The Blyth Festival is a fully professional theatre located in the heart of Huron County, where it has been giving voice to rural Canada’s stories for more than 50 years. The Blyth Festival Young Company (YoCo) is the theatre’s youth outreach program, built to provide rural teens with an opportunity to explore theatrical training in a professional setting while meeting and collaborating with other like-minded youth.

Hosted at the Blyth Festival Theatre, the program is the only one of its kind in Huron County. This summer, it will invite 10-15 youth between the ages of 14-19 to spend four weeks creating and preparing an original piece of theatre to present to the public.

The program includes professional-level training led by Blyth artists. These include voice, movement and acting workshops, as well as opportunities to explore how performance can move into virtual space through the use of 6 Meta Quest VR headsets. All of this is hands-on, active learning crafted to help participants master highly sought-after skills such as leadership, cooperation, empathy, personal presentation and much more.

The 2025 Season welcomed the start of year round Young Company, providing rural teens with the opportunity to stay in touch with their theatre co-horts through the fall and winter seasons. Meeting every-other week, these sessions are designed to encourage young artists to delve further into their craft, continuing to grow their voice, movement, and devising skill.