Students Compete for National Theatre Dream

Performing Arts students at Walsall College have made it through to the final of a national competition to win the opportunity to perform in a play at the National Theatre in London. The National Theatre are commissioning ten exciting new plays and are currently selecting the talented youth groups across the UK who will perform them.

The competition has received entrants from over 500 institutions and has involved learning and performing the play, ‘Gap’ by Alia Bano. In order to be considered, students had to perform for the judges at their own college, create a filmed version of the play and then give an additional performance at the Warwick Arts Centre. The students have now made it to the final 10 of the competition, and will go on to perform in the national final in June.

The National Theatre is central to the creative life of the country. In its three theatres on the South Bank in London it presents an eclectic mix of new plays and classics from the world repertoire, with seven or eight productions in repertory at any one time. It has wide-ranging programmes of public engagement and participation, tours in the UK and internationally, and broadcasts seasons of its productions and others’ work into cinemas across the world.

Performing Arts Lecturer at Walsall College, Kerry Downing said: “Our students have given their own time to part of this excellent opportunity and it has been a pleasure working with them in a professional environment. They have given passionate and high quality performances that have been well received by the audience and judges. Staff are very proud of all the students involved!”

Performing Arts student Gemma Oliver said: “We gave the performances everything we had and are all very excited to have made it through to the final. We would all love the chance to work with the industry professionals and perform in one of the country’s leading theatres”.