Thanks to the Cambs Times and Wisbech Standard for giving us the opportunity to celebrate the amazing creative young people in Fenland and to inform you about the creative opportunities available to young people.

20Twenty Productions is an arts organisation based in Fenland. We are passionate about enabling young people to have access to creative opportunities, to support them to develop their skills and to build confidence.

We are so very lucky to work with many talented young people across our region and with many wonderful groups that offer creative activities to young people.

At the end of March the Wisbech locality hosted the Cambridgeshire youth awards and intermingled with awards celebrating young people all over the county were a host of performances from hugely talented local young people.

Dances from Thomas Clarkson dancers and Suzanna’s Street Dance alongside a host of vocal artists from Wisbech, Chatteris and March who all provided an extremely professional performance.

The locality run jamming band and Jaws of Cerberus also did an outstanding job. (Jamming is run on a Tuesday evening at the Queen Mary Centre from 5pm)

Mid April the Chatteris Youth Theatre were the first theatre company in the world to perform a new musical called The Three Chocolatiers, a piece that was developed from a children’s book by the author and a Norwich composer, Stuart McMillan.

The group worked alongside the composer during the rehearsal period which was a unique experience and helped shape the performance.

It was performed in Chatteris library, an unusual venue for a musical however highlighting that unusual spaces can be used for artist performance.

A children’s craft tent at the St Mary’s Church Art Exhibition in Whittlesey run by Dinosaurs and all sorts played host to young people with a flair for the visual arts.

The St Georges Festival in March welcomed local young band Gifford to their stage who did two awesome sets. Gifford are definitely going places, so watch this space!

Burrowmoor Primary and Westwood Primary choirs delighted the crowds as did local singer Kira Gibson and the senior March Youth Theatre all dressed as nuns!

So what’s new that young people can get involved with? A young vocal artist development project has now launched. This is running in Wisbech and Whittlesey and enables young people to work with industry experts to develop their vocal ability and stage presence.

The project also sees young people performing at festivals locally and in Suffolk.

The vocal coach is signed by Sony, and before his death performed for Michael Jackson!

Also supporting the project is Jim Davies who has performed with the Prodigy, Rapper M3ensa and music producer Sazrah. All artists will also receive a professional recording by the end of the project. This project is funded by Youth Music and is free to young people aged 11–19.

A sitcom filmed at March Town Hall is now looking for young people to join their existing cast and crew team. If you interested in acting in front of the camera, or would like to be the camera person and learn how to produce film then this could be for you. There will be an open evening on June 4 at 6pm, in March Town Hall. Come along and find out more. This project is currently funded by Heritage Lottery and is free to young people aged 12–19.

A new show choir has started up also on a Thursday evening at March Town Hall. The sessions run 7pm–9pm in the studio room. There is a cost of £2 per session and is for young people aged 10–19.

Chatteris Youth Theatre are now looking at starting their next project. This group meets at Chatteris Library on a Monday evening 5pm-6.30pm and is for children and young people aged 7–19.

The All Stars March Youth Theatre will perform a show called Poptastic on Friday May 29 and Saturday May 30 at March Town Hall.

The group will start casting for their next show, Bugsy Malone on Thursday June 11. This group is for young people aged 10–13 and meet on a Thursday evening 5pm–7pm.