This is the heart of Doorstep’s work. Our regular participatory drama groups across Torbay nurture high-quality theatre-making by children and young people (ages 4-20) in educational and supportive spaces. In order to ensure that children from a wide range of backgrounds can all take part, we currently run a variety of groups in a variety of locations.
Saturday Sessions: Saturday Drama & Little Doorstep
These sessions run term-time over an 11 week term, and both Saturday sessions take place at St Pauls Church Hall in Preston, Paignton. This venue is fully accessible, is directly on the 12 and 22 bus routes and also has a large car park for those who drive.
Participants play drama games, write their own stories, develop their own choreography, and develop performance skills while making friends. Little Doorstep and the Saturday Drama group always have an end-of-term sharing, and these can sometimes be informal, i.e. a work-in-progress insight into the creative process, rather than a polished final piece.
Saturday groups are a great way for children and young people to try out a drama class, providing a safe and supportive environment with skilled facilitators. Saturday sessions are run by Doorstep Associate Artist Natasha Brown and Emerging Artist Pip Walcon Adams.
Doorstep Studio Courses (DAS)
Studio courses run over 11 weeks and they take place at the Palace Theatre in Paignton, where Doorstep Arts is the creative learning company in residence. We provide four termly DAS courses for children from 6 up to 20. The Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions focus on musical theatre, supporting young people’s development of progressive theatre performance skills, and each term ends with a final sharing which includes song/dance/choregraphy and script work. DAS courses are run by Doorstep Lead Artist Polly Ferguson-Carruthers and Laura Swift, both of whom are musical theatre specialists. In 2026, the DAS groups are working on a mainstage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with a cast of 115 children & young people.
After-School Clubs
Doorstep Arts works in partnership with regional schools to provide after-school club extra-curricular offers for dance and drama, both for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 at the primary level and also Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 at the secondary level. Any schools/teachers interested in exploring partnership should email Polly as the Participation Lead – polly@doorsteparts.co.uk.
Doorstep Youth Theatre (DYT) and DYT Rep Company (DYT Rep)
Taking place on Monday evenings at 5.15pm, Doorstep Youth Theatre is a training company, supporting young people age 11-16 to develop their skills as actors, creatives and theatre-makers. The group works on a project-by-project basis, developing original scripts, writing audio plays, creating short films, and more. The DYT group is currently led by Doorstep Lead Artist & Pathways Producer Helen Gilbert.
The oldest Doorstep group, DYT Rep, is an audition-based company, and they meet from 7-9pm on Monday evenings at Stage Left Palace Theatre. They develop original performances in a variety of astonishing sites and locations – i.e. site specific pieces in caves (The Inheritance, Kents Cavern, 2022), striking adaptations of classic stories (The Odyssey, Lupton House, 2024), wild reinventions of well known scores (Out of the Woods, Palace Theatre, 2018) and ambitious schools tours (Grit, 2015). Their current 2026 project is devising an original 40 minute new prequel for the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, exploring the fictional world of Vulgaria, the backstory behind the well known ‘child-catcher’ and hearing the collective voices of the common people who are un-heard in the classic musical.
DYT Rep also has an in-house band – a team of talented musicians who write original music and provide live accompaniment to their performances. DYT Rep sessions also serve as the home training ground for the ‘Make It Happen Crew’ – a team of young people interested in roles in tech & production, including LX design, sound design, scenic design, costume design, producing, marketing, make-up, and more. DYT Rep is supported by Helen Gilbert & Erin Walcon as Lead Artists.