Producers' Choice: Six Plays for Young Performers - Promise; Oedipus;Antigone; Tory Boyz; Butterfly Club; Alice s

Producers'' Choice: Six Plays for Young Performers showcases some of the best plays for young people produced by the UK''s leading theatre companies. The plays are ideal for young performers aged 13-25 and offer a diverse range of challenges, styles and subjects. The volume will prove essential for teachers and students of Drama and for youth drama groups. The plays include modern reworkings of classics, such as Simon Reade''s witty and brilliantly inventive adaptation of Lewis Carroll''s much-loved fantasy, and DJ Britton''s version of Sophocles'' Theban plays, the tragic Oedipus/Antigone . Contemporary teenage issues are dealt with in Megan Barker''s beautiful and uplifting Promise and Sarah May''s The Butterfly Club . Simon Stephens'' hit-play Punk Rock set in a grammar school explores dislocation and aggression among sixth form pupils; James Graham''s Tory Boyz is a fast-paced, political comedy about prejudice and ambition in Westminster.Each play features production notes and the volume is introduced by Paul Roseby, Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre. For schools, youth theatre groups and drama colleges this anthology of thematically and stylistically diverse plays will prove an invaluable resource.>

About the author

Paul Roseby is the Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.Megan Barker's writing has been performed since 2000. As well as Promise/Adewidd (Sherman Cymru, 2008), her most recent work includes The Gingerbread House (The Courtyard, Hereford, 2009); Anaphylactic (Soho Theatre, London, 2009); Monaciello (Tron Theatre Company at Naples International Theatre Festival, 2009); Cria and Tongue Lie Tight/The Bad Drive Well (The Arches, Glasgow, 2008); and Pit (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2007). She often writes pieces to be performed in non-theatre spaces (such as a cloakroom, a public-toilet cubicle, an underground labyrinth, a farmyard or a multi-storey car park) and regularly designs her own work.D.J. Britton is an award-winning dramatist, director and dramaturg. He was formerly National Executive Producer heading the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio drama department, and is now the Drama specialist on the Creative Writing Programme in the English Department at Swansea University. Since the success of his first Australian stage play, Landlovers, in 1987, David Britton has written many dramatic works for theatre, radio and the visual media. Australian stage credits include Cargo (Swan Gold Award, Play of the Year) and his co-adaptation of Elizabeth Jolley's The Newspaper of Claremont Street. His epic theatre work Plainsong was a major hit at the Millennium Perth International Festival of the Arts, winning the 2001 Equity Award for Production of the YearJames Graham is a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter.

His play This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre’s Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010’s by Methuen Drama.

James created theatre history when his two plays Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for Labour of Love and Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations.

James’ play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film, Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.Sarah May has collaborated extensively with The Mayhem Company, which has been devising and staging boundary breaking productions since 2001 and whose core members are young non-professional actors living and working in London. Previous work for the theatre includes urban fairytale Hamelyn Heights (Young Vic Studio); 100° Fahrenheit (Southwark Playhouse), a study of corruption in the black religious community; Deluxe (Southwark Playhouse) about a fatal shooting in a south London school; and See You Tomorrow (Southwark Playhouse), the company's response to a former member's decision to join the British Army and serve in Iraq. Real Life Sex Makes Baby (Royal Festival Hall, 2009) was written to mark SE1 United's hosting The Mayhem Company at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, and her latest collaboration with The Mayhem Company, Elephant 21, about the regeneration of London's Elephant and Castle, was performed in July 2010 at Unit 215, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. You can find out more about Sarah's work with The Mayhem Company at www.themayhemcompany.net. Sarah has also written the following works of fiction: The Nudist Colony (1999), Spanish City (2002); The Internationals (2003) and the Rise and Fall trilogy: The Queen of Suburbia (2006), A Domestic Diva (2008) and The Wonder Girls (2009). Her play The Butterfly Club was published by Methuen Drama in Producer's Choice: Six Plays for Young Performers in 2010.Simon Reade is a dramatist, director and producer. He has been Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic and Literary Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company and at London's Gate Theatre.Simon Stephens began his theatrical career in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre, where he ran its Young Writers' Programme. His plays for theatre include Bluebird (Royal Court Theatre) Herons (Royal Court Theatre, 2001); Port (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 2002); One Minute (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2003 and Bush Theatre, London, 2004); Christmas (Bush Theatre, 2004); Country Music (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2004); On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange Theatre and National Theatre, London, 2005); Motortown (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2006); Pornography (Tricycle Theatre, London, 2009); Harper Regan (National Theatre, 2008); Sea Wall (Bush Theatre, 2009); Heaven (Traverse Theatre, 2009); Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2009); The Trial of Ubu (Essen Schauspielhaus/Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2010); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Robert Holman; Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2010); Wastwater (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2011); Morning (Lyric Hammersmith, 2012); an adaptation of A Doll's House (Young Vic, 2012); an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre, 2012); Blindsided (Royal Exchange, 2014); and Birdland (Royal Court, 2014). His radio plays include Five Letters Home to Elizabeth (BBC Radio 4, 2001) and Digging (BBC Radio 4, 2003). Awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005; and for Motortown German critics in Theater Heute's annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007. His adaptation of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.

Summary

An essential collection of some of the best plays for young performers, all selected and produced by the UK's leading theatre companies working with young people. For youth theatre groups, schools and festival productions this diverse selection will be invaluable.

Product details

• Authors: Megan Barker, D J Britton, D. J. Britton, D. J. Graham Britton, Dj Britton, Graham, James Graham, Sarah May, Simon Reade, Paul Roseby, Simon Stephens
• Assisted by: N/A (Editor), Paul Roseby (Editor)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.10.2010
• EAN: 9781408128855
• ISBN: 978-1-4081-2885-5
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 26 mm
• Series: Play Anthologies; Methuen Drama Modern Plays; Play Anthologies; Methuen Drama Modern Plays
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Plays / Drama, DRAMA / Anthologies (multiple authors)