The NYT holds annual acting auditions and technical theatre interviews around the United Kingdom, receiving an average of over 5,000 applicants. Currently, around 500 places are offered on summer acting and technical courses (costume, lighting and sound, scenery and prop making, and stage management), which offer participants NYT membership upon completion.[2] Members are then eligible to audition for the company's productions, which are staged in London's West End, around the country, and internationally.[3]
NYT members staged the Olympic and Paralympic Team Welcome Ceremonies at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[4] In 2013, the NYT raised their age limit to 25 and introduced a new summer course called Epic Stages to cater for performance and production talent between ages 18–25.[5] In 2014, members staged the Village Ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[6]
The world's first youth theatre,[7] the National Youth Theatre was founded in 1956 by Michael Croft and Kenneth Spring.[8] As Head of the English Department, Croft had been responsible for producing a number of school plays at Alleyn's Boys' School. Following his departure, he was approached by a number of pupils from the school to continue working together on productions during school holidays. Their first production of Henry V created something of a stir; at the time, it was unusual for young actors to be performing Shakespeare, and this innovative venture attracted the attention of a curious public. The first audiences included actors Richard Burton and Sir Ralph Richardson, with Richardson agreeing to become the first President of what Croft called The Youth Theatre. The organisation evolved rapidly throughout the United Kingdom, involving young people on a national basis.
Croft died in 1986 and was succeeded by Edward Wilson as Director. Building on Croft's vision, Wilson took the company forward into new territory, increasing its range of activities and reinforcing its approach to technical production values. Wilson also recognised the opportunity to extend the organisation to more disadvantaged young people, and started the first Outreach department in 1989, working initially with young offenders and gradually widening the opportunities to other socially excluded groups. Wilson also secured the organisation's current headquarters in north London, which now houses all of its production facilities, including rehearsal rooms, scenery and costume workshops, sound studios, photographic dark rooms, and administration offices.
Wilson left the company in 2004. Sid Higgins (executive director), John Hoggarth (artistic director), and Paul Roseby (artistic director) took over. Since then, they have built on the legacy inherited from Croft and Wilson, and the organisation has continued to expand its opportunities to young people from a more diverse background through a wider range of theatrical projects and collaborations. Hoggarth stepped down in 2007 and Roseby continues as the organisation's Artistic Director.[9] In 2010, the National Youth Theatre moved administrative offices from Holloway Road to the Woolyard on Bermondsey Street; since 2016, it has been based on Bayham Street in Camden Town. In January 2012, Roseby became CEO while retaining his position as artistic director.
The newly refurbished entrance in 2021
In 2012 the company suffered major issues with its finances and was bailed out with £680,000 from Arts Council England.[10]
Traditionally, the National Youth Theatre has done most of its work with members in the summer months, but this is changing more and more. Creative events and performances take place throughout the year, courses take place in school holidays and throughout term time, and the company continues to expand its work with young people from all areas of the community.[11][12][13] In summer 2012, the National Youth Theatre created and performed the Welcome Ceremonies for the London Olympics and Paralympics teams, with 200 members welcoming 20,000 athletes to Athletes' Village with 200 performances.[4]
Following a pilot in 2012, the National Youth Theatre's first official REP Company was formed in April 2013. Inspired by the traditional repertory theatre model, the REP Company course offers free, practical, industry-based talent development in drama and performance over nine months to 16 NYT members.[14][15][16] The National Youth Theatre also currently runs Playing Up, an OCN Level 3 accredited 10 month drama training programme, offering young people aged 19 to 24 who are not in education, employment, or training the opportunity to gain an access to higher education diploma in Theatre Arts, which is equivalent to two A Levels.[17]
In 2016, the National Youth Theatre celebrated its 60th anniversary. The celebrations culminated in a 60th Anniversary Gala performance, The Story of Our Youth, featuring alumni including Matt Smith, Gina McKee, Daisy Lewis, Jessica Hynes, and Hugh Bonneville.[18]
In 2018, the NYT REP Company's production of Macbeth was the first in London's West End to cast the lead role with a female actor,[24] in a gender-fluid production adapted by Moira Buffini and directed by Natasha Nixon at the Garrick Theatre.[25] That same year, for his lead performance in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Akshay Sharan won the Stage Debut Award for Best Actor in a Play.[26][27][28][29]
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor performance was reintroduced to Soulton Hall[30][31][32] when NYT members gave their first live in-person performance since pandemic lockdowns.[33][34] The play was a specially-devised work called The Last Harvest.[35] In 2021, the NYT returned to Soulton with a performance of Animal Farm.[36]
In 2021, the NYT launched the Inclusive Practice Collective, which created 60 paid roles and brought drama to young disabled people in 15 schools across London, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire as part of the KickStart scheme. In November, the NYT performed at the United Nations's climate conference COP26, staging a "Climate Cabaret" and performing Adeola Yemitan's "I Don't Care". That same year, the NYT completed a major redevelopment of its north London creative production house on Holloway Road. As part of the redevelopment, a new workshop theatre was created. In 2022, the first production was staged in the new venue, with the double bill of Boy/Girl/Boy/Girl by Tife Kusoro and Mess by Urielle Klein-Mekongo.[37]
Marcus Richard Lloyd Owen is a British actor. Despite being born in London, he considers himself Welsh due to both his parents being from Wales and only having moved to London for purposes of professional progression. Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, he is known for portraying Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles between 1992 and 1993 and Paul Bowman-MacDonald in the BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen from 2002 to 2005. He starred as solicitor William Heelis in the film Miss Potter (2006) and commander Nathan Walker in Apollo 18 (2011). He plays the role of Elendil in the Amazon Prime fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022).
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. Her accolades include two Scottish BAFTAs, a VFCC Award and an Olivier Award, as well as BAFTA, BIFA, London Critics' Circle, Chlotrudis, Gotham, and Canadian Screen Award nominations.
Indira Anne Varma is a British actress and narrator. Her film debut and first major role was in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. She has gone on to appear in the television series The Canterbury Tales, Torchwood, Rome, Luther, Human Target, and Game of Thrones. In September 2016 she began starring in the ITV/Netflix series Paranoid as DS Nina Suresh.
Helen Elizabeth McCrory was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her stage debut in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1990. Other stage roles include playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End, and Medea in the eponymous play in the Royal National Theatre.
Sally Julia Dexter is an English actress of stage and screen. She won the 1987 Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Dalliance. Her other West End stage credits include the musicals Oliver! (1994), Sister Act (2010) and Billy Elliot the Musical (2013). Her television credits include the ITV soap operas Night and Day (2001–2003) and Emmerdale.
Rupert Goold is an English director who works primarily in theatre. He is the artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, and was the artistic director of Headlong Theatre Company (2005–2013).
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. He gained international fame by playing the fictional secret agent James Bond for five installments in the film series, from Casino Royale (2006) up to No Time to Die (2021).
Edward William "Ed" Wilson, FRSA was an English actor and the Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre from 1987–2003; he later moved to Los Angeles.
Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2023), for which she won a Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Kate Fleetwood is an English actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, at Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End and Broadway and an Olivier Award nomination in 2012 for her performance as Julie in London Road at the National Theatre. Her film and television credits include Vanity Fair (2004), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), Macbeth (2010), Philomena (2013), London Road (2015), Harlots (2017-2019), and The Wheel of Time (2021).
Rufus Norris is a British theatre and film director, who is currently the artistic director and chief executive of the National Theatre.
Cush Jumbo is a British actress and writer. She is best known for her leading role as attorney Lucca Quinn in the CBS drama series The Good Wife (2015–2016) and the Paramount Plus spin-off series The Good Fight (2017–2021) and most recently June Lenker in the Apple series Criminal Record (2024).
David Weston is an English actor, director and author. Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1961 he has acted in numerous film, television and stage productions, including twenty-seven Shakespeare plays and prominent guest roles in two Doctor Who serials. With Michael Croft, he was a founder member of the National Youth Theatre. Much of his directing work has been for that organisation; he has directed also at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and a number of other theatres in London. He wrote and narrated a series of non-fiction audio books, including Shakespeare His Life and Work, which won the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Award for best audio non-fiction book.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Billie Lester, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre companies and one of its most consistently innovative.
Kyle William Soller is an American film, stage, and television actor. His accolades include three Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and the 2019 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Inheritance, staged at the Young Vic Theatre in 2018.
Sebastian Theodore Kemble Croft is an English actor. He began his career as a child actor on stage before making his television debut as Young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones (2016). He earned a BAFTA Children's Award nomination for his role as Atti in Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans (2019). Croft's voice work includes the film Where Is Anne Frank (2021), "Ice", an installment of the Netflix anthology Love, Death & Robots (2021) and voice option one for the player character in the game Hogwarts Legacy. From 2022 to 2023, he starred as Ben Hope in the Netflix series Heartstopper.
Lauren Lyle is a Scottish actress best known for her recurring role as Marsali MacKimmie Fraser in the Starz television drama Outlander, and peace protester Jade Antoniak in the BBC drama Vigil. Lyle also plays the leading role in the ITV crime thriller Karen Pirie.
Zigger Zagger is a 1967 play by Peter Terson which was the first work to be commissioned by the National Youth Theatre who revived it at Wilton's Music Hall in 2017 for its 50th anniversary. Described as a "football opera" in which the cast sing and chant like a Greek chorus, the play was an instant success. The production was directed by Michael Croft while the musical director was Colin Farrell.
Yolanda Kettle is an English actress known for playing Camilla Fry in The Crown (2017), Dolly Wilcox in Howards End (2017), and Joy Pelling in the BBC political drama Roadkill (2020).
Fast Eddie Joe Robinson, known professionally as Eddie-Joe Robinson, is an English actor. He began his career appearing in various stage productions after training at the National Youth Theatre, with starring roles in Jekyll and Hyde, Save + Quit, Coriolanus and Sorry, You're Not a Winner, amongst other productions. He has also made various appearances in television series, having played Jono Laverne on the ITV1 soap opera Emmerdale in 2019 and Ryan Firth on the BBC medical drama series Casualty between 2023 and 2024.
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