The Flying Ducks youth theatre celebrates its tenth anniversary with a whale of a premiere, discovers Charles Hutchinson.

STEVE Outhwaite's world is full of sheep, mascara, theatrical clothing and Flying Ducks.

The 53-year-old arable and sheep farmer from Haxby Moor is also a semi-professional theatrical make-up artist who provides a service for amateur societies and schools in York, while his wife Jill runs Dress Circle, the largest costume-hire department in York.

Flying Ducks is the Haxby and Wigginton youth theatre that he runs. Next week, the youth theatre's tenth anniversary will be marked with Steve's North Eastern premiere of Moby Dick - The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

He recalls the youth theatre's roots. "Haxby & Wigginton Methodist Church had a young group which decided to put on an evening of entertainment, and I remember thinking 'If they had a producer they could really make something of this'.

I'd been involved with amateur societies since my teens, performing in Haxby and Shipton shows, and I set up a group for 30 people aged from eight to 13, initially to do a variety show called Is That My Line?, which we put on in the church hall," he says.

Flying Ducks had taken flight, and 15 productions later, the youth theatre is growing ever stronger, having performed the likes of West Side Story, Fame, Tin Pan Ali, The Music Man and Return To The Forbidden Planet.

"The membership comes from Haxby, Wigginton, Strensall, York and outlying areas, and the waiting list is horrendous," says Steve. "There's no audition to get into the youth theatre, just to get into the productions. Our problem is that once they join us, they don't want to leave."

At present the membership stands at 60, 50 in the performing group of 12 to 18 year olds and ten in the starter group of ten to 12 year olds, who concentrate on workshops. "That is as many members as we can cope with at the moment!" says Steve with an apologetic smile.

"The group is run entirely by volunteers and does not receive any funding for its day-today running costs, but it does gratefully receive small donations for its main production each year."

Flying Ducks meets on Wednes-day evenings in the church hall and on Sundays during rehearsals. Membership is £36 a year for seniors, £24 for juniors, and the youth theatre meets all year, except during the summer holidays.

Now all attention is focused on Moby Dick - The Musical, in which Alex Deadman, a National Youth Theatre actor from Huntington, leads the cast.

"I got a circular from the licensing people that said the show was available," recalls Steve. "I thought it looked interesting, and went to see a youth production in Bradford, where they did it with 12-part harmonies! 12-part harmonies? We said 'Let's do it anyway, whittling the harmonies down to what we can cope with'! It's such a fun piece; I've not seen anything quite like it."

The set is being prepared by who else but Steve, Haxby Moor's Renaissance man, in his farm buildings: "I'm designing and building it in a grain store, where I've marked out the floor to the Rowntree Theatre dimensions."

Moby Dick, Flying Ducks Youth Theatre, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm, plus Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tickets: £6, £5, on 01904 768963

Updated: 16:24 Thursday, April 07, 2005