Last week The New Theatre found out that two of this term’s plays have been selected by the NSDF. The plays, Talking to Terrorists and Cast Aside, will run for a week at the Festival in Scarborough. The NSDF selectors see well over a hundred plays during the course of each year, and only ten have been chosen for the Festival. The fact that two of these ten plays are from The New Theatre is a fantastic achievement.
The plays will be subjected to intense critical scrutiny, and both will be reviewed by The Sunday Times. The New Theatre did not produce the plays, but is proudly sponsoring them both as pretty much every one involved with each production is a member of New Theatre.
Cast Aside was written by the current New Theatre President, Charlie Brafman, and was originally done for The Edinburgh Fringe by his Company, Ankle Productions. It enjoyed a sell-out run and received rave reviews from the Edinburgh press. The NSDF selectors saw the play at its revival early this term in Nottingham.
Talking to Terrorists is a joint production by People at Play and ttproductions.com. Cast from New Theatre members, it went up during the hectic exam season while The New Theatre was hibernating. Although Talking to Terrorists was not a New Theatre production, the Producers are currently considering New Theatre affilliation.
The NSDF Ensemble is a collection of actors and directors who are hand picked from the shows the NSDF selectors see over the year. People invited to join the Ensemble are shown around the Festival by their judge, introduced to people, and mentored for the duration of the Festival. Many people from the two casts and crews have been “Ensembled”, and on top of this, Ben Ford, director of the recent New Theatre production of 4.48 Psychosis, has also been invited.
The New Theatre is thrilled to bits by this whole affair, and wishes everyone the very best of luck at the Festival.
