National Youth Theatre to Present IF CHLOE CAN & YOU CAN

The National Youth Theatre has announced that they will present one-off, free productions of You Can and If Chloe Can for school groups. The productions will be performed on 10 November and 17 November respectively at the Ambassadors Theatre, where the West End REP season is currently showing. The production marks another strand of the National Youth Theatre's work to improve education and opportunity in the arts and their commitment to nurturing young and diverse talent. To further enrich the educational experience for schools attending the REP season the NYT have also released curriculum-linked education resource packs for teachers to accompany the shows.

If Chloe Can was conceived by Esther McVey MP, Minister of State for Employment, who interviewed some of the world's most successful women, many of whom have got to the top in the face of huge adversity. She published their life stories in a magazine to inspire young girls to achieve their potential. After the huge success of the project McVey launched You Can, a male version of the magazine. McVey and the NYT saw a synergy between the aims of the If Chloe Can magazine and NYT's mission to support young people's talent and propel them to success and the NYT commissioned award winning-writer, star of Game of Thrones and NYT alumnus Luke Barnes to write a play in response. You Can premiered at a reception at Speaker's House in the House of Commons hosted by the Speaker the Rt Hon John Bercow MP in spring 2013.

The urgent adaptation of McVey's original magazine, If Chloe Can, about alternative career choices is written by NYT graduate and emerging playwright, 23 year old Karla Crome, of E4's BAFTA winning Misfits. In November 2011, the play premiered at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue to an audience of 1000 inner-city school girls aged 14-16. The production fosters active debate through a live voting system encouraging the young audience to consider what choices the characters make throughout the piece. Students said the production inspired them to think about their own choices and the event has now inspired over 10,000 young females in the UK.

The productions will involve a 30 minute performance led by NYT members. An interactive Q&A will also take place, with panellists for If Chloe Can set to include Margaret Mountford (The Apprentice), Gaby Hinsliff (Guardian Columnist, Grazia Political Editor), Debbie Moore (founder of Pineapple Dance Studios & the first women to float a PLC in Britain) Carol Bagnald (Regional Commercial Director, London at HSBC), Jo Salter (Britain's first female fast jet pilot) Lucinda (Hair Extension expert). Nick Knowles (DIY SOS) will be joining the panel for You Can, with the rest of the speakers still to be confirmed.

Ester McVey said: "Study after study shows that seeing, hearing and meeting real life 'role models' is a great way of inspiring others to achieve their goals. That's why this initiative is so important and why so many people have given their time to support it. Huge thanks to NYT for bringing my work to life in such an engaging way."

The NYT REP season, currently at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End is now in its second year. The season, comprising of three shows, instills companys of the NYT's very best actors into West End theatres, giving members a chance to train by performing in front of paying audiences. Each year two of the shows in the season are chosen from the school curriculum and for the 2013 season over 6,500 school pupils were able to see the classic texts they were working on actualised.

This year the NYT have created comprehensive teaching resources for their stunning stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful and for their new take on Shakespeare's Macbeth, set within an unstable Europe in the lead up to the First World War. Designed for Key Stage 2 and 3 teaching, the education programme for Private Peaceful consists of curriculum-linked resource packs, with lesson plans and pupil worksheets to support the new curriculum for Literacy, the non-statutory framework for PSHE as well as linking to History, Citizenship and Geography. The resources for Macbeth have been developed specially to support delivery of the text to upper Key Stage 3 students as well as Key Stage 4 in Literature and Drama as well as History and Art and Design.

The National Youth Theatre is grateful to all the individuals and organisations who support our important work, especially our principal supporters Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and The John Ellerman Foundation.

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