National Convention of Youth Drama 2026

In partnership with our host venue Tron Theatre, Youth Theatre Arts Scotland (YTAS) is proud to present the National Convention of Youth Drama 2026, affectionately known as #DramaCon2026.

Join us on Saturday 21st March 2026 for a full day of learning, discussions, workshops, and networking. The Convention welcomes everyone who uses drama and theatre in their work with young people, from youth theatre leaders, theatre practitioners, and drama teachers, through to youth workers, community learning professionals, students, and emerging young leaders.

The focus of this year's convention is the future of youth theatre in Scotland: we’re going to be looking at the next decade, and all of the workshops and discussions are designed to help the youth theatre sector to influence our collective strategic aims for the ten years.

We’ll rebalance the power structures in the sector, with freelancers and delivery staff holding the discussions, and key managers holding the role of ‘listener’ and feeding back their thoughts and learning at the end of the day. All of this while still having space for friendly networking and the YTAS classic, Shout Outs!

Tickets include access to the full day of events at Tron Theatre, as well as lunch and refreshment breaks.

There are two ticket types:

• YTAS members* FREE (but non-attendance after booking incurs a £35 fee)
• Non-members £35

* Membership of YTAS is open to all. Join now and benefit from the reduced members’ rate on all tickets.

You can pay in full online at the time of booking, or request an invoice and pay in full via bank transfer within 30 days of receipt. For general enquiries or if you have specific access requirements, please contact [email protected] or call 0131 538 0591 to discuss how we can best support these. There is also a space to mark this on your Eventbrite booking.

Ticket bookings will close at 5 pm on Thursday 19 March 2026.

If you book and are unable to attend for any reason, please let us know by emailing [email protected] with as much notice as possible or risk incurring the non-attendance fee. This fee helps to cover the cost of catering and venue hire.

From 9am: Registration and Refreshments

9.45am: Welcome and YTAS updates

10am: Setting the scene

We will start the day with a presentation from six young leaders who have been working with YTAS for the last year on our Next Generation programme. They will share their own ideas, thoughts and fears about the future of youth theatre in Scotland.

They will then host a panel with Kiz Crosbie (Mortal Fools) and Rebecca Atkinson-Lord (An Tobar & Mull Theatre) to feed back from two other pivotal industry events that have happened in the last six months. Kiz will talk us through Youth Theatre Together (a gathering of practitioners, artists, organisations and young people in Manchester exploring priorities for the youth theatre sector in England and Wales) and Rebecca will feedback from State of the Nation (a strategic gathering of Scotland's arts sector post Multi-Year Funding which explored themes and challenges for arts organisations and artists).

The themes and ideas from these presentations are aimed to help all delegates understand the current context and concerns of the industry around us, and allow us to jump into deeper conversations about our sector.

10.45am: Break

11.15am: Workshops and Discussions, Part 1

Attendees will have the choice between three creative workshop options, all exploring the same question: "What do we want for the future of youth theatre in Scotland?".

In the workshops, you will use different creative modalities to unpick this question and get to the heart of what matters most to you. Workshops will be interactive spaces with set activities but no set outcomes, so you are encouraged to come with thoughts and feelings that you are ready to share about your work, the young people you support, and the wider youth theatre scene.

1pm: Lunch

2pm: Workshops and Discussions, Part 2

Working in the same groups, the second part of the workshop will be about consolidating ideas to share back to the wider conference.

2.45am: Break

3pm: Performance by Toonspeak Young Company

3.30pm: Workshops and Discussions: Sharing Back

Each group will be asked to share back the main themes of their discussions for the wider conference. This might be done creatively all together, or with selected spokespeople.

2.45pm: Break

4.25pm: Shout Outs

A chance to shout from the rooftops – or at least from a stage! YTAS invites attendees of DramaCon to share their current projects, aims, wishes for a project partner... anything! The catch is, you have a maximum of two minutes. The clock is ticking. If you're not sure how this works, you can take a peek at an example of DramaCon 2023's Shout Outs on Vimeo.

5pm: Reflections, Thank Yous, and End of Day Drinks

Dramacon is open to anyone over the age of 18 who uses aspects of drama and theatre in their work with young people. This exchange event welcomes…

• Freelance and volunteer youth theatre facilitators and directors;
• Artists who work in participatory settings;
• Creative learning managers;
• Primary and secondary school drama teachers and student teachers;
• Youth workers and CLD professionals who use creativity to engage young people, including health and social care practitioners;
• Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying the performing arts, education, or community development.

Travel is expensive... Childcare is expensive... As costs for attending in-person activity continue to rise, YTAS are committed to ensuring no one misses out. Support is available to any YTAS Member, who would be unable to attend #DramaCon2026 without it - it's as simple as that!

If you would like to access this support fund, find out more on our website. No eligibility checks required.

Do you need support to attend this event?

Everyone is welcome at our events.

We know that unintended barriers may sometimes make it harder for everyone to attend and we are committed to making reasonable adjustments to our events so that no one feels excluded. These adjustments are likely to differ from event to event and from person to person, so we need your help to get it right. Please tell us about any access requirements you have for this event during the booking process or email us at [email protected] if you would like to share more detailed information (e.g. your access statement) or ask any questions.

If you have any access requirements which you'd like to make us aware of, please complete the following form and return it to us via [email protected].

You'll understand that some adjustments may take more time to arrange than others, so we appreciate you giving as much notice as possible about what you need so we can support you to get the most out of this event.

Please tell us about any access requirements or anything else that would make this event easier or more comfortable for you to attend.

YTAS strives to create and hold events and spaces where everyone feels welcome and the safety of others is valued. This commitment applies to all our online and in-person services, activities, and communication channels.

We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour which creates feelings of unease, discomfort, offence, embarrassment, humiliation, or intimidation, whether intentional or not. This includes but is not limited to; transphobia, homo or biphobia, racism, ableism, sexism, or class discrimination.

For more information about YTAS’ commitments to safety and best practice, read our full statement here.

The Tron Theatre is easily accessible by public transport. For more information visit https://www.tron.co.uk/whats-on/how-to-find-us/

YTAS is committed to reducing the carbon emissions we cause, so we encourage all National Convention of Youth Drama attendees to consider using the greenest transport options possible. To help with this, YTAS has set up an online car share page for those interested in sharing lifts to and from the event. Take a look at our event page on Caroster for more details and to add any spaces you might have free in your car.

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Host or Publisher Youth Theatre Arts Scotland