Life. Love. Joy. Pain. Male. Female. Past. Future.

It’s all here. In ten new shows.
Created by ten of the most exciting young theatre companies
from Scotland, New Zealand and the USA.

For you, the chance to enjoy their work and expand your mind,
with a double bill of fast-paced new performances each evening,
from Tuesday 5 to Saturday 9 July 2016 at Macrobert.

Supported by the National Theatre of Scotland, each group has been given access to leading creative artists, encouraged to take risks, explore new approaches and create a piece of theatre that tells us about their lives, their universe. In under an hour.

So prepare to be inspired, to think, to be provoked, to laugh, to cry, to learn.

Now in its eighth year, the National Theatre of Scotland’s vibrant international festival for 16-25-year-old theatre makers returns to Macrobert for a week-long charge of performance and creative learning. By day, the 100+ participants from the ten companies take part in a range of masterclasses, workshops and discussions. By night, their focus shifts to entertaining you. By the end of the week, they’ll have developed their theatre skills, exchanged ideas and made new friends. Ready to become the next generation of theatre innovators and instigators.

Featuring:

• Beacon Youth Theatre, Inverclyde
• Collision, Buckhaven
• Creative Electric, Edinburgh
• Eden Court Collective, Inverness
• Epic NEXT, New York City
• Firefly Arts Youth Theatre, West Lothian
• Ignite Theatre, Glasgow
• Macrobert Collective, Stirling
• Massive Nui Ensemble, Auckland
• Strange Town, Edinburgh

Bloody Girls by Firefly Arts (Livingston, West Lothian)
TUE 5 JUL, 7.30pm
Duration: 55 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+ (strong language)

Bloody Girls is a celebration of girlhood – bloody, dirty, ugly, wild, beautiful and soulful. It explores the strength and fragility of female bonds and the unsettling consequences when it is tested to breaking point.

You + Me, Us + Them by Ignite Theatre (Glasgow)
TUE 5 JUL, 9.00pm
Duration: 30-40 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 8+

Devised by a diverse cast of young adults aged 16-24 and set in the care system, You + Me, Us + Them examines isolation, self-harm and low self-esteem, and the search for identity and solidarity in a precarious world.

Only The Brave by Strange Town (Edinburgh)
WED 6 JUL, 7.30pm
Duration: 60 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+

Thirteen young people have been thinking about what it means to be brave. From dead men in suits of armour to coming out to your granny – this show takes you on a journey through our insecurities to the moment where we take centre stage. It’s about little fish with big ideas on an epic journey – fortune favours the brave, right?

Hector Moray by Beacon Youth Theatre (Greenock, Inverclyde)
WED 6 JUL, 9.00pm
Duration: 50 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+

It’s 2021 and Hector Moray is a below average teenager with a well below average name. His life is as normal as normal can be until the return of a No vote in a second referendum sends Scotland, and Hector, into an adventure like no other. He finds himself at the centre of deadly plot to overthrow the government and it’s all due to him fancying a girl purely on the basis that she has a worse name than him (Sylvia, since you’re asking). A rambunctious knockabout of a play filled with intrigue, excitement and sandwiches.

Fragility by Creative Electric (Edinburgh)
THU 7 JUL, 7.30pm
Duration: 50 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+ (strong language and sexual references)

I am male. I am masculine.
I am independent.
I am non-emotional.
I am aggressive.
I am tough-skinned.
I am competitive but clumsy.
I am strong, self-confident and rebellious.
I am sexually aggressive.
I am male. I am masculine.

Apart from when I put on my lipstick.

Ten young men explore what masculinity means to them in this highly physical performance from Creative Electric.

Typecast by Eden Court Collective (Inverness, Highlands)
THU 7 JUL, 9.00pm
Duration: 50 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 12+

The image reflected in the mirror is only the physical representation of me; it might show chapter headings, but it alone doesn’t tell my story, and it certainly doesn’t illuminate my subtext. Why then are we so quick to judge?
Fat. Girly. Strong. Effeminate. Skinny. Boyish. Thin. Gay. Chunky. Cool. There is more to me than all of that.

The Island by Massive Nui Ensemble (Auckland, New Zealand)
FRI 8 JUL, 7.30pm
Duration: 50 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: Suitable for all ages

In Aotearoa/New Zealand we live on islands, far at the bottom of the world. Sometimes it can feel like we’re completely isolated… Six young performers explore the idea of isolation and growing up in New Zealand. Family stories, whakapapa (layers of genealogy), legend and history are woven together through character, heart pounding physicality and touching storytelling to reveal that even though sometimes we may feel alone, we never really are.

10467 by Epic NEXT (New York City, USA)
FRI 8 JUL, 9.00PM
Duration: 60 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+

The brilliant young theatre-makers of Epic NEXT tear through the lies and misconceptions regarding educational inequities in New York State and the U.S. with this searing, hysterical, inspiring demand for justice and call to action. 10467 is a powerful, inspiring play written and performed by research-informed public school students who are changing the script and mobilizing New Yorkers to “stand up” for educational equality.

The Tide Creeps In by Collision (Buckhaven, Fife)
SAT 9 JUL, 7.30pm
Duration: 60 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 14+

Memory is a reconstructive process whereby you piece together moments of your past to construct a coherent narrative.

What happens during this process when the colour and shape of what you thought you knew and experienced is somehow blurred, altered or gone completely?

What happens if your future depends on you remembering? Do you continue when that fatal ‘something’ is missing.

The Tide Creeps In is a performance about 5 individuals seeking to remember, can they trust their own memories, their perceived truth and what has been ‘forgotten’?

The Observer Effect by Macrobert Collective (Stirling, Forth Valley)
SAT 9 JUL, 9.00pm
Duration: 45 minutes (approx.)
Age guideline: 12+

Every move you make
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
-The Police

We’re watching you, watching us, watching you, watching us, watching you….
We watch you because we love you. Because we want to protect you, keep you safe, make sure you’re not doing anything dangerous. And we need to make sure you’re not an extremist, or a rebel, or a weirdo.
So please, just pretend we’re not here. Dance like no-one’s watching. (We will be).