The first ever Asian Youth Theatre Festival was magical. I watched young theatre makers like myself perform their stories in incredibly eye-opening and inspiring ways. Stories that I'd never get a chance to hear if I hadn't had the chance to be a part of this festival. Stories that made me realize how lucky I was to be living the way I am, stories that made me realise I haven't been exposed enough to the art form that I love, from countries so close to mine. Stories that made me realise the power of theatre in Asia and how it can bring people who may not necessarily speak the language or eat the same food together. .

Over the three days I got to watch performances by theatre groups from Dhaka in Bangladesh (@prachyanat), Dumaguete in the Philippines (Youth Advocates Through Theatre Arts or YATTA for short), KL Malaysia (The Actors Studio) and took part in workshops where I ran for an hour (Julius Foo's physical theatre masterclass), tried contact improv (Sharda Harrison's workshop), learnt Bangladeshi dance and bamboo stick fighting, and only wished I had more time to go for more performances and workshops! .

I learnt so much in the three days and my only form of "payment" was playing Debbie in The Wedding Pig, LOL. .

We ended the three days with a party and closing ceremony, and it was in the former that I realised we may all be youths from different parts of Asia but youth thespians everywhere are the same. Give us a theatre game and we will go to town, even if we can only communicate with each other through hand signs and broken English. And we can still make you laugh, even if within the minutes we were given to come up with skits we had trouble understanding each other. Because everyone understands the language that is theatre. egg drop then blackout .

Performance still of @yattadumaguete taken from the AYTF facebook page!