Jamaica Youth Theatre

The Jamaica Youth Theatre (JYT) comprises of young thespians from across this sun-drenched Caribbean island each with a burning passion for theatre. JYT creates cutting edge popular theatre targeting young people as a means of social change, with a commitment to using Jamaican indigenous forms and popular culture to engage its audience.

This edgy style of writing and presentation called “Dub Poetry” is used to tackle socio-cultural issues with recurring themes such as domination, oppression, poverty, brutality, racism, equality, justice and current economic issues. In 2007, JYT received the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for excellence in Arts and Culture from the Government of Jamaica.

As part of the application process for Contacting the World we asked companies to go somewhere different and collaborate with someone new. This is what Jamaica Youth Theatre did.

Jamaica Youth Theatre collaborated with Jamaica AIDS support for life in which they made a video that documented the two groups collaborating with the general public making awareness of AIDS in which is a taboo subject over in Jamaica. The company used their spoken word practice, banners and signs to attract the attention of the general public positioned themselves at noticeable places such as bus stops and parks.