Bringing together five plays commissioned specially for the RADA Elders Company, this anthology provides a selection of dynamic and thought-provoking works for elders companies anywhere.

The RADA Elders Company began in 2013 in order to provide opportunities for older people to experience the academy's training at its best. Each year, a playwright is invited to create a new piece for the company, encompassing a wide range of theatre disciplines and skills.

This collection features five pieces that showcase the breadth and diversity of RADA Elders commissions:

Broken Pieces by A. C. Smith
Our Father by Deborah Bruce
The Word by Nell Leyshon
Down the Hatch by Frances Poet
Of Blood by Christopher William Hill

A.C. Smith is a scriptwriter and songwriter. Originally raised in Colorado, she has lived in London since 2007. As a playwright, she has won awards from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Soho Theatre, and been shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and Adrian Pagan Award.

Deborah Bruce is a writer and theatre director. Her plays include The House They Grew Up In (Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 2017); The Distancenbsp (Orange Tree Theatre and Sheffield Crucible, 2014; a finalist for the 2012-13 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Same (National Theatre Connections Festival 2014); and Godchild (Hampstead Theatre, 2013).

Frances Poet is a Glasgow-based writer. Her stage work includes Gut (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2018); Adam (National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, 2017); Faith Fall (Òran Mór and Bristol's Tobacco Factory, 2012) and What Put the Blood (Abbey Theatre, 2017). She has also written a number of free adaptations including Strindberg's Dance of Death (Citizens Theatre, 2016) and Molière's The Misanthrope (Òran Mór, 2014).

Nell Leyshon is a novelist and playwright, born in Glastonbury and now based in Dorset. She has written a number of plays for BBC Radios 3 and 4. Her stage plays include Comfort Me with Apples, which won the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright award in 2005 and an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's short story Don't Look Now. In 2010, she became the first female playwright to be commissioned to write for Shakespeare's Globe since 1599.

Christopher William Hill was born in Cornwall and currently lives in London. He has worked as an actor, director and script editor and was writer-in-residence at Plymouth Theatre Royal. His stage plays include Lam, Blood Red, Saffron Yellow, Song of the Western Men, Icons and Multiplex. His radio plays include Love Me, Liberace and Killing Maestros ('Best Script' BBC Radio and Music Awards and winner of the Peter Tinniswood Award).