National Youth Theatre is the leading platform for showcasing young British talent.

It is an ambitious and dynamic youth art’s charity that discovers epic talent and invests in the creative, personal and social development of a diverse and complex range of young people.

For 54 years it has been a vibrant home for artistic creativity, innovation and expression, which empowers young people through theatre.

Each year it reaches out nationally to audition 5,000 people across 30 centres around the UK. The NYT illuminates raw talent in young people and gives them the confidence to reach their potential.

Annually the charity works directly with 20,000 young people, giving them the tools to discover their voices, describe their lives and grasp opportunities for change. Training with the company culminates in the production of epic theatre on stage, online through IdeasTap, in the community and around the world. NYT produces ambitious and iconic performances reflective of our vibrant, dynamic and diverse youth culture. Working with exciting new writers the NYT presents relevant, moving and witty new plays that inspire, inform and entertain.

NYT also stage performances around the world, including: performing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Handover Ceremony, in the opening and closing ceremonies for the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi and at Shanghai Expo in 2010 with a new version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. NYT’s international work demonstrates that culture is a perfect platform from which to transform lives and give unique opportunities to young people, who can explore new friendships and act as truly global citizens.

NYT have nurtured the finest young British theatrical talent for over 50 years - including Dame Helen Mirren DBE, Sir Derek Jacobi CBE, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Craig, Catherine Tate, Chiwetel Ejiofor OBE, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick and Doctor Who – Matt Smith.

2010 season - ‘The Five Elements’
• Living The Dream - a re-working of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shanghai Expo.
• Ghost Office – Empty Buildings Filled with Stories’ a site-specific devised piece exploring the impact of unemployment in the West Midlands caused by the recession.
• S’warm - a 600-strong cast of young actors swarming around London from Battersea Power Station to Canary Wharf in a new style of street spectacle.
• Relish by James Graham a new play about the superstar Victorian chef Alexis Soyer at the Tramshed in the heart of buzzing Shoreditch.
• Stars Over Kabul by Rebecca Lenkiewicz – a tale of modern love and loss set against ‘Afghan Star’ the TV talent show that swept the nation.