Bringing together five plays commissioned specially for the RADA Elders Company, this anthology provides a selection of dynamic and thought-provoking works for elders companies anywhere. The RADA Elders Company began in 2013 in order to provide opportunities for older people to experience the academy's training at its best. Each year, a playwright is invited to create a new piece for the company, encompassing a wide range of theatre disciplines and skills. This collection features five pieces that showcase the breadth and diversity of RADA Elders commissions: Broken Pieces by A. C. Smith Our Father by Deborah Bruce The Word by Nell Leyshon Down the Hatch by Frances Poet Of Blood by Christopher William Hill

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 Tuesday by Alison Carr A series of public apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories) by John Donnelly THE IT by Vivienne Franzmann The Marxist in Heaven by Hattie Naylor Look Up by Andrew Muir Crusaders by Frances Poet Witches Can't Be Burned by Silva Semerciyan Dungeness by Chris Thompson .

'We were two weans playing at wee hooses... Now we're both paying the price.' Jack is proud of his work at the Clyde shipyards. His wife, Beanie, who is nursing him through asbestosis, thinks he's a fool. But the real test of their marriage comes when they discover that the dusty overalls Jack brought home for Beanie to wash have poisoned her too. Meanwhile their daughter, Lucy, is struggling; will she be held back by her parents' experience, or will she have the courage to allow romance to blossom with Pete? Frances Poet's play Fibres is a big-hearted, hilarious drama about what it means to entwine our lives with another. A story told by four resilient, witty Glaswegian characters, the play asks can we ever cut the cords that bind us - and who will catch us if we do? The play toured Scotland in 2019, in a co-production between Stellar Quines Theatre Company and the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.

Gaynor's got to leave the house if she wants to meet her newborn grand-daughter. Stillness has been the only way to deal with her chronic pain but now it's time to move. Gilly's not sure what her dying dad is feeling but she knows, from experience, that it's best not to Google it. Dougie and Ciara have spent their last NCT class preparing for the labour pains ahead, but now it's time for one last night on the dance floor. And then there's Mick, who wakes up on Portobello Beach in the early hours of the morning with two gold rings in his pocket. He can't remember what they're for but he knows it's something important. He'll work out what if only his old pal, Pat, will stop buying him drinks... Five Edinburgh souls stagger towards each other and are transformed. Full of tenderness and humour, Frances Poet's play Still is a cathartic story of life, loss and joy.

If you are born in a country where being yourself can get you killed, exile is your only choice.

'They say we're like swans. Ruddy beautiful graceful things on the surface of a lake but underneath we're paddling like mad.' Maggie and Gordon first met, dancing to Rod Stewart songs, in 1971. Now in their sixties, and still very much in love, they've been finishing each other's songs all their marriage. But now Maggie is feeling foggy and some days the songs are all she can remember. Her son and his new girlfriend are coming to dinner, and her best friend is asking questions. Frances Poet's play Maggie May is an extraordinary drama about an ordinary family who must balance the challenges of daily life whilst living with dementia. A heartfelt and inspiring story of hope, it was first produced in 2020 by Leeds Playhouse, Curve Theatre, Leicester, and Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, directed by Jemima Levick.

'You've lies in the whites of your eyes, Nora. What have you done...?' Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything. Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This bold new version by Stef Smith reframes the drama in three different time periods. The fight for women's suffrage, the Swinging Sixties and the modern day intertwine in this urgent, poetic play that asks how far have we really come in the past hundred years? Nora : A Doll's House was first produced by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in 2019, at Tramway, Glasgow. It was revived at the Young Vic, London, in February 2020.

A pack containing 11 plays for young people drawn from National Theatre Connections 2020 anthology and the new National Theatre Connections 2021 collection.