Members of York Youth Theatre may lack experience, but they're treated with no less respect, as STEVE PRATT reports.

SUKIE Chapman is lost for words, having just had her tongue ripped out. "You should have kept silent, you threatened the order of my rule," she's told by the perpetrator of the mutilation.

The act is a curiously bloodless one to witness but 18-year-old Sukie reveals that on the night she'll be equipped with a blood capsule and fake detachable tongue to make it realistic.

York Youth Theatre is in rehearsal for a production of Love Of The Nightingale in the Theatre Royal Studio. As Sukie is discovering, life can be difficult for an Athenian princess in a Greek tragedy, especially if your sister's husband falls in love with you. Then you know it's going to end in tears and, in this case, tongue-pulling.

This show is but the tip of the theatrical iceberg of the activities of the education department, performed under the watchful eye of education director Sarah Brigham. When she pays tribute to Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden's help and support, she does so from experience as he was her youth theatre leader at Hull Truck. Now she leads the York department, one of the biggest and busiest in the country.

Rather than operating as a separate entity, York Youth Theatre is now a vital part of the Theatre Royal's programme. Three years ago it made the Theatre Royal its home, but the education work is more than running the youth theatre.

Leaders take projects, usually linked to shows, to schools across the city and beyond to Darlington, Newcastle, Scarborough and Hull. They work with other groups in the community and tutor young writers and critics. The increase in work is illustrated by the growth in full-time workers, from three when Brigham took over two years ago, to six.

"It's grown and grown," she says. "The numbers are staggering. We come into contact with around 10,000 young people in a year. A lot of the work we do is cutting-edge.

"We have school projects working with six schools a term. We go into every department, showing how theatre can be used as a resource. For Macbeth, we can go into a secondary school science department and look about how DNA could be used to solve who killed King Duncan."

The Youth Theatre boasts 280 members, aged between five and 25, who take part in weekly workshops and a backstage club, and stage regular productions. The number of groups is restricted by space. At present, there are 12 with a waiting list for the "massively popular" five to seven group.

"It's about trying to make sure that people who don't normally step into this building come in. We could just populate it with the usual suspects but we try to make it as diverse as possible. They might enjoy drama at school but would never dream of going to the theatre," she says.

"Some in the oldest group started at six or seven. Others might come for three or four years, or even a few terms. They decide that it was right for them at the time but not what they were looking for."

Brigham tells of one girl, now studying bio-medical science at Cambridge, who just enjoyed the social aspect of youth theatre.

It's also about getting the right leaders. "Youth theatre and education officers are a strange breed because they're not teachers. They're maybe actors or directors who've decided to turn their skills to help young people," explains Brigham, herself a former actor who also directs.

The close links between the education department and the theatre were emphasised with Youth Theatre members appearing alongside former EastEnders actress Lisa Benjamin in the main house staging of A Pocket Dream last year. Eight feature in the cast of the current production of Macbeth, which opens on February 28.

"We're right at the centre. We're in rehearsals daily to see what we can take into our workshops. Damian talks to us as artists not as teachers," she says.

The professional approach is one attraction for Fulford Sixth Form student Sukie Chapman. "I like the way we're treated by staff and production crew. We're not pushed aside but given a lot of opportunities," she says.

"I joined the Youth Theatre two years ago because I had a school friend who went and recommended it. I'd done amateur things, the York Shakespeare Project and stuff at school. I wanted more experience but didn't realise all the professional opportunities you can get."

Tom Wright, at 16 the youngest and newest member of the top age range group, echoes this: "They treat us like professionals, and I like the fact that we're working with the professional theatre."

He's in the Macbeth cast and would like to be an actor when he leaves school because of "the job satisfaction of doing a job that you love".

Suki is already auditioning for drama school and recently discovered that her mother was going to be an actress. "She got accepted into a few drama schools, including RADA, and then changed her mind. My family are really encouraging because they know it's something I want to do," she says.

The young people's association with the Theatre Royal isn't limited to the stage. One Youth Theatre member sits on the board, an indication of how highly they're regarded. Later this year, the Youth Theatre will receive a further boost - its first production on the main house stage.

l York Youth Theatre's productions of Dictation, by Mike Kenny and Love Of The Nightingale, by Timberlake Wertenbaker, in the Theatre Royal Studio, end tonight. Tickets (01904) 623568.