To open their 50th anniversary season, Canberra Youth Theatre (CYT) is going back to the 1980s to revive a classic work the company commissioned some 38 years ago.
It was 1984 when Debra Oswald, an emerging writer “desperately hoping” to make her way in the field, was tapped on the shoulder by CYT to write Dags.
The work subsequently went on to enjoy sustained success, regularly staged the world over by schools and youth theatre companies alike.
“The play only exists because they took a punt on a very young writer and commissioned it,” Oswald told Canberra Daily.
It handles universal themes of adolescence, like teen angst, identity, coming of age, and within the cultural context of 1984 Australia.
“The play is basically me turning my own adolescent angst into a work for other people,” she said.
Oswald puts the work’s longevity down to where she was at in life when it was written.
“One of the things that works for teenagers still is it comes from the mind of someone who was recently a teenager … I remembered being 16 vividly.”
Now an acclaimed writer for not just the stage but television, movies, and children’s literature, Oswald said it was opportunities like Dags that allowed her to flourish.
“You can’t know what would have happened if it didn’t come along, but there are key things there that happen early in your career that keep you going,” she said.
“That little seed of encouragement from CYT led to all kinds of things.”
Having not seen or read Dags in “a long while”, Oswald is curious to sit in on the CYT production early next month.
“It’s going to be pretty wild to sit in the audience,” she said. “It’s really like something someone else wrote.”
“I have to respect that young woman and hope that she did a good job.”
Dags revival amid a season of world premieres
Luke Rogers, artistic director and CEO of CYT and director of this production, said the work ties beautifully into his own drive to foster original youth theatre works.
“I’m really big on trying to invest in, commission, and develop new works for young people, and one of the ways to do that is to show the legacy and impact it can have,” he said.
Given its influence, Rogers said Dags is a fitting way to launch CYT’s program that’s otherwise filled with world premieres.
“I want people to be able to see how things can come full circle,” he said.
Ahead of the revival production Rogers delved into the CYT archives where he uncovered photos, press clippings and additional ephemera related to the work’s premiere season.
“We even had a couple of letters from primary school students that sw it and wrote little reviews, found these in our archives,” he smiled.
“I’d love to be able to track them down and say come and review it 40 years later.”
The original actor who played the lead role of Gillian reached out via Facebook recently. Rogers is hopeful more alumni will reach out over the course of CYT’s 50th season.
“There are thousands of young people that have gone through this place, some have stayed in the arts and others take the value youth theatre offers and apply it to their lives,” he said.
“We’d love people to get back in touch and share a story, because that’s important for the young people as well to see the values and how it can impact and influence your life, whether you choose to work in the ats or not.”
Dags is on at The Courtyard Studio, Civic, 1-9 April; canberratheatrecentre.com.au
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