Award winning youth theatre to perform brand new play as part of National Theatre Connections!



A sneak peek of the set

Stafford Gatehouse Youth Theatre will be performing at The MET Studio from Wednesday 27^th February to Saturday 2^nd March as part of National Theatre Connections, a nationwide celebration of new plays for young people.

Connections is produced by the National Theatre and supported by a number of individuals, trusts and foundations.

Each year new plays are commissioned for and about young people from some of the best contemporary playwrights, for performance by schools and youth theatres all over the UK and Ireland, making Connections one of the world’s largest celebrations of youth theatre.

SGYT will be performing Don’t Feed The Animals by Jemma Kennedy.

Richard Poynton, director of the show commented: “I shortlisted five of the ten plays written for the National Theatre Connections, then the group read all five and voted on which they would rather perform. Not only has this play never been performed before, it’s the first time this group have worked together”.

Don’t Feed The Animals is an energetic show about Sparks Circus, which is on its way down. The owners have been forced to sell their star attraction Tiny the elephant and a rival circus is poaching their artistes. With a busy bank holiday weekend approaching, it’s down to acrobatic twins Zack and Missy to fill the house and stop their family business going under. When a local gang of bored youths volunteer to help them, the twins are faced with the task of training an un-trainable mob in circus skills.

Richard added: “as it’s a new play, the actors are creating these roles for themselves, rather than looking to what other people have done in the past. In the play, a group of youths are challenged to put on a circus performance in the space of 24 hours, and it's been quite a challenge for us to be able to put that piece together, as it's a performance within a performance.  However, Circus is really about challenging the status quo, turning things on their head and unsettling authority and Don't Feed The Animals is really about how this group of demonised youths choose to express themselves and undermine authority within the circus genre”

Don’t Feed The Animals will be at The MET Studio from Wednesday 27^th February to Saturday 2^nd March at 7.30pm. Richard concluded: “People should book as it's the chance to see a great new play performed with energy, enthusiasm and a bit of circus pizazz thrown in for good measure!”

Tickets are just £7 (£6 concession) and can be reserved by calling the friendly Box Office on 01785 254653 or by visiting www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk




Some of the SGYT cast in rehearsal