Young Performers Project

The Young Performers Project is a Durban based arts initiative.

Also found as The Young Performers Project, the Young Performers' Project, the Young Performer's Project, or named after its sponsor at the time (e.g. the Rainbow Young Performers Project, the PANSA Young Performers Project, etc.) .

The project

tHE VW MusicActive programme.

Founded by Linda Van Der Veen, and run by her with the support of professional artists based in Durban, including Themi Venturas, Charon Williams Ros, Dawn Selby and Peter Court.

Established in 2001, with the help of Unilever as first sponsor, it seeks to create opportunities for young performers to work on big musicals with professional artistes by presenting an annual major musical, most often at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban. The work supported by the Rainbow company and various other sponsors over the years, and co-presented by the Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA) and at times in asociation with other local theatre companies and a range of sponsors.

The productions over the years have included Curtain Up (2001), One Voice (2002), Grease (2003), Oliver (2004), Fiddler on the Roof (2005), The Wiz (2006), Annie (2007), School of Rock SA (2008), Big River (2009), Seussical (2010), Legally Blonde (2011), Can You Feel It? (2012), Footloose (2014), Soldiers in the City (2015), Hairspray (2015), Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story (2016), Footloose (2017), Curtain Up (2019), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (2023)

Durban has a fine tradition of musical theatre youth development projects. It began in the early days of our new democracy with what was then known as the VW MusicActive programme. During this time, Durban audiences enjoyed the best of our young musical theatre performers in productions like Hair and Siyajema. This was followed up by fifteen glorious years of the Young Performers Project, which has operated under different guises and funders, bringing the region productions such as Curtain Up, One Voice, Grease, Annie, The Wiz, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, School of Rock SA, Big River, Hairspray, Seussical, Can you Feel it?, Footloose, and Soldiers in the City.