The Playhouse Apprentice (NHB Modern Plays)

An exhilarating and hilarious story about theatre, bravery and how a little voice can make a big difference. 1597, the Globe Theatre. A crisis is underway. The Lord Chamberlain has closed the playhouses and banned the theatre company from the stage. The livelihoods of hundreds of artists are suddenly in jeopardy. There's only one thing for it: somebody must face the terrors of Blackfriars and travel through London to deliver a petition directly to the Queen of England herself. But who'd be brave (or foolish) enough to take on the task? Enter an unexpected hero... Jessica Swale's play The Playhouse Apprentice was first performed at the Globe Theatre, London, in a production by the students of Dulwich College. The Nick Hern Books Multiplay Drama series features large-cast plays specifically written to be performed by and appeal to older teenagers and young adults.

Jessica Swale is an Olivier Award-winning writer, director and film maker. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and the University of Exeter. Jessica began her career spending a happy decade as a theatre director, during which she founded and Red Handed Theatre Company, with whom she won Best Ensemble in the Peter Brook Empty Space Awards and multiple Evening Standard Award nominations. She then began writing. Her first play, Blue Stockings, premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2013. It is now one of the most performed plays in the country, and is featured on the GCSE Drama syllabus. She is currently writing the TV series. Jessica's next play, Nell Gwynn, won her an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and transferred from the Globe to the West End, starring Gemma Arterton. She is currently writing the screenplay for Working Title. Other plays include Thomas Tallis (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Mission and adaptations of The Jungle Book, Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd, Stig of the Dump and The Secret Garden. Now working primarily in film and television, she both directs and writes for the screens - original works and adaptations. Screenplays include Persuasion for Fox Searchlight, Nell Gwynn for Working Title, Longbourn for Studio Canal and an original rom-com for Blue Print Pictures. Her first film, Horrible Histories the Movie, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Feature for Children. Her directorial debut feature, Summerland (also writer), starring Gemma Arterton, premiered in 2020. She also wrote and directed the internet hit Leading Lady Parts, a short film promoting equality in film, starring Arterton, Felicity Jones, Emilia Clarke and friends, for the BBC and Rebel Park Productions. You can watch it on YouTube. Jessica is an associate artist with Youth Bridge Global, an international NGO which uses theatre as a tool for promoting social change in war-torn and developing nations. As such, she has lived in the Marshall Islands and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, directing Shakespeare productions including The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Tempest. She has written three titles in Nick Hern Books' popular Drama Games series: for Classrooms and Workshops, for Devising, and for Rehearsals. She is also an active campaigner for greater equality and diversity across all dramatic media, and an active member of Times Up and the Me Too movement.