A FORMER member of Canberra Youth Theatre is to be honoured through a legacy that will support the company’s emerging artists program over the next five years.

The late Jeremy Spencer Broom, whose zest for theatre was evident in the CYT and ANU shows in which he took part, died on August 9, 2019.

He has previously worked for five years in schools, including Daramalan College, where through games and drama, he supported children with special needs, helping many back of them into mainstreaming schooling and teaching them how to communicate and socialise with others.

As a boy, firstly at St Edmunds College, Jeremy was a member of the school band, playing the trombone and winning many eisteddfods as a part of school choirs. In Year 11, by then at Lake Tuggeranong College, he was an active member of the Tuggeranong Players.

Jeremy went on to perform in plays and musicals for Tuggeranong College Lakeside Players, Phoenix Players, Queanbeyan Players, The National University Theatre Society (NUTS), ACT Singers, Canberra Philharmonic Society, Free Rain Theatre, Urban Theatre Projects, Enlighten Theatre Company, Canberra Youth Theatre and Jigsaw Theatre Company.

His final show was the NUTS production of “Dogfight” in 2018.

Broom family members, Margaret, Michael and Timothy, said they hoped the legacy would encourage others to support young people and the work of Canberra Youth Theatre and that Jeremy would “certainly have jumped at the opportunity to have continued involvement in the program in any capacity he could provide”.

“He was often the first to arrive and last to leave… from music, singing, acting and writing, Jeremy could do it all and both got and gave great joy,” they said.

Artistic director and CEO of the company, Luke Rogers, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Broom family… this support will have a profound effect on our ability to create pathways for early career artists, engage more creatives to work with our young artists, and invest in the next generation of theatremakers.”