Dressed to the nines beneath sweeping high ceilings, the dark waters of the wharf sparkling outside, a glad, free-flowing excitement swims among the evening’s guests. Each flourishes from wrist or breast a multi-coloured corsage, handed to them by the attendant at the foyer’s top-of-stairs entrance. Videographers, their cameras dangling over their heads like angler fish, glide about with their third convex eye. The grand belle and benefactor of the new theatre space, Rebel Wilson, holds centre, regal in white. The first play of the Australian Theatre for Young People’s new, supremely welcoming space – abutting the home of Bell Shakespeare, opposite Sydney Theatre Company, and created in consultation with people as young as ten – is about to debut. And with it: a new chapter of youth-driven theatre in Australia.

The play’s apposite name: The Deb.

Katelin Koprivec and cast members of The Deb. Photo © Tracey Schramm

Written and directed by Hannah Reilly, the first recipient of Wilson’s scholarship program for female-identifying comedy writers aged 18-26, The Deb is a big-hearted, small town musical for all ages that tells the story of community resilience, unlikely friendship and finding...