The National Theatre School Drama Festival

"146 Point Flame" by Matt Thompson is based on the historic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. Through words, movement and music, four young women share their dreams, thoughts, fears and feelings about their ultimate destinies. An Italian immigrant, Vincenza, shares her last night on Earth with romance, smiles and dancing. Tessa celebrates her life with a story about her brother and mother. Sisters Lena and Yetta meditate on the strength and endurance of moving from Russia to America and the parallels of moving from life to the afterlife. This piece illuminates the definition of human courage.

This play is very special to us as it showcases sapphic love without making the entire story about gay issues. Most plays, media and productions tend to make gay love stories only focus on being gay, and don’t focus on the stories that the characters tell. In Our Moment In Time, our characters Dawn and Atlas explore the grieving process and the emotions that come with it while navigating the ins and outs of teenage love. If our main couple in this show were to be heterosexual, the story would stay the same– and this is exactly what we wanted to convey.

Overdose is about Grover, a drug addict, and his last 35 minutes alive. He is a low level drug dealer and has a friend crashing in his apartment. His girlfriend, a mule who brings him a shipment of drugs, also drops in. She wants Grover to stay straight. He wants to get these people out so he can use. Along the way we learn that Grover, despite his addiction, has a rich inner life.

A show about 7 teens forced to do a presentation about why their high school is the best. Their struggle to come up with an answer teaches them an important lesson about high school and themselves. 

Two music students from different worlds are pitted against each other in a competition that has the power to make or break their futures. But in the midst of their rivalry, they start to grow closer and find a way to help each other learn and grow both as people and as musicians, even finding love along the way.

Camille a un secret. Un secret qui risque de rompre des amitiés et de changer des vies. Elle fait tout son possible pour garder ce secret caché dans la noirceur. Mais quand un message anonyme menace de dévoiler ce secret devant toute l’école, Camille ne sait plus quoi faire. Que faire quand nos secrets deviennent plus grands que nous ?

From the Wreckage is a rock concert/theatre hybrid that fuses storytelling with the revolutionary soul force that is rock n’roll. A young musician guides us through the creation of her first EP and the moments that inspired the hymns, unraveling folk daydreams, unclassic love songs and teen-angst anthems.  

Alice is on a desperate search for the courage to be original. In the wake of family relationships littered with shattered expectations,  she falls for new girl Noa and must weigh the possibility of hurt with the hope of connecting with love, self discovery and the future of rock n’roll. 

The music in this show, like all true rock music, is fueled by misconceptions, oppression, pushing back,  and stepping out of convention and expectations.  We don’t just want you to see this show - we want you to feel it and give you a reason to jump out of your seats and “Break Free!”

Throughout our final year of high school, we have embarked on the (up and down) journey of writing devised theatre. In our research, we delved into our unique backgrounds of culture, family, personal experiences, and interests. “The Last Roll” is an amalgamation of the truest parts from our messy creative process. Something that resonated with many of us were the connections between water and mythologies from our heritage. Coinciding with our research surrounding mythology, many of us had an obsession with the fantasy roleplay game “Dungeons & Dragons”. After playing a game of DND as a class, we found a medium of expression that oddly struck a chord within us. Admittedly, in the beginning our greatest struggle was with creating honest dialogues for the characters. But as we drew from our own letters, diaries, and photographs, our devised process was brought to life with our own intimate struggles. Using DND as a fantastical escape from everyday life, many of the predominant themes the characters face are an exploration of our past love and quarrels in relationships, while looking to new beginnings. Piece by piece, we were most excited seeing the fruition of our collaborative piece. Imaginative adventures with monsters and wizards that are reminiscent of our childhood, juxtaposing reflective conversations resonating with our lived teenage experiences. From the costumes to the banter, we are proud to present a production made authentically by us; as an ensemble, as a family.

What would you do if you were one of 10 people to wake up in a room, forced to play a life or death game of Musical Chairs? Would you cheat, intimidate, do whatever it takes to survive?  Would you show kindness and compassion? Or would you simply refuse to play?  The show Chairs will give you a thriller experience with some nice light-hearted moments of levity. This show is not for the faint of heart. We dare you to come and play.