Nicola Sturgeon will 'explore all options' to halt Scottish Youth Theatre closure

Nicola Sturgeon has promised to “explore all options” to keep open Scottish Youth Theatre after it announced it would be forced to close this summer because of a failure to secure regular funding from Creative Scotland.

The pioneering theatre group, whose alumni include Gerard Butler, Karen Gillan and Douglas Henshall, confirmed on Wednesday that it had been left with “no realistic option” but to cease trading on 31 July, as the funding gap for 2018-21 represents a third of its required income.

Speaking during first minister’s questions on Thursday, Sturgeon said that while the Scottish government has no say over Creative Scotland’s funding decisions, the announcement was “of serious concern to people across Scotland and to me”.

Questioned by the Scottish Greens leader, Patrick Harvie, who also described how the theatre group has “enriched and transformed” the lives of young people across the country since it was founded 41 years ago, Sturgeon said that she had already asked the Scottish ulture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, to meet with the SYT.

Sturgeon went on: “While I can’t give detail about what those options might be, today I certainly give a commitment that we will do everything we can to fully explore all options to allow young people in the future to benefit from the Scottish Youth Theatre in the way that young people in the past have done.”

Source: theguardian