NT Connections 2024
NT Connections festival is the National Theatre’s annual festival of new plays for youth theatres and schools. Bristol Old Vic’s festival will host 7 regional Youth Theatres; performing 30 minute - 1 hour short plays which have been selected from the last 22 years of Connections.
The performers will all be 13+ and the plays are written for Young People.
THE PERIODICALS
by Sian OwenBy Strode College
Set in the near future - a group of young people live as a feral group of techno-savvy fugitives, living off-the land which is a rubbish dump. They stay out of sight of the authorities - particularly the education authorities who are desperate to get them back into school because the optics are not good. However school has lost its allure. When the young people are in school they are overlooked and underestimated - seen as being more trouble than they are worth. So now, for this group, school’s out forever
SHOUT
By Alexis ZegermanBy Bishop Fox’s Theatre Company
In a world full of words, how can Dana survive when she can't speak? Dana has selective mutism, but that doesn't stop her vivid imagination. Shout is a funny, moving play about anxiety, celebrating difference, and finding your voice. A play that wonders what exactly it takes to overcome anxiety and mental health issues when you're a teenager. It's not just the noise you make, that makes you who you are.
ORCHESTRA
By Charlie JosephineBy St Brendan’s Sixth Form College
A youth orchestra practises during half term holidays in preparation for a concert. Unexpected events cause them all to interrogate their relationship with success. How do you protect the joy of the process whilst also wanting to be the best? Is striving for artistic excellence worth the pressure of losing soul?