National Youth Theatre Releases Educational Resource Packs for Upcoming REP Season

One week before the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain open their third REP season in London's West End they have released comprehensive free resources for schools, developed with teachers and theatre professionals for each of their three productions.

The NYT's REP season instills companys of the NYT's very best actors into West End theatres, giving members a chance to train by performing in front of paying audiences. Following the success of previous seasons the 2015 programme includes Consensual - a brand new play exploring issues around young people and sexual consent written by Evan Placey; Wuthering Heights, in a new adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel by Stephanie Street and The Merchant of Venice -Shakespeare's play abridged especially for the NYT by Tom Stoppard.

Consensual explores issues and experiences around sexting, young people and sexual consent, particularly in the classroom. The supporting education resource is designed for Key Stage 4 and 5 teaching of Drama and PSHE students and consists of curriculum-linked resource packs, interviews, and activities for teachers to allow creative exploration of the complex theme of consent.

The Wuthering Heights education pack for Street's bold new adaptation of Bronte's classic has been developed to support Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 students and teachers. Designed for Drama and English students who are exploring the play or the novel, the pack provides contextual information and curriculum inspired activities including textual analysis, creative writing, critical thinking and script work to encourage a deeper engagement with the production.

The resources for Merchant of Venice have been developed specially to support delivery of the text to Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 students in Literature and Drama and include interviews, textual extracts and explorations of theme and character and classroom activities to inspire creative and analytical responses tied to the curriculum.

Each year two of the shows in the REP season are chosen from the school curriculum and for the 2014 season over 5,000 school pupils were able to see the classic texts they were working on actualised. The comprehensive education resources will give schools insight into the creative process around the productions and assist with engaged textual and conceptual analysis in the classroom.