Acting students at Stockton Riverside College are being given the opportunity to experience working life as part of a touring theatre.
The young performers have been selected to take part in the National Theatre’s Connections Festival, a national project that will see them first perform at the college theatre, before taking the show to the York Theatre Royal.
“This is such a fantastic opportunity for our students to perform on a professional stage,” said Kelly Fairhurst, the college’s course leader for acting for stage and screen.
Plus, she said: “To experience transferring a production to a different space is a massive challenge in itself.”
Each year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, with 300 youth theatre companies and more than 6,000 young people taking part. The initiative brings together some of the UK’s up and coming writers and theatre-makers.
With the chance for 10 groups to ultimately go on to be selected to perform at the National Theatre in London’s West End, course leader Kelly said: “For our young people, and us it is an amazing chance to make connections with industry and to work directly with the writers.
“It is not often, as an actor, that you get to communicate with the writer of the play and get to hear their thoughts, that is a gift.”
Part of Stockton Riverside College’s Academy of Performing and Technical Arts, the acting students will perform ‘Remote’ by Stef Smith. Described as a play about protest, power and protecting yourself, it sees the main character witness, from her standpoint at the top of a park’s tallest tree, the lives of seven teenagers intertwine over the course of one evening.
Taking the lead role, Magen, 18, said: “It is a brilliant challenge for us as aspiring actors. The opportunity to take part in a project like this can really help with our future careers. I’m really enjoying it.”
The acting students’ performances of Remote will take place:
Stockton Riverside College’s Margaret Armstrong Theatre - Wednesday March 9, 7pm, tickets £6, www.ticketsource.co.uk/SRC
York Theatre Royal - Thursday April 7, 8pm, tickets £5, www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
