The Birmingham Youth Theatre was founded in 1971 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England by local teachers Derek Nicholls and Ray Speakman, and was based at the

Midlands Arts Centre MAC (stylized as mac) (formerly Midlands Arts Centre) is a non-profit arts centre situated in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It was established in 1962 and is registered as an educational charity which hosts art exhibitions ...

and

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre ...

. From 1984 it was also run by teacher and director Malcolm Cleland, who also ran the

Central Junior Television Workshop The Television Workshop, formerly known as the Central Junior Television Workshop is a British organisation that offers training for young people in performance skills for television, film, radio and theatre. Open to anybody between the ages of seve ...

in Birmingham. The company was funded by

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

and West Midlands Arts for the purpose of giving 16- to 23-year-olds from the wider local community access to drama and the theatre arts. Many successful actors and actresses began their careers in the youth theatre, most notably: * Andrew Tiernan *

Adrian Lester Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is a British actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the ...

* Tony Armatrading *

Lorna Laidlaw Lorna Laidlaw (born 1 February 1963) is an English actress. She has appeared on television as Mrs Tembe in the BBC medical soap opera '' Doctors'' and Aggie Bailey in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street''. Laidlaw won the Royal Television ...

, Doctors (2000 TV series) * Nicolas Tennant, who has performed with the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

and the Royal Shakespeare Company *

Joe Dixon (actor) Joe Dixon (born 10 October 1965) is an English actor who is perhaps best known for his role as ''Jacques'' in ''The Mummy Returns''. Biography Dixon was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in 1965 to Jamaica, Jamaican parents. He won the prestigio ...

* John White (performance historian) * Roy Mitchell, creator, scriptwriter and producer of the BBC series

New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the ...

* Richard Thomas, writer of 'Jerry Springer the Opera' * Stuart Blackburn, Writer and Series Producer of ITV soap opera

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

* Mark Swift, production manager and producer for DreamWorks Animation, California, U.S.A. As of 2009, Derek Nicholls is now the chief executive of Qdos Entertainment plc's HQ Theatres division. Due to problems with funding, the company ceased to exist in 1987. The unrelated BMOS Youtheatre was set up in Birmingham in 1987, and renamed "Birmingham Youth Theatre" in 2013; it is a registered charity.

References

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/newtricks/ * http://www.qdosentertainment.com/New-CEO-Derek-Nicholls-starts-at-HQ-Theatres.php * http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/8943045.Stuart___s_dramatic_new_role_on_soap/?ref=rss ;Notes Drama schools in Birmingham, West Midlands Performing groups established in 1971 1971 establishments in England 1987 disestablishments in England Youth theatre companies {{UK-theat-stub