Author: bart-n-bob

If you’ve seen a YATS production before, you’ll know that what happens on stage is only part of the story. Behind the scenes there’s an incredible amount of work going on to create the world our actors inhabit, and once again our man Ben Bentz has been hard at work turning the artistic team’s ideas into reality. Judging by the contents of his studio, the fabulous set he created for last year’s productions of Oliver! may well get upstaged by his set for The Music Man! It seems he has more than met the challenge of seven different locations around River City, each one with its own atmosphere and style. He’s been busy designing constructions featuring moving parts and thoughtful accoutrements to transform one location…

Regular YATS fans will tell you that there’s something magical about the second Saturday performance of a our Fall spectacular. This is partly because this fourth show, of our five-show run, is when the cast have really found their rhythm; the nerves have settled and all those weeks and months of rehearsal come together in a performance that feels polished, confident, and full of life. But there’s another reason this particular performance is special: it’s Alumni Night. Each year, lots of seats in the theater are filled with Young Actors from past productions, many home from university for their autumn break, taking the opportunity to catch up with old friends as well as cheer on the next generation of YATS performers… and cheer they do!…

If you’ve been waiting/procrastinating about booking tickets to see The Music Man you may notice that the seats you had your eye on are disappearing faster than you can correctly pronounce Shipoopi. Do not despair, there’s no need to give up on getting a great view of the show just yet. The balcony has plenty of seats available and going for it: extra legroom and steeply sloped seating for a great view of the whole stage, without having to peer around the person in front of you. You’re also perfectly placed for a quick escape through the balcony doors for the intermission, and you get to watch our director, sound and lighting teams working their magic behind the scenes. So if you’re booking now, don’t…

Our Duloc dancers have gone viral! Something rather unexpected is happening over on TikTok. One of our reels featuring the Duloc dancers from our 2024 production of Shrek has suddenly taken off. It was posted just three days ago, and as of today it has clocked up: 41,400 views; 3,222 likes; 111 shares; 670 saves; 17 comments; and 28 new follows. To understand just how exceptional this is, consider that the 18 most recent reels have averaged around 1,000 views each. This one has had over 41k! This means that, collectively, viewers have spent more than 146 hours watching our Duloc dancers do their thing. The ‘likes’ are even more extraordinary: our reels rarely get more than 50 likes, but this one has 3,222 (as…

We’ve been collecting reviews from our audiences for just under a year and after almost 200 verified responses we’ve earned an overall rating of 4.9/5 from you. Only people who purchase tickets to a YATS show are able to leave a review, therefore this is a heart-warming reflection of what our audiences think about our shows. No bots, no content farms, and no third-party review sites are involved. All of our reviews are genuine, from real people who came to see a performance. Their reviews so far cover three shows; our 2025 spectacular Oliver!, the 2026 Spring Workshop production of Working, and the 2026 Summer Alumni show A Little Night Music: “Better than many professional shows we have seen!”“It was as good as the show…