Teaching Drama magazine says our Plays to Perform site is 'really useful and easy to use', and recommends it for all teachers and lecturers looking for a play to perform.

'A simple, elegant, searchable database that does exactly what it says on the tin and accompanied by well-written notes... Nick Hern Books has an exciting play catalogue and, from the look and feel of this site, actively wants to encourage teachers, lecturers and students to breathe life into their scripts.'

Teaching Drama is published by Rhinegold and is available here.

All in Good Time - Ayub Khan-Din's big-screen adaptation of his National Theatre hit, Rafta, Rafta...- is in cinemas from today, 11 May.

'Touching, poignant and often witty' Telegraph
'Prepare to shed a tear' Guardian

The film takes its title from Bill Naughton's original 1963 play, All in Good Time, on which Khan-Din based his 2007 play. Both concern a young newly-wed couple struggling to consummate their marriage, though in Khan-Din's version the action (or lack of it) takes place within an Indian immigrant community in Bolton.

The play was a hit when it premiered at the National Theatre in 2007, and toured the UK the following year. Ayub Khan-Din's first play, East is East, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1997 and was subsequently made into a hugely successful film.

Once, the musical written by playwright Enda Walsh, was named Best Musical at the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards yesterday (7 May). Based on the 2007 film, Walsh's musical (yet to be seen in the UK) was also named Outstanding Musical at the Lucille Lortel Awards for off-Broadway shows in a ceremony on Sunday 6 May, and it leads the field in the Tony Awards with nominations in 11 categories prior to the awards ceremony on 10 June.

Walsh's play Misterman is currently at the National Theatre starring Cillian Murphy in a production described as 'a fantastic, whirring monologue of small town life and flickering faith... a ninety-minute rollercoaster, kaleidoscopic in mood and construction, a perfectly realised stage poem' Whatsonstage.com.

The New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play went to Nina Raine's Tribes, first seen at the Royal Court in 2010. Tribes, described by the Evening Standard as 'edgy, painful and shocking', beat off stiff competition from Richard Bean's widely acclaimed One Man, Two Guvnors to take the prize, and was a strong contender even in the Best Play category, where it eventually lost out to Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet.

Misterman and Tribes are both published by Nick Hern Books.

Nancy Harris has been awarded the Stewart Parker Trust's New Playwright Bursary for her debut play, No Romance, which was premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, last year. Also recognised was Stacey Gregg, who won the BBC Radio Drama Award for her play Perve, which also premiered at the Abbey. Both plays are published by Nick Hern Books.

Nancy Harris's latest play Our New Girl opened to great reviews and a sold out run at the Bush Theatre earlier this year, while Stacey Gregg's Lagan was premiered at Oval House Theatre in October 2011.

A glowing review for our Plays to Perform site in The Stage online this morning (26 March).

The newspaper's Education and Training expert, Susan Elkin, called the site 'inspiring' and recommended it to teachers, youth theatre leaders and members of amateur drama companies as 'a time-saving one-stop shop'.

See the full review here, and then - if you haven't already done so - put our new Play Finder to the test. Whatever kind of play you want to perform, you should be able to find it here.

NHB author Gregory Doran will be the next Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, it was announced today (22 March).

After 25 years with the company - first as an actor, then as assistant director, and, since 2006, as Chief Associate Director - Doran will succeed Michael Boyd as Artistic Director in September.

This year Doran directs Julius Caesar for the World Shakespeare Festival. His most recent RSC productions include: Written on the Heart, Cardenio and Morte d'Arthur (all three published by Nick Hern Books), and, from the Shakespeare canon, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour's Lost.

His book, Shakespeare's Lost Play: In Search of Cardenio, is published by Nick Hern Books.

Mogadishu, Vivienne Franzmann's hard-hitting debut play about a teacher whose career unravells when she intervenes in a playground fight, is nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Franzmann was herself a teacher until she won the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition with Mogadishu. Her forthcoming play, The Witness, opens at the Royal Court in June.

In other categories, Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's London Road was nominated for Best New Musical, while nominations for Best Revival included Terence Rattigan's Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse, and Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate at the Wyndham's Theatre.

The awards ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House on 15 April.

Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate at Wyndham's Theatre won Best Shakespeare Production - and Theatre Event of the Year - at the Whatsonstage.com Awards last night (19 Feb).

There was success for another unlikely fictional couple as Driving Miss Daisy won Best Play Revival (and Best Actress in a Play for Vanessa Redgrave).

Best Regional Production went to Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival Theatre, soon to transfer to the West End's Adelphi Theatre), while Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's groundbreaking musical, London Road, won Best Ensemble Performance.

Congratulations to all!

NHB playwright Dawn King was named Most Promising New Playwright at the Off West End Theatre Awards today (5th Feb) for her play Foxfinder, which premiered at the Finborough Theatre in December last year after it won the Papatango New Writing Competition. Congratulations, Dawn!

NHB are delighted to see Tom Wells recognised as this year's 'Most Promising Playwright' for his touching and hilarious new play The Kitchen Sink (Bush Theatre, 2011), and Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork's groundbreaking musical London Road (National Theatre, 2010) scoops 'Best Musical'. Full details here.