More than 200 young people from across Birmingham and the West Midlands will take to the stage for a summer festival of theatre next month.
Members of Birmingham REP’s youth theatre company The Young REP will present 10 different plays at the Old Rep Theatre from 1 until 13 July.
The programme includes a broad range of plays from A Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni to the world première of a new play, Girls Like That, by Evan Placey.
As the REP celebrates its centenary year, the Young REP will present a new take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night—the play which opened the theatre 100 years ago on the same stage.
Jess Farmer, director of learning and participation at the REP, said, “The summer festival is a two-week showcase of the Young REP. Staging 10 plays in two weeks is a real challenge but it’s one that everyone is relishing.
Birmingham REP, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Theatre Royal Plymouth have commissioned Evan Placey’s new play which will be performed at all three theatres in July.
Placey said, “Working with young people in Birmingham, Leeds and Plymouth to inspire the play has been an invaluable opportunity to find common themes and stories between British teenagers across the country.
“During the initial workshops, a girl in Canada made headlines when she killed herself after months of bullying when a topless photo of her was circulated at school.
“But while the media fixated on the circumstances in which a man coerced her into showing her breasts and then blackmailed her with the photos before putting them online, few asked questions about her classmates who then went on to torment her, the girls who called her a slut, a whore.
“And so the play took root: a play about feminism, about sluts and prudes and the categories and language we use to define and oppress female sexuality and bodies.
“At the end of my last workshop in each city, I asked the room of teenagers if a classmate's naked photo had ever been circulated at their school—every single hand went up.”
Full details of the summer festival can be found at www.birmingham-rep.co.uk.