As world leaders gather for COP26 in November, Company Three and Nick Hern Books are inviting youth theatres and schools everywhere to tell the stories of the young people whose futures depend on a successful conference in Glasgow.

When This Is Over is a play in which young people tell the stories of their lives. It is about those pivotal moments that change your life forever - staged at a pivotal time in history.

We have created a live blueprint - a devising guide to help you make your own version of the play to coincide with COP26. As we make it all together, we'll also come together in a community of practice, sharing experiences, ideas and material.

We hope you'll join us to be part of this exciting project, and celebrate the stories of young people everywhere.

Join us

Registration to participate in Stage 2 of the When This Is Over project is now closed.

To receive updates about how you can take part in the future, contact our publishing partner Nick Hern Books.

Stage 1 companies

In February 2021 we began collaborating with 16 youth theatres from across the UK on R&D for the When This Is Over project.

You can find out more here.

FAQs

What is When This Is Over about?

When This Is Over is a play in which young people tell the stories of their lives. It is about what has happened to them in the past, who they are right now, and who they want to be in the future. It is a play about those pivotal moments that change your life forever.

It is not a play specifically about Covid, or the Climate Emergency, but about the young people who will live through and negotiate the impacts of both.

Age range: 12-25

Cast size: 5-10 (it’s also fine if your group is bigger)

Does the play require a lot of set/props/tech?

When This Is Over is deliberately structured to be staged very simply - all you need is some young people and time. If you want to add other things like set, props and lights, please do.

Your performance can take place in a theatre, community hall or even out in the park.

What’s a ‘live’ blueprint?

Since February 2021, we’ve been collaborating with a group of sixteen youth theatres from across the UK, who’ve all been making their own versions of When This Is Over too. These discussions have informed the way we’ve approached making the play, the content of the live blueprint and our plans to bring everyone involved in the next stage of the project together.

We’ve made the live blueprint based on the work we’ve done on the play so far. It contains some of the key ideas that have informed our process so far, the exercises we’ve been using, and some extracts from our first draft of the script.

All the participating companies will be invited to join us in online workshops and gatherings to share practice and ideas. You will also get access to an online hub with downloads, videos, text samples and templates. Later on in the project we will launch an online archive of stories from all the plays and make them available publicly as text, video or audio.

When does the project take place?

The participation fee/licence gives you the right to produce the play anytime before the end of February 2022, but we would love as many productions as possible to take place around COP26 in November.

How do I get involved?

If you'd like to sign up to create your own production of When This Is Over, the next step is to fill out a Participation Form here. To ensure support everyone and bring groups together in appropriate numbers, we’re limiting the number of companies who can get involved in this stage.

There is a fixed participation fee of £100 (plus VAT where applicable) per company. This fee covers the administrative costs of the project, and also helps support Company Three's ongoing work. We’ve kept the licence price as low as possible, but if it is a barrier to participating – please contact Nick Hern Books and we’ll do our best to make it possible for you.

I have another question that’s not answered here.

Please email us. We can’t wait to hear from you.