Sirius Students Shine at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
“Ladies and gentlemen the performance is about to begin, could I ask you all to please turn ON your mobile phones…”
Following their sell-out home performances, 24 students from Sirius took their production of ‘Mobile Phone Show’ ‘on tour’ to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough as part of the National Theatre’s Connections Festival.
‘Mobile Phone Show’ is an vibrant new play by acclaimed playwright Jim Cartwright (most famous for ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’) commissioned by the National Theatre for Connections, the NTs annual youth theatre festival. Connections commissions ten established playwrights to write ten brand-new plays for 13 to 18 year old to perform both ‘at home’ and at a professional partner theatre.
As well as staging their own production, the Company of student performers and back-stage crew also saw three different Connections plays by other youth companies from Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. Alex Douglas in Year 11 said “it was great to meet other young people performing in the Connections Festival because we were able to give each other feedback and a lot of support and encouragement.”
Nichola Allen from Year 12 added, “one of my favourite parts of the festival was taking part in a workshop with Slung Low Theatre Company from Leeds. We did lots of fun games and exercises to help us develop our acting technique and work together as an ensemble company.”
Harry Knight from Year 8 summed up the experience for the students by saying, “we were all so excited to be performing in a professional theatre, everyone at the Stephen Joseph was really helpful and made us feel like professional actors. The best part was the audience’s reaction to our show, everyone was clapping and cheering at the end which made all of our hard work worthwhile”
The company must now wait to find out if they are one of the ten Connections productions chosen to perform at the National Theatre in London in the summer.
For more information about National Theatre Connections visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/connections.