A tale that comes to life right in front of your eyes, mere metres from you. What was just an empty space moments ago is now the scene of tension and drama. You feel as if you had stepped straight into a story. No two performances are ever exactly alike. No one except the people in the audience that night will ever get to experience what you saw. That is the power of live. A performance created just for you and the audience that day. You may be tempted to go see the show again even, maybe to find out how it is when another actor plays that role, or because you just can’t get enough.

That’s what we mean by PERFORMANCE:

The performing arts may remind you of Shakespeare, having to sit through four-hour operas where you don’t understand any of the lyrics or listening to Western classical music at the symphony. However, PERFORMANCE is so much more than that. It’s music in all its genres, all kinds of theatre plays, musicals, comedy, operas from different traditions, all kinds of styles of dance. Your options to be entertained and enlightened by what the performing arts have to offer are vast. And there is also massive overlap between the different art forms, with many of them involving music, movement or dance, so that at times it can be confusing to figure out what is what. Our definition of PERFORMANCE goes from pop to puppetry – and even if you don’t live in a big urban centre, there is probably more choice than you might think. We are particularly passionate about showcasing all the amazing things the performing arts have to offer beyond the usual staples, such as the work of contemporary playwrights, composers and choreographers.

We are building an arts & letters directory

We want to help you find the live performances that are going on in your area. We want you to discover new bands, new plays and new operas. We want to showcase the work of dancers, orchestras, comedians and the many other types of artists who make the performing arts exciting. We want to give you ideas for theatre and music venues to visit. And we want to help you find supplies related to the performing arts, be it a vinyl record, a musical instrument, a play script or dance shoes.

While our directory is only just getting started, this is what we have planned for the theme of PERFORMANCE:

How to add your organization to the Young W directory

Are you a theatre company, a choreographer, a music festival, a record shop or any other organization which fits into one of the categories above? Check out the Get Involved page for details about how to get your organization added to the directory.

 

We sell non-fiction books about music, theatre and dance. We also plan on adding more plays to the YW shop in the future.