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Every year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays by talented and exciting writers, which are then produced by young people from all around the country. New Connections commissions new plays for and about young people from some of the best contemporary playwrights, for performance by schools and youth theatres from all over the UK and Ireland, both in their home venues and at 15 regional partnership theatres. The NT Festival showcases an example of each play. This year the National Theatre announced a new partnership with Bank of America as supporters of the programme. For the first time New Connections embraces two physical theatre pieces: It Snows by Frantic Assembly and Bryony Lavery, and Anna Furse’s puppet play The Peach Child. The 2008 portfolio also includes plays by Moira Buffini, Abi Morgan, Mark Ravenhill, Peter Tabern, Jack Thorne, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Nigel Williams and Nicholas Wright. The search for identity is a recurrent theme: for acceptance and survival in modern Britain, for racial equality in 1960s South Africa, by deception in magical allotments, during white-out in a snow blizzard, through parenting, through faith, or by comic mistakes of social networking. Bank of America’s support is also enabling the programme to involve young people outside mainstream education, such as those with special needs or young people at risk. Alongside the main Festival will run THEATRE OF DEBATE: four new plays created by young people from around the UK, telling stories from the front line of their own experience; followed by a debate driven by those working closely with teens of today. New Connections is supported by Bank of America.