Derby Theatre will be the East Midlands host venue for the National Theatre’s Connections Festival—a festival of new writing, performance and workshops for young people aged from 11 to 25.
Each year, the National Theatre asks ten writers to create new plays for performance by young theatre companies all over the country. Ten young companies from the region will perform on the Derby Theatre main stage.
Thursday and Friday (30 April and 1 May) will mainly consist of workshops while performances by youth theatre companies will be presented on Saturday and Sunday.
This year’s plays include: Drama Baby by Jamie Brittain who created the teenage drama Skins for Channel 4; Hospital Food by Eugene O’ Hare who has written extensively for theatre and TV; The Edelweiss Pirates by Ayub Khan Din, writer of the stage and film hit East is East; Remote by Stef Smith, best known for supplying the text for RoadKill at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010 and 2011 which won a Laurence Olivier award; and The Boy Preference by Elinor Cook, winner of the George Devine Award 2013 for most promising playwright.
Performing the plays will be Kirk Hallam Community Academy, VWNC, Trent College, Black Box Theatre, CAST Ensemble, Becket School, Flying High, Chapter 4 and Inspire Academy.
Further details are available at the Derby Theatre web site.
The plays will also be presented in the Royal auditorium and Underground in Northampton on Tuesday and from Thursday until Sunday. The programme is available at the Royal and Derngate web site.