National Theatre’s Connections Festival 2024 Announcement
National Theatre’s Connections Festival is set to return to Pitlochry Festival Theatre championing young acting talent from around Scotland. We are thrilled to announce that once again we have been selected as one of only two theatres in Scotland to host the National Theatre’s prestigious Connections Festival which showcases the best of exciting young acting talent from around the country.
On 12 and 13 April, the Studio will host Spotlights Community Youth Theatre from Forfar, Aberdeen based Shazam Theatre Company (SCIO) and Aberdeen Academy of Performing Arts, and from Falkirk Denny High School Drama Club as they perform the Scottish premières of the new plays, The Sad Club by Luke Barnes & Adam Pleeth, Back in the Day by Yasmeen Khan, Age is Revolting by Abi Zakarian and Replica by Titas Halder.
Now in its 29th year, Connections 2024 draws 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. These are plays for a new 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.
This year the National Theatre will be working with over 250 youth companies from all over the UK. The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Touching on themes like trans-rights, the mental health crisis, colonial history, disability activism, and climate change, the collection provides topical, pressing subject matter for students to explore.
Previous playwrights have included Liz Lochhead, Mark Ravenhill, Anthony Neilson, David Mamet, Bryony Lavery, Lenny Henry, James Graham, and Cush Jumbo.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre producer Deborah Dickinson said:
“We are delighted to be welcoming four youth theatre companies to perform at the NT
Connections Festival at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this spring. It’s our second year of being
part of this amazing nationwide festival and we are thrilled to be championing the talent of
young people in Scotland by showcasing their work in our Studio theatre.
We are looking forward to the Theatre being full of youthful energy and enthusiasm and
seeing some great shows.”
Kirsten Adam, Head of Young People’s Programmes at the National Theatre, said,
“We are so excited to be working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre again for this coming year of
National Theatre Connections as they host performances from four of their talented local groups. NT Connections champions the talent of young people from across the UK and we cannot wait to see the imagination and creativity of young people nationwide develop through Connections this coming year.”
Dates: 12 and 13 April
Venue: Studio, Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Tickets: £5