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The London-based National Youth Theatre or NYT is the United Kingdom's leading organisation for young people in the field of theatre.^{[citation needed]} It runs acting auditions, workshops, drama courses and actual theatre productions. The organisation is based in Holloway, in the London Borough of Islington.

The National Youth Theatre was founded in 1956 by Michael Croft. The NYT gives young people (13 to 21) the opportunity for creative participation through theatre arts. All young people from across the UK, regardless of background, situation or status, are welcome to apply and the theatre receives roughly 4,500 applicants a year.

Many people in the entertainment industry started with the company, including Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Helen Mirren, Kate Adie, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Day-Lewis, Matthew Marsden, Julian Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alec Newman, Jessica Stevenson, Michael Kitchen, Gina McKee, Diana Quick, Timothy Spall, David Suchet, Douglas Hodge, Liza Tarbuck, Jamie Theakston, Alex Kingston, Simon Ward, Clive Mantle, Paula Wilcox, Michael York, Orlando Bloom, Rosamund Pike, Claire Storey, Beth Winslet, Charlotte Reather, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Matt Lucas, Catherine Tate, Max Minghella, Shaun Evans, Ed Westwick and David Walliams.

The NYT has also produced stage managers, lighting designers, technicians and sound engineers. As well as running acting workshops and courses each summer it runs courses in stage management, lighting & sound, set construction and design and costume. Once members have completed their course they are eligible to take part and contribute to NYT productions from lighting designing to assistant stage managing.

2006 was the National Youth Theatre's 50th anniversary year. To celebrate a number of events were held at the Royal Court Theatre, Brierley Hill, The Soho Theatre, Hackney Empire, The Lowry (Salford) and in Trafalgar Square. Also on the 26 May 2006 the NYT started a successful world record attempt (for the longest continuous reading) where they read every single play they had performed since 1956. It successfully finished on 4 June 2006. Many of the original cast members from the first production, Henry V, were reunited to read Henry to start the record off. On 10 September 2006, the National Youth Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary in Trafalgar Square, London. This was one of the youth theatre's most ambitious events: 2000 of its current members were involved in the show entitled 'God Save The Teen'.Kamal Hussain opened the show quoting it was " The koolest thing he has done with the National Youth Theatre."

In 2007, NYT, launched their 'Generation ID Season', which aims to deal with the important issue of youth identity and looks to open up discussion on what it means to be young in this age, through a variety of theatrical, multi-media, film and site-specific performances.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the National Youth Theatre sang the English National Anthem at the Birdsnest stadium, to mark the fact that London would be the next city to hold the Olympic games. They also took a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" to Beijing, perhaps controversally, it being a play focused on racial suppression, which in itself was very much in the political undertone of those Olympics, due to China's foreign policy in Tibet.

Productions

• Prime resident

See also

• National Youth Music Theatre
• Youth Music Theatre: UK

External links

• Official NYT website