shadow Puppetry, Singing, and Sword Fighting. Performances included Snow White, The Watermelon Prince, The Ugly Duckling, The Story of Khao Jee Man, Where the Wild Things Are, Footloose, Romeo and Juliet, Grease Lightning, Phii Mak Phra Khanong, Ferdinand and the Bull, Chicken Stars, and The Four Champa Trees. Videos of the 2014 performances are available on TYT's YouTube page.
The 2017 Festival During 2017 festival, which was held at Chulabhorn Ratchawittayalai School, Prathum Thani Province and over 100 kids from eleven schools located across Thailand came together. During the course of the festival, each school had the opportunity to put on a short performance. Issan Cinderella, Alice in Thailand, Legend of Sam Muk Mountain were just some of the plays that were performed this year at this festival.
The 2018 Festival Applications are now out!