Last year we announced the sad news of Matt Rutter's departure from E&P. Matt has been a Director of Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) since it's inception in 2012. We sat down with him and talked about his time in the role, and what his hopes are for the future of YEP.

Tell us about your journey with E&P and YEP

It's been 10 years since we started doing Young Everyman Playhouse, which used to be two young actors groups, and now it's six different strands: actors, writers, producers, directors, technicians, and marketers. And yeah, it's been a blast. It's been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, and now we've got a very specific way of making theatre, which is good. And I think over the years we've given quite a lot of young people the opportunity to either get on stage and enjoy themselves and develop as actors or get a really good starting foothold in the industry. The young people I've worked with have been incredible.

What’s been a highlight of your time in this role?

I think the Everyman Company was a real good time because we had a lot of young people getting opportunities. The Young Directors and Young Producers got involved with it, and we got the Young Actors involved with the Company shows. Young people got some paid to work, which was brilliant. There's quite a few of our young people who've gone on to other courses, working in these theatres, producing at the National and RSC, and all sorts now. So I think it's seeing where people have gone is probably the biggest thing for me.

There are also some of those very specific stories of young people that we found in an outreach capacity and then they've sort of journeyed through. A young lad called Keiran, who came to our Young Technicians programme not knowing anything about technical theatre, now works in the technical department.

Other highlights for me are the shows I've worked on with Tommo, like Intimate was one of the earlier shows we created which was about war, and we took over the Camp and Furnace with the show, so that felt like a really different peice of theatre.

I loved Until They Kick Us Out. We had one of our young people running to be a member of parliament, and getting the 147 votes in a general election was pretty cool. The the European Youth Theatre Festival was really lovely, going down and meeting people from all across Europe and doing a show. There's lots of lots of different ones. I love the Directors Festival and all those different Young Directors getting the chance to put something on.

I've loved seeing how it's developed. And the young people pass stuff on to each other. So they also know how to do things and how to devise how to create and they pass it on to the younger generation. I'm really proud of that.

What’s a message that you’d like to leave our young people with?

Oh, man: do stuff. Keep doing what you're doing - getting up, making your own theatre, creating. Nothing is ever going to happen in this industry unless you do it yourself. It's not like someone's just gonna turn up one day and ask if you want to be in a play. If you want to be a director, you've got to do it. But I think, just keep being as brilliantly creative and brave, as you always are. Don't lose that.

What would you like to see in YEP's future?

I'd like to see it focus on bringing back some of those things that we've lost in the last few years - through no one's fault, just with the pandemic and everything. I'd like to get it back to it's all singing, all dancing best. Where everyone in each of the strands feels like they're getting the best possible experience from it. I want to see it keep pushing forward. I'd really like like it to feel different as well. I think that'd be a really good thing. If someone just came in and went to the same stuff, but we find a slightly new way of doing it; put their own stamp on it.

I'd also like to come and see loads of it, without being bothered by what it looks like or how successful it is. I'd like to come and watch it. Just 100% enjoy it and have a couple of beers. That'll be amazing.

Thank you Matt for all of your brilliant work, from everyone here at E&P and our young people!