Stockton Riverside College Acting students will get their first taste of life on the road today (Wednesday 29th April) as they take their latest performance to a stage in Scarborough.

The Level 3 Performing Arts Acting students will perform The Edelweiss Pirates to a new audience at the Stephen Joseph Theatre as part of the National Theatre’s annual Connections festival.

Course leader, Sonya Curle, said: “This is an amazing opportunity for our students to work in a professional environment, as part of an internationally renowned project.”

The National Theatre’s Connections programme is one of the world’s biggest youth theatre festivals. Its aim is to give young people aged 13 to 19 the experience of professional theatre-making, helping to cultivate new talent.

Every year 10 new plays are written to be performed by young people. This year 230 theatre companies from across the UK and Ireland are taking part.

The Edelweiss Pirates, written by East Is East writer, Ayub Khan Din, is one of the plays scripted for this year’s event. Set during World War II in Cologne, Germany, it is based around a group of disenchanted youths who came together to oppose Nazi rule.

Course leader Sonya said: “We chose this play because we thought it would be a bit more challenging for the students.”

She said the students have really embraced the show, many carrying out their own research to help get an understanding of what life would have been like at the time.

The Stockton Riverside College cast will now take the play to Scarborough, following a successful run at the College’s Margaret Armstrong Theatre, with the chance of going on to be one of just a handful of shows chosen to perform at the National Theatre in London.

Performing Arts Acting student, Leo Kilburn, 17, of Norton, said: “This will be my first experience of performing at a theatre outside of the college. I’m looking forward to being in front of a new audience and seeing how they react.”

Reece Durham, 17, of Sunderland, added: “It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience so far. Now I’m looking forward to performing in Scarborough.”