New plays for the next generation

So the story goes that Katie Mitchell went to see her daughter's school play, and wasn't very impressed. Mitchell is one of the most prominent theatre directors in Europe, and at the time was an artistic associate at the National Theatre. She decided to develop a project which might support teachers through a creative process low on time, and high on cast sizes.

Together with a motley crew of some of the finest theatre professionals working in Britain today, she descended on her daughter's school for a period of investigative research and development.

Designer Vicki Mortimer, director Lyndsey Turner, Mitchell and a few others tested the types of rhythms that young people responded to at particular ages, they interrogated what was the optimum length of scenes and stories, and how many lines young actors could cope with.