For nearly two decades, Calgary Young People’s Theatre (CYPT) has been a vibrant force in empowering youth through the performing arts. Offering year-round programming—from productions and camps to playwriting and design workshops—CYPT creates inclusive spaces where young people can express themselves creatively and collaboratively. With a deep commitment to accessibility, mentorship, and original youth-driven content, the organization has grown from humble beginnings into a thriving arts community. At its heart, CYPT is about nurturing the next generation of artists, leaders, and storytellers.
Describe your charity/non-profit/volunteer work in a few sentences.
Calgary Young People’s Theatre (CYPT) is a creative, resilient and collaborative society that embraces the artistry and contributions of young people. We provide professional calibre mentor-ship, training and performance opportunities for youth ages 4-18. Our extensive year-round programming includes productions, camps, classes, a youth led theatre festival, workshop and new play development. Our mission is to inspire and mentor the next generation of arts creators and enthusiasts by offering brave, creative spaces where young people can express themselves and their ideas.
What problem does it aim to solve?
CYPT aims to break down barriers that may prevent young people from exploring theatre and the performing arts. We have a strong bursary program that helps families requiring financial support to have part or all of their tuition for programs covered. We try to make programs accessible by running camps and classes out of 4 different locations in various quadrants in the city of Calgary, with a goal of expanding to a 5th location in the next few years. We also run camps in a few communities in rural Alberta. We offer opportunities for young people to explore the world of theatre both on and off the stage. We teach many different skills like acting, clowning, puppetry, stage combat, musical theatre, stage make-up, improvisation, movement, voice, among other skills. We also offer “behind the scenes” opportunities, from training young people to be directors and stage managers, to the current development of a theatre design program for young people, where kids will learn about theatrical design and creation of props, set, costume and sound. Our Cannonball Festival and Outpatient programs allow kids to explore playwriting as well.
Finally, CYPT looks to offer young people interesting and challenging material to sink their teeth into. When I first started directing at CYPT, I learned that while there are many scripts out there for young people to perform, many of them are not very good. I directed versions of Tom Sawyer and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that were not super robust or interesting for performers, and so I worked really hard to elevate the material for the young people, sometimes doing un- authorized re-writes in order to add a cohesiveness or depth to the play (PS this is actually something one is not allowed to do. One should ask permission to make changes. I didn’t know this at the time and was motivated by making the material awesome for the kids.) The Artistic Director at the time was working to commission local playwrights to write compelling, challenging and fun new scripts for youth to perform. He commissioned 3 or 4 new scripts during that time.
Since taking over the company, we have continued on that path, and over the past 15 years have commissioned/written over 20 new plays for young people to perform, from adaptations to original works and are working to have those plays published in the next few years to share with schools and other youth groups looking for good scripts for kids.
When did you start/join it?
I taught my first camp at CYPT in August 2005 and directed my first show later that year. I have been working for the company ever since. I took over as the Artistic Director in October 2010.
What made you want to get involved?
When I first starting working with CYPT, I was newly out of University and looking to find any work in the arts that I could. My friend, Mat Mailandt, ran the company at the time and he hired me to teach one week of summer camp and I had a blast, and then that same year, I was invited to direct a full-length production of Tom Sawyer and over the course of the 4 months of the process, I absolutely fell in love working with young people in the arts. It was especially special because this was the very company that one of my mentors, the late great Brian Dorscht, started 15 years previous and I was so excited to be able to work for such a wonderful organization. I hoped each year that Mat would re-hire me to direct, because the experience was so fulfilling. Working with young people was inspiring and revitalizing and I wanted to keep doing it as much as I could, and I was lucky because he continued to hire me year after year. 5 years and 5 shows later, Mat decided to step down, and a call for a new artistic director went out. My friend Gillian (who stage managed all the shows I directed) worked our butts off on an application to take over the company. We absolutely loved working with the kids on the shows, the community and we knew that we could take this special company and make even more magical things happen with it. We went through a long interview process and it came down to us and one other person. The problem was, they were only looking for one person. They only had the budget to hire one person. Gillian and I knew that this needed to be two people, and so we said that we would split the salary and supplement with other gigs when we could, but we knew we could take this company, grow it and eventually make it sustainable for us both and everyone we hire. In the Fall of 2010, we got the call that the company was ours. And I have never looked back.
What was the situation like when you started?
When I first started working at CYPT, there was one person running the whole organization out of an old, either too hot or too cold, basement in a church in NW Calgary. The company offered camps and classes in 2 locations and did 3 plays in the year, all one-week runs at rental venues in the city. When I was first hired as a director, I was also responsible for many of the design elements. The company had a very limited budget in which to hire one designer to tackle one element of the production, but the rest was up to me. When directing The Trial of Robin Hood in 2007, I was also working on the costumes. We found Christmas tree skirts for the guards to wear, and pieces at Value Village for the other actors. We even went as far as trying to sew burlap costumes to match an aesthetic we were going for. When we brought those sewn costumes in for the kids to try on, we realized that arms were sewn up and many of the costumes didn’t fit or fell apart. One young person took their costume home and completely remade it. I like remembering those times. It was a small and charming organization with a lot of heart and potential for growth. When I took over, for instance, the company was in its second year of a 2-year international exchange program with the Birmingham Rep Theatre in the UK. But ultimately it was a lot for one person to manage on a day to day basis, let alone facilitate significant growth. There were big dreams, but when the focus was put on the dreams (like the exchange) then the day-to-day had to be put to the side and vice versa. When Gillian and I took over, we couldn’t fathom how the organization ran for so long with only one staff member. We took our hats off to them, but decided that it couldn’t operate in this way anymore!
How has it changed since?
The company has gone through significant growth over the past 15 years. We still use the basement of the church as storage for our props and sets, but we no longer work out of that space. In 2014, CYPT took over a theatre venue along with 2 other companies in town, the Green Fools and Ghost River Theatre, and started the venue now known as West Village Theatre. The venue is a home for the resident companies as both a performance venue and office, but also a rental venue for other theatre companies and independent artists in town. In 2024, CYPT took on another space next door to the West Village Theatre and converted it into a workshop that contains equipment for building sets and props, a sound booth and costume station, including a lending library for costumes, with a design course for young people in development. We have expanded our camps and classes both in number of locations and content, including developing teen intensives exploring certain theatrical skills in depth.
Moving to West Village Theatre allowed the company to do 2-week runs instead of 1-week, as well we were able to add a 4th show to the season. We have increased our production budgets to be able to include designers for each production element. We have also added some new programs to the season, including the Outpatient Collective, which is a writing program for Grade 12 students, where over the course of the year, they develop and write a full-length production with a mentor, which is produced in the following season. We also added a student festival called Cannonball Festival of Youth Led Theatre, which produces up to 7 student-written, directed, designed, staged managed and performed pieces in a 2-week long Festival.
Gillian left CYPT in 2014 and Jamie Dunsdon joined the team as the Artistic Producer, helping to elevate productions and streamline administration of the company through online platforms. Jamie and I have now been running the company together for over 10 years. Zoe Arthur joined as an Artistic Associate in 2019, as the camps and classes started to expand, and only recently stepped down to pursue other opportunities. Our alumni base has also become one of the biggest assets for CYPT. We continue mentorship beyond high school, often giving those who have gone on to pursue the performing arts after high school, opportunities to work for the organization. Many have become instructors, directors, choreographers, fight directors and designers for us. Our house theatre technician is also an alumnus, as well as our Cannonball Festival producer. Alumni very often come back and attend shows or perform in our alumni improv night.
What more needs to be done?
We continue to grow as an organization in our budgets and programming, however, the company is still only run by a very small staff (2 full-time staff at the moment) and an army of contract workers made up of designers, directors, instructors and other artists. We keep dreaming bigger in order to offer as much as we can for the young people that we work with, and frankly, keep up with the demand, all while trying to keep costs as low as we can for participants. Our focus moving forward is to be able to build up a bursary pool in order to support all the requests we get for subsidies (over $20,000 per year) while continuing to elevate and grow our production and programs. We also aim to expand our staff by at least 2 full-time members over the next 5 years in order to properly manage and sustain the growth that the organization is steadily experiencing. As mentioned, we also hope to find a 5th venue in NE Calgary in which to run some camps and classes as part of our year-round programming.
How can our readers help?
There are many ways that people can help out our organization. They can register their kids who are interested in exploring drama for our programs, spread the word about us to their communities, attend our incredible shows, or even donate directly to our organization or through some of the opportunities that we have the privilege of being a part of. For instance, for the past 7 years, CYPT has been able to collect donations through the Rogers Birdies for Kids matching program, which runs from March through to August each year (pending acceptance of course). Donations made through this program are matched up to 50% and help CYPT to be able to sustain and grow. Last year, donations through this program helped us to set up our design workshop and studio.
Do you have any events coming up?
Always! Our annual summer drama camps kick off on July 7, 2025 and run until August 29, 2025, with something for everyone from our half-day camps for the preschool-aged youth, to teen intensives like Musical Theatre, Stage Combat, Improv and Stage Make-up and everything in between. We are running a production called The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits by local playwright Camille Pavlenko, which is a full-length play adaptation of the Lewis Carroll poem. It runs July 30-August 3, 2025, at West Village Theatre. You can also catch CYPT at the Great Canadian Outdoor Comedy Festival, selling 50/50 on site and online. We have a goal of raising $20,000 to support our bursary program and a new improv club initiative. 50/50 tickets will be sold online and at the Festival event.
Where can we follow you?
Website | Facebook | Instagram
PAY IT FORWARD: What is an awesome local charity that you love?
Gosh, there are so many great charities out there, and we would love to shout out so many of them, like our roommates, Ghost River! And other awesome young people’s theatre organizations like Storybook Theatre and Quest Theatre. Or an organization like Kids Up Front who provide enriching experiences to young people. But I would love to give a special shout out to our friends the Green Fools Society, whom we have been friends for so long, and we absolutely love the work they do. We opened West Village with them, and now we run our PD day camps with them. They offer a special and unique programming and experiences for people to explore the world of circus, puppetry, physical theatre and mask, etc. They have so much to offer the community at large, and have such big hearts and we are proud to work with and know them. Here is their website.
