UK Free theatre tickets for under 26 year olds!

I have some experience with a scheme in a High School where we obtained funds to subsidise tickets for Perth Festival shows, whose prices are already very reasonable for school groups. It reduced tickets to about $20. The aim was not only for them to be able to afford several plays in a short time, but also to try to cut through their feeling that theatre is for snobs (social and intellectual) and show that they too could go to see plays and enjoy them. We used to talk to them about the etiquette of live shows and they visibly enjoyed feeling part of the whole experience, even 'dressing up' by their standards. It worked, but involved selling of the scheme on our part and also the success depended heavily on choice of the shows I felt were most accessible and enjoyable for them. One year, after a stunning first show by New York Theatre Co, some students banded together to buy subscriptions to local companies and I felt it worked beautifully. Other times they asked us to organise to go to specific shows later in the year. So I think it could work but perhaps not simply with provision of free tickets. I think that heavily reduced tickets might achieve the same aim and also in the case of professional theatre casting shows with names they recognise can have the same effect. I'm in favour of trying anything theatres can afford in order to try to cultivate a wider audience among young people, but it's not always about the money, more about a frame of mind. The fact that some theatre people still try to cultivate the notion of exclusivity doesn't help, but hopefully that's fading.