This play can be performed with any number of characters, and with simple settings. Inspired by the true stories of a young offender from Glasgow, a 15 year old who had committed a violent crime, this short play was part of the National Theatre's "New Connections" programme which commissions plays about and for young people and was presented to critical acclaim at the Royal National Theatre. It's a hard-hitting play about 'getting bullied, fighting back, trying to make a name for yourself, turning vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again'. The play can be performed as a monologue or with any number of actors and the staging can be as simple or elaborate as desired.

Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays. Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department over the years, with the young performer in mind. In 2016, these plays were then performed by approximately 500 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional partner regional theatres at which the works were showcased. The anthology contains all 12 of the play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups. This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt; Simon Armitage; Jackie Kay; Patrick Marber; Mark Ravenhill; Bryony Lavery & Frantic Assembly; Davey Anderson; James Graham; Katori Hall; Carl Grose; Stacey Gregg; and Lucinda Coxon.

'Boredom is just what you feel when you haven't found your passion yet. Boredom is just the desire for desire.' Davey Anderson's The Static will be the second full scale production by ThickSkin and the first time the company has commissioned a playwright. The production will open at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe and will tour the UK throughout September, accompanied by an exciting programme of outreach and educational activities. The Static is a kinetic coming-of-age story about desire, guilt and mind over matter, and focuses on a socially isolated young man called Sparky who shows the physical power that thoughts and intention can muster. 'Next morning, I was in a jail cell. I didnae know how I got there. And I was like that - aw naw, what did I do?' Blackout is a short, hard-hitting yet sensitively drawn play about getting bullied, fighting back, trying to make a name for yourself, turning vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again. Inspired by the true stories of a young offender from Glasgow, a fifteen-year-old who had committed a violent crime, this short play was part of the National Theatre's New Connections programme.The play can be performed as a monologue or with any number of actors and the staging can be as simple or elaborate as desired. Blackout debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010 and the production won the coveted Arches Brick Award, subsequently touring throughout the UK.