2019 National Theatre Connections Festival Premieres Ten Brand New Plays Staged By Young People

Ten UK school and youth theatre companies have been chosen to bring their productions of ten brand new plays to the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival, which takes place in the Dorfman Theatre from 25-29 June.

Connections is the largest youth theatre festival in the UK which celebrates new writing for young people aged 13-19. Ten new plays by both established and emerging contemporary playwrights including Ben Bailey Smith, Lajaune Lincoln, Katherine Soper and Dawn King have been exclusively commissioned for young people to stage and perform at this year's Festival.

Over 6,500 young people have taken part in Connections this year, with the ten plays being premiered by 273 youth theatre companies and schools across the UK. All the companies had the opportunity to transfer their production to one of 30 leading Partner Theatres across the UK, from Eden Court in Inverness, to the Lyric Belfast, and the Theatre Royal Plymouth.Ten companies are selected to perform at the National Theatre between 25-29 June to represent the range of exciting work being produced across the UK. Young people are involved with all aspects of creating and staging the play and take on a variety of backstage and off-stage roles, from operating lights and sound to set and costume design and stage management.

Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre said, "National Theatre Connections brings together young theatre-makers from across the UK with today's most exciting playwrights. I look forward to watching the ten companies perform at this year's Festival, as a reflection of the fantastic variety of productions which have been taking place in every corner of the UK throughout the year. We hope to inspire more young people in the art of theatre-making and the huge variety of backstage and offstage roles involved in creating a production".

The productions invited to appear at the NT in the final week of this year's Festival are:

Tuesday 25 June in the Dorfman Theatre

7pm - Variations by Katie Hims performed by Outwood Academy, Hemsworth (West Yorkshire)

8.30pm - Flesh by Rob Drummond performed by Rare Studio Liverpool

Wednesday 26 June in the Dorfman Theatre

7pm - Class by Ben Bailey Smith & Lajaune Lincoln performed by Easy Street Theatre Company (Sheffield)

8.30pm - Stuff by Tom Wells performed by Bolingbroke Academy Theatre Company (Wandsworth, London)

Thursday 27 June in the Dorfman Theatre

7pm - The Small Hours by Katherine Soper performed by Kildare Youth Theatre (County Kildare, Republic of Ireland)

8.30pm - terra / earth by Nell Leyshon & choreography by Anthony Missen performed by ACTS (Wolverhampton)

Friday 28 June in the Dorfman Theatre

7pm - Salt by Dawn King performed by Dimensions Performance Academy (South Wales)

8.30pm - Chaos by Laura Lomas performed by Glasgow Acting Academy SCIO

Saturday 29 June in the Dorfman Theatre

7pm - Ageless by Benjamin Kuffuor performed by Gulbenkian (Canterbury)

8.30pm - The Sad Club by Luke Barnes & music by Adam Pleeth performed by Hall for Cornwall (Truro, Cornwall)

All performances will be captioned.

Tickets are £5 each and are on sale from Friday 24th May. To book tickets, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/connections

Applications are now open to take part in next year's Connections Festival. The National Theatre is looking for 300 school and youth theatre companies across the UK to take part. For more information and to sign up, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk/connections

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