On February 5, Derry performers can audition can at St Cecilia's College, while in Belfast auditions will be held in the Lyric. The reality for Tony Macaulay in Belfast 1977 was his own little Belfast bubble in which he bounced around as a 14-year-old, watching Star Wars, eating 'tatey' bread and savouring newfound responsibility as the breadboy for the last "Ormo Mini-shop in the world".

A casting call has been launched for young Derry performers to take part in a new musical set in Belfast during the 1970s. For details on booking performer auditions, locations, musician auditions, audition fees, course fees and bursaries visit www.britishyouthmusictheatre.org/auditions or by phone 020 8563 7725. One song, in particular, is the perfect disco tune, I think. It’s called Disco Days and to me, it’s a hit song. Breadboy' is a strongly autobiographical novel, in which Tony Macaulay recollects his years as a teenager in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1977-1979. The novel is the follow-up of 'Paperboy', but can easily be read on its own.FINAL auditions recently over, the stage is now set for British Youth Music Theatre's (BYMT) latest reincarnation of Belfast author Tony Macaulay's "ordinary" childhood, with the much-anticipated Breadboy opening at the Lyric in July. I am delighted to be involved in the next adventures of Tony Macaulay as Paperboy transforms into Breadboy. Tony’s mind, as a 14 year old growing up in 1970s Belfast, is a glorious mix of reality, imagination and downright fantasy! His muses may be the same as his slightly younger, paperboy self but this time he’s older, wiser and wearing Brut. What could possibly go wrong?” Breadboy has just the right touch of wit and pathos and helps the reader understand the type of dry humour needed to survive The Troubles.

The British Youth Music Theatre, the leading music theatre company for young people, is set to return with a musical adaptation of Tony Macaulay’s second memoir Breadboy. They got the idea to create sketches around a heretic son in a Crusader/Deus Vult family because Father got a Christmas gift, full of Crusader costumes. Later, out of nowhere, the duo thought of creating a comedic video. They said there is no intention with the idea.In 2012 the W.B. Yeats Society of New York invited Tony to present a reading of Paperboy in the National Arts Club as part of the 1st Irish Festival. In 2013 and 2014 he performed a series of readings from his books at the New York Irish Center as part of the 1st Irish Festival and returned to the National Arts Club in New York to preview ‘Little House on the Peace Line’ in 2016. As a prominent writer, journalist and broadcaster, Tony has contributed to NVTV, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2, Downtown Radio and BBC Radio Ulster. He has also written for the Belfast Telegraph, the newspaper he once delivered. Elvis Presley has just died, Saturday Night Fever and Grease are huge hits at the cinema and Princess Leia is the breadboy’s big crush. British Youth Music Theatre search for Breadboy and young people aged 11-21yrs for the next exciting 2022 Summer Season of new musical theatre His debut novel Belfast Gate (so it is, 2019) is a satirical comedy drama set in 2019 about a group of Catholic and Protestant women who start a campaign to take down Belfast’s 50 year old peace walls. The novel was book of the week in the Irish News.

Apart from incorporating Kipling's If into the narrative, Andrew Doyle turns a mean lyric. He rhymed the teenage angst of "She doesn't know that I exist..." with "vivisectionist" and got decent mileage from Belfast idioms.In 2014 Tony was asked to present the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards to young people from Northern Ireland on behalf of the Earl of Wessex. In 2016 Tony was asked to present the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards to young people from Northern Ireland on behalf of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2016 Tony’s first three books were translated into Braille by prisoners in the Braille Unit in Maghaberry Prison. In 2019 Tony was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Ulster University for services to literature and peace building at home and abroad. A final day of auditions will also be held at the Spectrum Centre, Shankill Road, and Falls Road Leisure Centre in West Belfast on February 18. Alas I was to wait a few more years than Tony to find my girl, together for 30 yrs now, but I had a few heartbreaks so I know unrequited love.

When BYMT did Paperboy [focusing on Macaulay's life as a 12-year-old infatuated with Doctor Who and the Bay City Rollers], the kids knew all the history of Belfast and knew how their characters fitted into it and I think that's important," he adds.There are lots of talented people who for various reasons can't or don't make it to drama school or stage school, so BYMT is another route in. It gives young people a chance - and you discover bright, new talent along the way." Dr. Tony Macaulay is a bestselling author, leadership consultant, peacebuilder, broadcaster and suicide prevention advocate from Northern Ireland. He was raised at the top of the Shankill Road in West Belfast at the start of thirty-five years of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, an experience that has shaped his life. He has spent the past 35 years working to build peace and reconciliation at home and abroad, working with hundreds of youth and community groups to break down barriers of mistrust, hatred and division. He has applied his experience and learning into leadership development and management of change and transition in many voluntary, public and private sector organisations.