The Rijeka Youth Theatre

The Rijeka Youth theatre (TRY theatre) is the first and currently only international English-language drama school for children and youth in Croatia. Founded in 2010, it has since staged more than 20 original plays and has enrolled more than 800 different students. Divided in groups of 12 to 16 people, TRY theatre usually holds two workshops a week and prepares one to two performances with each individual group. Currently, we have 82 students enrolled in our programmes. Unlike a classic school of acting, the focus at TRY theatre is not on the final performance and its artistic/dramatic value, but rather on the acting and devising process throughout the year. TRY theatre's goal is not to create future actors, but to help shape the children and youth of Rijeka into empowered, open-minded and proactive individuals. Through theatre and drama workshops, the creation of plays, the study of different characters, teamwork and mutual support, we aim to aid the self-development of our students by exposing them to different activities and experiences. By participating in our classes and performing in our plays, our students step out of their comfort zones in a safe and supportive environment, honing different interpersonal skills and becoming more aware of their hidden talents and innate creativity. Our 15-year experience has taught us the power of theatre and non-formal education: by placing the explicit focus on drama and acting, our students bypass their usual mental brakes that stop them from speaking up in public and sharing their ideas out of fear of being criticised and judged. This allows them to implicitly work on exactly those skills and talents that they are usually afraid to explore, and their sense of accomplishment and comfort on the stage gradually spills-over to other areas of their lives (their families, their schools, their groups of peers). We are always on the lookout for new partners who work with young people (especially in the theatre and youth/adult fields), both to host in Rijeka and to write projects together (KA152, KA153, KA210, KA220).