News

Monday 7 July 2008

Students design set for National Theatre play

Theatre design students at Nottingham Trent University designed the set for a breathtaking production selected by the National Theatre (NT) to be performed as part of a season of new short plays. Students worked alongside regional drama company, The Television Workshop, who performed Nicholas Wright’s He’s Talking as part of the NT’s New Connections youth theatre programme.

As well as being responsible for its design, the students built part of the set and were in charge of lighting and costume for the production, which was performed at the Cottesloe Theatre at the National in London on Friday.

For New Connections, the NT commissions a portfolio of 60 minute scripts from some of the hottest playwrights around. The New Connections programme was launched by the NT in response to widespread demand for challenging new plays for young people to perform. It is supported by Bank of America.

Nicholas Wright’s play – a fact-based fiction about an anti-racist bombing group in apartheid South Africa – was performed by The Television Workshop, which develops and trains young actors through regional drama workshops in Nottingham, Birmingham and Leeds.

It is the second time theatre design students from Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art and Design have been able to showcase their work as part of New Connections, having worked with The Television Workshop for their performance of The Spider Men in 2006.

Senior Lecturer in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University, Nettie Scriven, said: “The students produced an elegant and sculptural design whereby a circular structure using vertical bars represented the notion of containment. The opportunity to collaborate with young actors and then to tour to the National was an extremely valuable learning experience.”

ENDS

Notes for editors:

For more on The Television Workshop visit http://www.thetelevisionworkshop.co.uk/
For more on New Connections visit http://www.ntconnections.org.uk/?lid=1
For more on He’s Talking visit http://www.ntconnections.org.uk/?lid=3890

Press enquiries please contact Dave Rogers, Senior Press Officer, on telephone: +44 (0)115 848 8782, or via email dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: 0115 848 8774, or via email therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk.