The National Theatre Connections Festival, which showcases the exciting young acting talent in Scotland will be coming to Pitlochry Festival Theatre for the first time.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be one of 33 Partner Theatres across the UK and will premier three newly commissioned plays, performed by four youth theatre groups, between the 25th and 26th of March.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre producer Deborah Dickinson said: “Pitlochry Festival Theatre is excited to be staging its first NT Connections Festival with four brilliant youth theatre groups in our beautiful new Studio. We are delighted to be giving young people the opportunity to stage new plays and take part in workshops supported by theatre professionals.”
Pitlochry Festival Theatre will host The Mill Youth Theatre from East Lothian, Glasgow based Stage Goons, Shazam Theatre from Aberdeen, and St Andrews based Byre Youth Theatre as they perform the new plays by acclaimed playwrights.
The plays they will be performing are Simon Longman’s (Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past, Jon Brittain’s Model Behaviour and Canadian author and playwright Jordan Tannahill’s new play Is My Microphone On?
The National Theatre Connections Programme is now in its 28th year, with this year’s festival drawing together ten new plays from some of the UK’s most talented and popular playwrights, for young people aged between 13 and 19 to perform.
The plays are designed for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities.
The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read and study. Touching on themes like climate crisis, politics, toxic masculinity and gang culture, the collection provides topical, pressing subject matter for students to explore in performances.
In 2021/2022, National Theatre Connections worked with 260 youth companies and over 8,000 young people from across the UK. In previous years playwrights including Liz Lochhead, Mark Ravenhill, Anthony Neilson, David Mamet, Bryony Lavery, Lenny Henry, James Graham and Cush Jumbo have all provided material.
More information on the plays taking place at Pitlochry Festival Theatre can be found at https://pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com/, with more information on the National Theatre Connections Project available at https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/learn-explore/young-people/connections/