1 May 2020
One strand of Abingdon’s burgeoning partnership programme, ASiP, is the National Theatre’s New Views scheme, which offers students the chance to learn playwriting at the hands of professional playwrights. This year, four students from Abingdon, Larkmead and John Mason School embarked on the scheme in January, and today two of those writers – Ted Smethurst from Abingdon (Year 11) and Gena Clarke from John Mason (Year 12) – have succeeded in submitting their final drafts to the NT for their consideration.
Completing any substantial piece of writing is a significant achievement, and we congratulate Ted and Gena on finishing their first plays despite the inevitable curtailment of the New Views programme in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Ted and Gena will receive written feedback on their plays from the National Theatre by the end of May, and then have a chance to enter their plays for next year’s competition, in which a number of plays are chosen for performance by professional actors at the National in July 2021. We wish our intrepid playwrights every good wish!
The photo shows playwrights Ted Smethurst and Gena Clarke in conversation with Director of Arts Partnerships, Jeremy Taylor.
