National Theatre Connections

NT New Connections 2009 are new plays written for young people to perform or watch. Some of these plays reflect the strong passions and emotions that exist in young peoples lives, and consequently contains strong language which Parents or Guardians may like to consider in advance. From the scripts we have seen none of these pieces are unsuitable for over 15 year olds. Most are suitable for 12 year olds and over. Please enquire at Learning & Participation if you are concerned about the suitability of particular performances, and we would be happy to advise so far as we know.

A thriller exploring the power of the imagination and the blurring of fact and fiction. This will be performed by our own Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. Directed by Rhys McClelland-

“I chose this play because it lends itself to strong visual interpretation and is thus one of the most challenging to stage. There’s nothing we like better than challenging the youth theatre. It has a wealth of fascinating characters, surprising twists and it poses intriguing questions about the nature of story telling.”

A comedy about survival, set during a dress rehearsal of The Importance of Being Earnest. This will be performed by More House School (Farnham). The small but talented GCSE Drama group at More House School have set their sights on bringing Anthony Horowitz’s enigmatic comedy to life. The production aims to entertain and provoke in equal measure, exploring the nature of redemption through the most unlikely performance of The Importance of Being Earnest yet attempted.  

 

An ambitious city boy wants to make his first million before he’s 21. This is a metropolitan poetic tale of luck, money values, false friends and true love. This will be performed by Mountbatten School (Romsey).

The Mountbatten School's performance of Success is brought to the stage by a group of talented and enthusiastic young people between the ages of 11 and 15.

 

Fri 20 March, 7pm

The following performances will take place this day -

A 20 minute verbatim play about a young man’s entanglement with the criminal justice system. This will be performed by Tonbridge Grammar School. 'The Tonbridge Players' are a group of students from Tonbridge Grammar School who finished Drama A level a year early and so decided to do something challenging with their time.  

An ambitious city boy wants to make his first £1M before he’s 21: a metropolitan poetic tale of luck, money, values, false friends and true love. This will be performed by Tunbridge Wells Grammar School For Boys.

Our company is made up of boys from TWGSB and girls from Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School. We last worked together on Feather Boy for NT Connections in 2006 and later took the show to Wiesbaden in Germany very successfully. We chose Success because the quality of the writing just leapt off the page and because there are some great characters in it.  

A comedy romance set during a series of PE lessons. This will be performed by Groundlings Theatre Company (Portsmouth). Students from one of the UK's leading drama school presents this physical theatre play about love, ambition and relationships in the teenage world. Set around sports, the passion and energy of sport combines with the passion and energy of theatre. This hard hitting play with touches of brilliant comedy leaves you on the edge of you seat right till the final whistle.

 

Sat 21 March, 2.15pm

The following performances will take place on this day -

13 year old Stacey has a secret: a play about the consequences of silence and jealousy. This will be performed by Bexhill College (Bexhill On Sea). A series of vivid, yet subtly characterised, scenes reveal how frightening it can be for a girl growing up into a world, where boys seem obsessed with her sexuality rather than her personality. The action focuses on her refusal to surrender to disillusionment, as she tries to find her own way between the certainties of born-again Christianity and her family's empty materialism.
 

An ambitious city boy wants to make his first £1M before he’s 21: a metropolitan poetic tale of luck, money, values, false friends and true love. This will be performed by the Applause Youth Theatre Company (Dorking)

They are resident at Dorking Halls in Surrey, and exist to provide opportunities for their members to create imaginative theatrical events. 

A 20 minute verbatim play about a young man’s entanglement with the criminal justice system. This will be performed by Astor College For The Arts (Dover). The company for BLACKOUT is made up of Years 11, 12 and 13 students, some of whom study drama, but many who just wish to take part in extra curriculum drama. Astor College has a huge reputation for International theatre work and Performing Arts students have just finished working on a joint UK/Croatia/France production of Godspell. In 2009, students will work with students in USA and perform Sweeney Todd in Virginia. Astor College has participated in the Connections project for many years and last year performed IT SNOWS by Bryony Lavery and Frantic Assembly. 

 

Heartbreak Beautiful by Christopher William Hill

 

Sun 22 March, 6pm 

The following performances will take place this day -