Northampton’s talented young people ‘blown away’ by success in national performing arts competition

Five of the winning 37 plays picked at a national playwriting competition, which received more than 3,500 entries, were from young people across Northampton.

The town had the largest number of winners of any area, and the CEO and artistic director at a local theatre company believes this is a credit to Northampton’s up and coming talent.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has been running a year-long project called 37 Plays.

Silhouette Youth Theatre, a theatre company in Weston Favell Shopping Centre, worked with 10 schools across the town ahead of submissions being made – to support them and enhance their script writing skills.

A prestigious panel whittled the thousands of entries down to 71, nine of which were from schools that Silhouette had worked with.

Everyone was then over the moon to learn five of the 37 winners were from Northampton.

Leigh Wolmarans, the CEO and artistic director at Silhouette Youth Theatre, is the former head teacher of two primary schools before he made the switch to performing arts five years ago.

When asked how it feels that five of the finalists are from the town and had support from his theatre company, Leigh said: “It’s incredible – more plays came from Northampton than any other area.

“For the first and last time an open script competition like this will be held, it is amazing.

“We are blown away as the competition received around 3,500 entries, including some from people who have been writing for more than 20 years.”

Silhouette hosted a number of script writing sessions with the young people, to nurture the “home grown talent” and “people in the arts that need these opportunities”.

“Helping writers develop is important as there is so much talent in Northampton,” said Leigh. “We need to elevate that now more than ever.”

Four of the Northampton winners were in the under 11 category – Edward Keppel, Grace Hemmings-Buckler, Maximilian Kufuor and Dylan Punch.

Isabella James, the final of the Northampton winners, was in the category for 11 to 17-year-olds.

Leigh said: “Writing gives people a voice. Being able to watch your writing come alive is one of the best experiences.

“Work of this quality needs to be shouted about.”

Moving forward, Silhouette will host an open meeting with the successful young people and their families – and Leigh is pleased they want to be heavily involved in the process.

The plays will be read through and decisions will be made about how they will be performed. Directors and actors will be cast, before moving into pre-production and rehearsals.

The five plays will be performed at Silhouette’s studio in Weston Favell Shopping Centre over three evenings in November.

“The young people were passionate about the plays being performed in the community,” said Leigh. “And we want to make this celebration of their work an accessible and affordable opportunity for all.”

Following the performances being filmed, all 37 plays – including the five from Northampton – will be available internationally.

“It is an amazing opportunity,” said Silhouette’s CEO and artistic director.

Leading on from the town’s success in this national competition, Silhouette plans to launch a yearly writing festival to celebrate Northampton’s talent.