THE National Theatre’s Connections Festival celebrates its 21st birthday in 2016 and once again Farnham Maltings is joining the 500 youth theatres and schools in staging 12 specially commissioned plays across the country.

For their 21st birthday, NT Connections will revive 12 of the most popular plays from the festival’s history. The opportunities are not limited to the stage, the groups will be responsible for the whole theatre-making experience.

They will create marketing campaigns, design sets and costumes, operate lighting and sound boards and stage-manage their performances.

This will be the second time the Farnham Maltings’ youth theatre group, The Young Company, will take part in NT Connections. Their first production was ‘Remote’, a play by Olivier award-winning writer Stef Smith. The group led by professional theatre practitioner, Rebecca Lewis, performed the play in the Great Hall at Farnham Maltings in February before transferring to The Capitol in Horsham in May.

The Young Company are looking for young people aged 14 to 20 with a passion for theatre and performance, to join the group and help them to win the title of ‘Best Regional Company’, and to perform on the stage at the National Theatre in London. No previous acting experience is required to join as the company will be taught by a range of theatre professionals throughout rehearsals.

Auditions will be held on Monday, October 12, from 6.30pm to 9pm and rehearsals will take place during the October and February half terms and at three Sunday sessions. The performance will take place during the Easter holidays.

For more information about the project and a full rehearsal schedule contact Vikki Jones by sending an email to vikki.jones@farnham

maltings.com or call 01252 74544.