A Canberra stalwart of the arts scene is staring down the barrel of a very “different” year.

The Canberra Youth Theatre has announced it will cut staff and close programs from the beginning of 2025 due to “ongoing challenges with arts funding, rising costs and increased spending”.

The 52-year-old theatre, based at the Gorman Arts Centre in Braddon, was founded as the Canberra Children’s Theatre in 1972 by local actor Carol Woodrow.

The aim was to provide young people aged six to 25 the opportunity to perform on stage and hone their acting, dancing or musical skills.

“I wanted to release children’s imaginations rather than preparing them to perform on stage as if they were adults,” she once said.

Within a year, shows like ‘The Rising Generation’ involved more than 100 young people, and by the 1980s, the theatre was staging no fewer than 50 plays a year.

Fast forward to 2025, however, which current artistic director and CEO Luke Rogers said is “going to look different”.

“It is no longer possible for us to provide the breadth of artistic opportunities and programs we have been celebrated for with our current resources,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (4 December).

“We strive to make theatre accessible for young people, but the true cost of providing quality creative opportunities is not balanced by our income. We need to find new ways and new funding streams if we are to continue running artistic programs sustainably.”

Canberra Youth Theatre CEO Luke Rogers. Photo: Canberra Youth Theatre.

There will be staffing cuts across all areas of the organisation, which will not stage any theatre productions in 2025.

In addition, all of its specialised programs for 16 to 25-year-olds – including the Emerge Company, Emerging Creatives, Writers Ensemble, Resident Artists, and Creative Leaders programs – will be cancelled for the year.

“These changes will result in a significant loss of opportunities for theatre professionals in the region, who have been employed on Canberra Youth Theatre productions as directors, lighting designers, set designers, costume designers, sound designers, stage managers and other roles,” Luke said.

“It will also mean fewer opportunities for Canberra audiences to see high-quality productions of new, youth-led plays, which the company has become renowned for.”

He added that Canberra Youth Theatre is only the latest in a string of similar businesses across Australia facing the same decline ever since the Federal Government cut funding to the Australia Council for the Arts (now Creative Australia) in 2015.

The remaining amount they get from the ACT Government through ArtsACT, as well as donors and partners, “barely covers our costs”.

He’s “not optimistic, but hopeful” the next 12 months may bring about change so the theatre is able to return to its former glory.

“What we’re trying to do is send up the flare … that this is not a Canberra Youth Theatre problem – it’s just our turn to shout from the rooftops that when one of Australia’s leading arts organisations is at risk of going down, many more will fall.

“We’re taking this action now so we don’t get to having to close the doors in two years’ time.”

Canberra Youth Theatre’s production of ‘Work, But This Time Like You Mean It’. Photo: Andrew Sikorski.

Activity won’t dry up completely – the theatre will continue to offer weekly drama classes for young people aged 7 to 18, as well as school holiday programs and a new weekly program for those in school years 8 to 10.

It has also flagged “other opportunities” over the year, including a collaboration with puppetry company Erth for the 2025 Enlighten Festival, as well as one-off masterclasses for ages 16–25.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of research, a lot of advocacy, a lot of exploration, to find long-term solutions to what we need – not just want – to be doing, because we have a responsibility – not just to the young people of this region – but to all the professional artists and arts workers in this city who are trying to have a sustainable career in the creative industries.”