National Theatre Connections 2026
Eight Plays for Young Performers
$45.99
- Paperback
464 pages
- Release Date
17 September 2026
Summary
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 Yo…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781350614291 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1350614297 |
| Author: | Helen Blakeman, Afsaneh Gray, Kirsty Housley, Al Smith, Sean Buckley, Eve Leigh, The Royal National Theatre, Alexandra Wood, Florence Espeut-Nickless |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Imprint: | Methuen Drama |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 464 |
| Release Date: | 17 September 2026 |
| Weight: | 530g |
| Dimensions: | 34mm x 156mm x 234mm |
| Series: | Plays for Young People |
Helen Blakeman
Sean Buckley is a British-Irish playwright and screenwriter from south London. His first play Matches for Monkeys won the Verity Bargate Award, and he was Pearson Writer in Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Other plays include Between Dog and Wolf and Smithereens (both Paines Plough). His 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. She won 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 won the Brian Way Award for 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 a theatre maker working across direction, writing, and dramaturgy. Her awards include the OSBTT Award and The Stage award for Innovation. She was an 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), and 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. Her residencies include a National Theatre Studio attachment in 2024, Royal Court residencies in 2019 and 2017, the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece in 2017, and AIDF Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz in 2016. Her awards include a Berlin Theatertreffen Stueckemarkt selection in 2021, the Sarah Award for Audio Fiction in 2020, the Jerwood/Royal Court New Playwright Award in 2019 (with Jasmine Lee-Jones), and a Women’s Prize for Playwriting Finalist selection in 2020. She was also a Bruntwood Prize shortlistee in 2019. Upcoming work includes commissions from Headlong, Unicorn Theatre, and the Javaad Alipoor Company.
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