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National Theatre Connections 2026
Eight Plays for Young Performers
Series: Plays for Young People
Brief Description
National Theatre Connections 2026 draws together eight new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK’s most exciting and popular playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who...
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National Theatre Connections 2026
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See moreA new anthology of 8 plays written for young performers as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival 2026.
A new anthology of 8 plays written for young performers as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival 2026.
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Description
National Theatre Connections 2026 draws together eight new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK’s most exciting and popular playwrights.
These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test 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 or study. Wrestling with themes like the Youth Custody Service, conspiracy, the climate crisis, exam pressure, grief and friendship, this collection lays bare a rich and complex terrain in which students can fully immerse themselves, explore and discover.
This 2026 anthology represents the full set of eight plays offered by the National Theatre's 2026 programme, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.
Series: Plays for Young People
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It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections. National Theatre Connections 2022 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK's most exciting playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and...Paperback$4999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Five compelling and theatrically dynamic plays that celebrate the strength of the human spirit, blending hope, humour and heart. Australian One-Act Plays for Young Adults is a collection of original plays crafted to serve as a valuable and pragmatic resource for educators and theatre-makers seeking engaging and adaptable scripts for young people. In each story are universal themes and strongly...Paperback$4399Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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The Wood of Words
Friendship makes us fresh.And doth beget new courage in our breasts. A new play for young people and schools, created from Shakespeare’s works. In this wood of words, a band of newcomers arrive to witness banishments, storms, unhappy endings, reunions, and murder most foul... and try to make sense of it all. This unique and thoughtful adaptation for young performers...Paperback$5200Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
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Marking its 30th anniversary, National Theatre Connections 2025 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK’s most exciting and popular playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. The...Paperback$5199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781350614291
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 June 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Contributors:
- Edited by The Royal National Theatre
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 34.0mm
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 530g
Pages: 464
About the Author
Sean Buckley is a British-Irish playwright and screenwriter from south London. His first play Matches for Monkeys was winner of the Verity Bargate Award and he was Pearson Writer in Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Other plays include Between Dog and Wolf, Smithereens (both Paines Plough) and audio drama Stone Baby (Radio 3) received a BBC New Writing Award.
Alexandra Wood is a playwright from London. Her plays include The Tyler Sisters and The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre); Never Vera Blue (Futures Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe); The Initiate and The Human Ear (Paines Plough); Ages (Old Vic New Voices); a translation of Manfred Karge’s Man to Man (Wales Millennium Centre); Merit (Plymouth Drum); Unbroken (Gate); and The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court).
Helen Blakeman is an award-winning writer for stage and screen, winning the George Devine Award for her debut play Caravan and a BAFTA award for her BBC adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's Dustbin Baby, which also won an International Emmy Award.
Afsaneh Gray is a writer for screen, stage and audio. She is the winner of the Brian Way Award with her play for young people, The Border. Her plays have been longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and Women’s Prize for Playwriting, and shortlisted for the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Prize.
Kirsty Housley is theatre maker working across direction, writing and dramaturgy. Awards include the OSBTT Award and The Stage award for Innovation. She was RSC digital fellow in 2022. Recent writing includes Myth (RSC) and Woman and Machine (Royal Opera House).
Florence Espeut-Nickless is an award-winning writer and actor from Wiltshire. Recent writing credits include; Little Red & Other Winter Tales (Bristol Old Vic), Bernadette & Other Teenage Folk Tales (Restoke), The Odyssey (National Theatre & Trowbridge Town Hall), DESTINY (UK tour), Miracle On 34 Seymour Street (Trowbridge Town Hall).
Al Smith’s plays include Harrogate (HighTide/Royal Court Theatre), Rare Earth Mettle (Royal Court), Diary of a Madman (Traverse Theatre/Gate Theatre), and Radio (Arcola/Audible).
Eve Leigh is an award-winning, internationally recognised writer for performance. Residencies include National Theatre Studio attachment 2024, Royal Court 2019 and 2017, Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece 2017, AIDF Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz 2016. Awards include Berlin Theatertreffen Stueckemarkt selection 2021, Sarah Award for Audio Fiction 2020, Jerwood/Royal Court New Playwright Award 2019 (with Jasmine Lee-Jones), Women’s Prize for Playwriting Finalist 2020, Bruntwood Prize shortlist 2019. Upcoming work includes commissions from Headlong, Unicorn Theatre, and the Javaad Alipoor Company.
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