TWO summer projects for young people run by the city’s two biggest theatre companies have started rehearsals this week for their performances as part of the Art at the Heart Festival.

Hampshire Youth Theatre (HYT), run by Nuffield, and the Summer Youth Project, run by Mayflower Theatre, are annual summer projects that engage some of the best local young talent with the theatre-making process in intensive rehearsals over a two-week period.

They normally perform on the stages of Nuffield Theatre and the Mayflower Theatre but this year they are being staged alongside a host of professional work as part of the Art at the Heart Festival at Nuffield Playing Field, the pop-up venue being built in Guildhall Square.

In commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, this year’s HYT show is a new stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s short story The Best Christmas Present in the World.

Almost a century after the famous Christmas truce of 1914 and the football match in no-man’s land, this new play tells the story of one captain and his sweetheart and the modern man who discovers “Jim’s Last Letter” in an antique desk.

The show follows the massive success of last year’s Great Expectations and HYT’s previous outdoor site-specific work The Voyage of Lost Dreams, which was staged on the SS Shieldhall.

After the successful Summer Youth Project and production of Bugsy Malone in 2013, Mayflower Theatre’s Summer Youth Project rehearsals are in full swing with this year’s production: Five of the Best – A celebration of 50 years of Musicals in Southampton.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Summer Youth Project

A talented cast of 100 local young people will perform with a live band in this spectacular new production.

This toe-tapping, high energy performance showcases hit after show-stopping hit with a compilation of some of the biggest musicals to hit our stage over the last 50 years.

Both shows will be performed at the Nuffield Playing Field, a unique pop-up stadium-cum-Jacobean theatre being built especially for the festival.

Tickets for both events can be booked through Nuffield’s box office by calling 023 8067 1771 or visiting nuffieldtheatre.co.uk.