National Theatre Connections Monologues

To think that 20 years of this type of theatre work could potentially become available to young people everywhere in the form of an anthology of handpicked NT Connections monologues - with background text analysis and character direction notes - only further fuelled my fervour as a theatre director who advocates strongly the innate power of the youth actor at play. This is a book that has to published - if for no other reason than the subject alone is worth it. NT Connections an anthology – a gathering of creative like minds. – Mhairi Gilbert – Artistic Director of PACEThis anthology is an excellent idea. Using monologues from the plays that have been commissioned for NT Connections would provide young people with a wide and varied choice of speeches best suited to their age group. Many young people audition for Scottish Youth Theatre’s summer courses. They tend to select speeches from classic plays that have been suggested to them by adults who they trust. The speeches are usually about subjects and from periods that are alien to them. When using the selected monologues, the young people will relate to the character and will recognize the character’s voice – this should give them a greater sense of ownership of the speech. For this reason alone I feel that this anthology would be of great value to them. – Mary McCluskey, Artistic Director of Scottish Youth Theatre

Anthony Banks is Associate Director for the National Theatre Discover Programme, where he commissions scripts for the Connections seasons, the Primary Theatre programme and Shakespeare Schools Festival, and curates a variety of projects and events for lifelong learning. He is also a professional director, and leads workshops on directing new plays and contributes to books and journals about theatre.