TALENTED youngsters will be treading the boards when they take part in a national initiative at York Theatre Royal.

The theatre is set to stage the annual Playhouse Festival, which will give the opportunity for local primary school children to perform new plays written by some of the country’s leading playwrights.

From tomorrow until Thursday, more than 150 children from five of York’s primary schools and one secondary school will perform the plays in front of an audience of classmates, guests, families and friends.

Juliet Forster, associate director at York Theatre Royal, said: “The Playhouse project was created in response to a lack of plays for primary school age children.

“It is a fantastic experience for all involved and a unique, exciting opportunity for young people to perform the premieres of plays written by some of the country’s top playwrights.”

The Playhouse Festival is a national collaboration between Plymouth Theatre Royal, Polka Theatre, Dundee Repertory Theatre and York Theatre Royal. The four theatres work together every year to commission professional playwrights to write short plays, lasting about 20 minutes, specifically for large casts of young people aged eight to 11 to perform.

This year the writers will include Adrian Mitchell, Neil Duffield, Alex Bulmer, Deborah Gearing, Simon Turley and Mike Kenny.

The schools taking part are Park Grove Primary, Knavesmire Primary, Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School, St Barnabas, Yearsley Grove and Joseph Rowntree Secondary School.

Each of the theatres works with six schools in their city.

In March, representatives from York Theatre Royal and the six schools attended a writers’ and directors’ retreat in Cornwall, where they worked closely with all the writers. At the retreat, teachers were presented with the scripts for the first time and after an intensive workshop, they were asked to choose one to work on with their school.

One very lucky group of children at Park Grove Primary School also had an opportunity to meet Neil Duffield, the writer of their play, Small Fry, who came to the school in June to talk about the background and inspiration for the piece.

The children were able to ask questions about the play to help them with rehearsals.


The schedule.

TODAY
6pm: The Forest, by Deborah Gearing, performed by St Barnabas School, directed by Victoria Pendry.

7pm: Maudie And The Green Children, by Adrian Mitchell, performed by Knavesmire school, directed by Maria Riley.

TOMORROW
6pm: Small Fry, by Neil Duffield, performed by Park Grove School, directed by Jill Campbell.

7pm: Zed’s Run, by Simon Turley, performed by Yearsley Grove School, directed by Clare Mason.

THURSDAY
6pm: Who’s Afraid Of The Bogeyman, by Mike Kenny, performed by Joseph Rowntree School, directed by Year 12 students.

7pm: Maddy And The Invisible Band Of Groovers, by Alex Bulmer, directed by Jenny Minnitt and Lucy Carrington.