The human race is under threat. The public has no idea. But alien ships are already attacking. And aliens are already here. 1.1 Destruct Positive! Ed Straker is a test pilot in the US Air Force. Then, one day, his aircraft is attacked by a UFO. His life will never be the same again… 1.2 Things We Lost in the Darkness. SHADO training is underway. But an exercise turns into the real thing as the aliens bring terror to the quiet of the sleepy, English countryside. 1.3 Full Fathom Five. Skydiver is SHADO’s new, formidable frontline defence against alien attack. Stepping aboard, Ed Straker is on a mission to find out if the right people are in charge. Because when things go badly wrong, they are the ones whose lives are on the line. Based on the original TV series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Cast: Barnaby Kay (Commander Ed Straker), Jeany Spark (Lieutenant-Colonel Virginia Lake), Samuel Clemens (Colonel Alec Freeman), Victor Alli (Lieutenant Commander Lew Waterman), Nicholas Briggs (Doctor Schroeder), Charlotte Harris (Mary Straker), Jasmin Hinds (Beth), Lynsey Murrell (Lieutenant Gay Ellis), Yasmin Mwanza (Captain Petra Carlin), Harry Myers (General James Henderson), George Naylor (Johnnie Straker/Lieutenant Bentley), Sam Stafford (Karl), Phillipe Bosher (Adjutant/Redneck).Other parts played by members of the cast.

National Theatre Connections is an annual festival which brings new plays for young people to schools and youth theatres across the UK and Ireland. Commissioning exciting work from leading playwrights, the festival exposes actors aged 13-19 to the world of professional theatre-making, giving them full control of a theatrical production - from costume and set design to stage management and marketing campaigns. NT Connections have published over 150 original plays and regularly works with 500 theatre companies and 10,000 young people each year. This anthology brings together 9 new plays by some of the UK's most prolific and current writers and artists alongside notes on each of the texts exploring performance for schools and youth groups. Wind / Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola Adebayo This is a play about the British Isles, its past and its present. Set in a senior common room, in a prominent university, a group of 1st year undergraduates are troubled, not by the weight of their workload, but by a 'noisy' ghost. So they do what any group self-respecting and intelligent university students would do in such a situation - they get out the Ouija Board to confront their spiritual irritant and lay them to rest - only to be confronted by the full weight of Britain's colonial past - in all its gory glory. Fusing naturalism, with physical theatre, spoken-word, absurdism, poetry and direct address - this is event-theatre that whips along with the grace, pace and hypnotic magnetism of a hurricane. Tuesday by Alison Carr Tuesday is light, playful and nuanced in tone. And a little bit sci-fi. The play centres on an ordinary Tuesday that suddenly turns very weird indeed when a tear rips across the sky over the school yard. The play touches on themes of friendship, sibling love, family, identity, grief, bullying, loneliness and responsibility. And in the process we might just learn something about ourselves as well as some astronomical theories of the multiverse! A series of public apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories) by John Donnelly This satirical play is heightened in its naturalism, in its seriousness, in its parody and piercing in its interrogation of how our attempts to define ourselves in public are shaped by the fear of saying the wrong thing. Presented quite literally as a series of public apologies this play is spacious, flexible and welcoming of inventive and imaginative interpretation as each iteration spirals inevitably to its absurdist core. This is a play on words, on convention, on manners, on institutions, on order, online and on point. THE IT by Vivienne Franzmann THE IT is a play about a teenage girl who has something growing inside her. She doesn't know what it is, but she knows it's not a baby. It expands in her body. It starts in her stomach, but quickly outgrows that, until eventually ittakes over the entirety of her insides. It has claws. She feels them. Presented in the style of a direct to camera documentary, this is a darkly comic state of the nation play exploring adolescent mental health and the rage within, written very specifically for today. The Marxist in Heaven by Hattie Naylor The Marxist in Heaven is a play that does exactly what its title page says it's going to do. The eponymous protagonist 'wakes up' in paradise and once they get over the shock of this fundamental contradiction of everything they believe in.....they get straight back to work....and continue their lifelong struggle for equality and fairness for all....even in death. Funny, playful, provocative, pertinent and jam-packed with discourse, disputes, deities and disco dancing by the bucketful, this upbeat buoyant allegory shines its holy light on globalization and asks the salient questions - who are we and what are we doing to ourselves?.....and what conditioner do you use on your hair? Look Up by Andrew Muir Look Up plunges us into a world free from adult intervention, supervision and protection. It's about seeking the truth for yourself and finding the space to find and be yourself. Nine young people are creating new rules for what they hope will be a new and brighter future full of hope in a world in which they can trust again. Each one of them is unique, original and defiantly individual, break into an abandoned building and set about claiming the space, because that is what they do. They have rituals, they have rules, together they are a tribe, they have faith in themselves....and nothing and no one else. They are the future, unless the real world catches up with them and then all they can hope for is that they don't crash and burn like the adults they ran away from in the first place. Crusaders by Frances Poet A group of teens gather to take their French exam but none of them will step into the exam hall. Because Kyle has had a vision and he'll use anything, even miracles, to ensure his classmates accompany him. Together they have just seven days to save themselves, save the world and be the future. And Kyle is not the only one who has had the dream. All across the globe, from Azerbaijan to Zambia, children are dreaming and urging their peers to follow them to the promised land. Who will follow? Who will lead? Who will make it? Witches Can't Be Burned by Silva Semerciyan St. Paul's have won the schools Playfest competition, three years in a row, by selecting recognised classics from the canon and producing them at an exceptionally high level, it's a tried and trusted formula. With straight A's student and drama freak, Anuka cast as Abigail Williams in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the school seem to be well on course for another triumph, which would be a record. However, as rehearsals gain momentum, Anuka has an epiphany. An experience resulting in her asking searching questions surrounding the text, the depiction and perception of female characters, the meaning of loyalty, and the values and traditions underpinning the very foundations of the school. Thus, the scene is set for a confrontation of epic proportions as Anuka seeks to break with tradition, before tradition breaks her and all young women like her and reality begins to take on the ominous hue of Miller's fictionalized Salem. Dungeness by Chris Thompson . In a remote part of the UK, where nothing ever happens, a group of teenagers share a safe house for LGBT+ young people. While their shared home welcomes difference, it can be tricky for self-appointed group leader Birdie to keep the peace. The group must decide how they want to commemorate an attack that happened to LGBT+ people, in a country far away. How do you take to the streets and protest if you're not ready to tell the world who you are? If you're invisible, does your voice still count? A play about love, commemoration and protest.

New recruits. New technology. New threats. SHADO is nearly fully operational, but the alien menace is intensifying at a greater rate than the fledgling organisation can cope with. Under ever-increasing pressures, Straker is repeatedly put to the test. Facing unimaginable weaponry, warring factions, and near-insurmountable personal strain - can the man leading the fight to defend Earth survive? Contains three new stories; 2.1 Lost in Action. An unexpected confrontation at 30,000 feet leads to a civilian casualty. With no other options, Straker must recruit this stubborn but brave pilot to join SHADO. Meanwhile, Straker’s team orders the early activation of Moonbase - without his consent. It’s just in time. Now, the nascent organisation is being put to the ultimate test, and SHADO’s latest recruit will have put his life on the line. 2.2 Assassination Time. In the wake of loss, SHADO’s problems are brought into sharp focus by a series of unexpected and inexplicable events. A new threat from the aliens emerges - one that the organisation is illequipped to deal with. With few options left, Straker must follow his instincts and put SHADO’s survival in the hands of a traitor. 2.3 Breaking Point. SHADO faces a severe security breach, swiftly followed by the most intense and highlycoordinated alien threat it has ever seen. Straker now faces unimaginable pressures from every angle. The strain on him, and his organisation, reach impossible levels. Mistakes will be made. Lives will be lost. Could this be the end? Based on the original tv series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. UFO © ITC Entertainment Group Limited 1970. Licensed by ITV Ventures Limited. All rights reserved. CAST: Barnaby Kay (Commander Ed Straker), Jeany Spark (Lieutenant-Colonel Virginia Lake), Hywel Morgan (Paul Foster), Samuel Clemens (Colonel Alec Freeman), Nicholas Briggs (Dave Jansen / Richard Craven / Dr Schroeder / Jeff Randolph), Wayne Forester (SID / Gallison / Melville Hopkins / Radley), Charlotte Harris (Mary Straker / Captain Georgia Maxwell / Miss Ealand), Lynsey Murrell (Lieutenant Gay Ellis), George Naylor (Johnnie Straker / Lieutenant Ford). Other parts played by members of the cast.

In a remote part of the UK, where nothing ever happens, a group of teenagers share a safe house for LGBT+ young people. While their shared home welcomes difference, it can be tricky for self-appointed group leader Birdie to keep the peace. The group must decide how they want to commemorate an attack that happened to people like them in a country far away. How do you take to the streets and protest if you're not ready to tell the world who you are? If you're invisible, does your voice still count? A play about love, commemoration and protest. Written fifty years on from the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England, this is a unique play for young people about the struggles and joys of being gay. Published alongside Stonewall Housing, a charity that works to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people live in safer homes, free from fear, where they can celebrate their identity and support each other to achieve their full potential. This new edition features a new Q&A with the author alongside teaching resources and information from Stonewall Housing.

Daniel and Oliver are about to have their first baby. With their best friend, Priya, acting as surrogate, they've turned the study into a nursery and the bottles are sterilised. All that's missing is the bundle of joy they've been pining for. But when Daniel's chaotic mother gatecrashes the baby shower with a few home truths, the cracks in Daniel and Oliver's relationship begin to show. Are they as ready for this as they think they are? And more importantly, is Priya?

'bless this country, God bless karaoke and God save the Queen.' It's karaoke night at The Albion, a proper East End boozer and the unofficial home of the English Protection Army. Paul runs the pub, girlfriend Christine rules the roost, and little brother Jayson hosts the karaoke. On the eve of a demonstration tensions are running high. The mosque want to build a community centre next door and the English Protection Army aren't happy. Paul is going to fight this tooth and nail, but he knows the public won't listen to a bunch of hooligans. Meanwhile, younger brother Jayson thinks this could be his time to shine. Family or not, this is England and it's time to take it back. Albion examines the turbulent rise of the new far right in modern day Britain. When they embrace diversity, just how far can the far right go?

"Felt" provides a nonlinear look at the engagement of the postwar avant-garde with Eastern spirituality, a context in which the German artist Joseph Beuys appears as an uneasy shaman. Centered on a highly publicized yet famously inconclusive 1982 meeting between Beuys and the Dalai Lama, arranged by the Dutch artist Louwrien Wijers, Chris Thompson explores the interconnections among Beuys, the Fluxus movement, and Eastern philosophy and spiritual practice.
Building from the resonance of felt, the fabric, in both Tibetan culture and in Beuys's art, Thompson takes as his point of departure Deleuze and Guattari's discussion in "A Thousand Plateaus" of felt as smooth space that is "in principle infinite, open, and unlimited in every direction," its structure determined by chance as opposed to the planned, woven nature of most fabrics. Felt is thus seen as an alternative to the model of the network: felt's anarchic form is not reducible to the regularity of the net, grid, or mesh, and the more it is pulled, tweaked, torn, and agitated, the greater its structural integrity.
"Felt" thus invents its methodology from the material that represents its object of inquiry and from this advances a reading of the avant-garde. At the same time, Thompson demonstrates that it is sometimes the failures of thought, the disappointing meetings, even the untimely deaths that open portals through which life flows into art and allows new conjunctions of life, art, and thought. Thompson explores both the well-known engagement of Fluxus artists with Eastern spirituality and the more elusive nature of Beuys's own late interest in Tibetan culture, arriving at a sense of how such noncausal interactions--interhuman intrigue--create culture and shape contemporary art history.

Tommy Anderson was born in a prison, and he died in one too. The last moments of his life are recorded on CCTV, and yet no one can answer the simple question: whose fault was it? His mother Anne blames Marcus, the guard who was supposed to be looking after him. Marcus, acquitted by the courts but tormented by his part in Tommy's death, wants the family's social worker to admit to the role she played. And social worker Sue can't work out when it was she stopped caring. Piecing together a boy's life and death in care, Carthage asks who should raise our children when the systems designed to protect them can be as abusive as the situations from which they were rescued.