Sheffield Theatres Will Take Part in National Theatre Connections Festival

Sheffield Theatres will be one of 26 regional theatres taking part in National Theatre Connections, a festival dedicated to showcasing the work of young performers, later this month.

National Theatre Connections is a festival of new work performed by young people that comes to Sheffield Theatres from Thursday 27 March - Wednesday 2 April. Each year the National Theatre asks 10 writers to create dynamic new plays to be performed by schools and youth theatres all over the country. This year's authors include Catherine Johnson, the award-winning writer of Mamma Mia!; Pauline McLynn, the celebrated actress known for her television role in Father Ted; and Luke Norris whose debut play, Goodbye to All That, premiered at the Royal Court in 2012.

For Connections 2014, 230 school and youth theatre companies, made up from 5,000 young people aged 13 - 19 from around the UK will take part in the Festival across the country. At Sheffield Theatres, local groups from Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, Longley Park Sixth Form College and Talbot Special School will take to the stage and this year, for the first time, Sheffield People's Theatre is one of the 12 participating companies. Sheffield People's Theatre has put together a young company of 13-18 year olds, covering both performance and stage management roles, to produce Hearts for the Studio Theatre, which will be performed on Thursday 27 March.

Hearts is a knockabout comedy about romance and the beautiful game. Written by Luke Norris, audiences are invited into a tale of football, friendship and conversations in the changing rooms, as Harry struggles to keep Sacred Heart FC together for one more year. But when the boys are more interested in 'scoring' than winning, and the girls are playing games of their own, what chance have they got?

National Theatre Connections comes to the Studio Theatre from Thursday 27 March - Wednesday 2 April. Tickets are on sale at £5.00 and can be purchased by calling the Box Office on 0114 249 6000 or online at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk (a transaction fee of £1.50 (£1.00 online) applies to all bookings made at the Box Office, excluding cash).

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