National_Theatre_Connections

National Theatre Connections

National Theatre Connections

Add article description

Connections (also referred to as New Connections and formerly Shell Connections and BT Connections) is the Royal National Theatre in London's annual youth theatre festival.[1] It was founded in 1995 and sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell until 2007 when the Bank of America took over the sponsorship. The plays are also published by the National Theatre each year.

Scheme

The National Theatre annually commissions ten plays from established playwrights which are performed by youth theatre groups across the UK. Groups are invited to perform at Connections Festivals held at a professional theatre in their area. A random performance group from each play is then performed at the end of the Festival at the National Theatre.[2]

Professional productions

Several of the specially commissioned Connection plays have been professionally produced at the National Theatre. In 1999 Sparkleshark was performed. In 2006 three were produced; Burn by Deborah Gearing, Chatroom by Enda Walsh and Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill were performed in 2006;[3] the latter two were revived in 2007 when they also toured.[4] In 2008 Baby Girl by Roy Williams, DNA by Dennis Kelly and The Miracle by Lin Coghlan also received professional productions in the Cottesloe.[5]

Commissioned plays

2022

  • Cable Street by Lisa Goldman
  • Chat Back by David Judge
  • Find a Partner! by Miriam Battye
  • Hunt by Fionnuala Kennedy
  • Like There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz Mytton
  • The Ramayana Reset by Ayeesha Menon, with choreography by Hofesh Shechter, in association with Hofesh Shechter Company
  • Remote by Stef Smith
  • Superglue by Tim Crouch
  • Variations by Katie Hims
  • You don't need to make a Big Song and Dance out of it by Abbey Wright, Shireen Mula and Matt Regan, in association with Tackroom Theatre

2019

  • Ageless by Benjamin Kuffuor
  • Chaos by Laura Lomas
  • Class by Doc Brown & Lajuane Lincoln
  • Flesh by Rob Drummond
  • Salt by Dawn King
  • The Small Hours by Katherine Soper
  • Stuff by Tom Wells
  • terra/earth by Nell Leyshon, with Choreography by Anthony Missen
  • The Sad Club by Luke Barnes, with Music by Adam Pleeth
  • Variations by Katie Himms

Source - [6]

2018

  • BLANK by Alice Birch
  • The Blue Electric Wind by Brad Birch
  • The Changing Room by Chris Bush
  • The Free-9 by In-Sook Chappell
  • The Ceasefire Babies by Fiona Doyle
  • These Bridges by Phoebe Eclair-Powell
  • When They Go Low by Natalie Mitchell
  • Want by Barney Norris
  • The Sweetness of a Sting by Chinonyerem Odimba
  • Dungeness by Chris Thompson

Source - [7]

2017

2016

2015

  • Drama, Baby by Jamie Brittain
  • Hood by Katherine Chandler
  • The Boy Preference by Elinor Cook and performed by Best Theatre Arts from St Albans, Hertfordshire
  • The Edelweiss Pirates by Ayub Khan Din
  • Follow, Follow by Katie Douglas and performed by The St Ives Youth Theatre from Cambridgeshire
  • The Accordion Shop by Cush Jumbo
  • Hacktivists by Ben Ockrent
  • Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare
  • Remote by Stef Smith
  • The Crazy Sexy Cool Girls' Fan Club by Sarah Solemani

2014

2013

2012

[8]

2011

2009

2008

  • Scenes From Family Life by Mark Ravenhill
  • A Vampire Story by Moira Buffini
  • Theatre of Debate: Blackout by Davey Anderson inspired by the stories of a young person from Barnardo's, Glasgow
  • He's Talking by Nicholas Wright
  • My Face by Nigel Williams
  • Theatre of Debate: Big Hopes a verbatim play by Gary Owen inspired by an xl. group from The Princes Trust, Cardiff followed by Safe by Deborah Gearing inspired by Fairbridge Southampton
  • Arden City by Timberlake Wertenbaker
  • The Peach Child by Anna Furse and Little Angel Theatre
  • Theatre of Debate directed and devised by Jeremy Weller with young people from Fairbridge Centres in Kennington and Hackney.
  • The Book of Everything by Peter Tabern based on a novel by Guus Kuijer in the English translation by John Nieuwenhuizen
  • Fugee by Abi Morgan.
  • It Snows by Bryony Lavery and Frantic Assembly
  • Burying Your Brother in the Pavement by Jack Thorne

DNA

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

  • After Juliet by Sharman Macdonald
  • Electric Halos by Helen Adams
  • Emperors and Clowns by Chris Barton
  • Happy Endings devised by Danny Parker and Nigel Williams
  • Human Puppets devised by Theatre Royal Bath Young People's Theatre company
  • Kids are from Mars devised by the London Bubble company
  • Lagna by Jez Simons
  • Les Juifs de Salonique...
  • A Peasant of El Salvador by Peter Gould, Stephen Stearns, adapted by Mick Fitzmaurice
  • Sunnyside by Neill Morton
  • Ticking by Mari Binnie
  • Time on Fire by Timothy Mason
  • Too Too Tight devised by the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre Street Art Company

2000

1999

1998

1997

References

  1. [1]
    "Connections homepage" Archived 2012-12-06 at the Wayback Machine, National Theatre. Retrieved 2013-04-06.
  2. [2]
    "NT Connections : FAQs : What Is It?". Archived from the original on 2007-08-03. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  3. [3]
    "National Theatre : Productions : Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  4. [4]
    "National Theatre: Chatroom / Citizenship". Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  5. [5]
    "National Theatre : Productions : Baby Girl, DNA, The Miracle". Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  6. [6]
    "Connections Plays - National Theatre". Archived from the original on 2020-01-05. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  7. [7]
    "Connections Plays - National Theatre". Archived from the original on 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2020-01-05.
  8. [8]
    "Plays 2012 - Connections Plays 2012 - National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2011-08-26.
  9. [9]
    "Connections Plays 2011 - Connections Plays - National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2010-11-29.
  10. [10]
    "Shell Connections 2006: New Plays For Young People - Theatre for young people - National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17.
  11. [11]
    "Shell Connections 2004 - Theatre for young people - National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17.
  12. [12]
    Archived 'Karamazoo' webpage on the NT Shell Connections website
  13. [13]
    "New Connections 1997: New Plays for young people - Theatre for young people - National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2010-09-19.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article National_Theatre_Connections, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.