National Youth Theatre: 70 years of success and support

By Joe Duggan

We’ve really enjoyed working with the National Youth Theatre as it celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, on shows including Dracula at the NYT Theatre and Let The Right One In at Underbelly Boulevard, and their upcoming gala event Letters To My Younger Future Self. Ahead of the big event this weekend, they took the time to write for the Mobius blog on how NYT is more than just a training institution — it’s a lifelong community.

The National Youth Theatre’s alumni is full of household names, from Daniel Craig, Helen Mirren and Chiwetel Ejiofor to Ed Sheeran, new Black Panther star David Jonsson and the winner of Best Actress at the 2026 Olivier Awards, Rosamund Pike.

But before these stars were household names, they were young people with an opportunity. From the beginning, the National Youth Theatre has been about possibility: giving young people the chance to step through a door and discover what might be on the other side. And beyond the work itself, our alumni community is much more than just a list of famous names; as a 16-year-old from Liverpool who joined the National Youth Theatre this summer said, “my favourite bit was making friends with people I didn’t expect to”. As the 80- to 90-year-old cast members from the first youth theatre production of Henry V — who gathered last week to film the St Crispin’s Day speech — prove, you really do make friends for life.

Some of the NYT stars, like Adeel Akhtar, Susan Wokoma and Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne, will be returning to their roots to take the Royal Festival Hall stage as NYT celebrates 70 years of supporting young talent, starring alongside some of the company’s current talent and building those NYT community ties even further.

Speaking about his time in the company, Emmy-winning Adolescence co-creator and NYT alumnus Jack Thorne says: “I love the NYT. I had the time of my life there and watching what they did with Let The Right One In recently was just thrilling. I loved acting as a kid, and my dad brought me to London to audition for the courses they ran. He actually brought me three times, because I failed to get in the first two. But once inside it was like being welcomed to the best club. I was surrounded by ambition and talent. I quickly realised I wasn’t good enough to be an actor, but it fired me with a desperation to find another way to get into the rehearsal room.”

For every well-known star there’s also a leader behind the scenes, or in a totally different industry, who credits the National Youth Theatre with playing a key step in the journey to where they are today — from Secretaries of State and Olympic Ceremony Technical Directors to Tony Award-winning designers and honoured civil engineers.

For many members, NYT was where they first discovered the possibilities of working together as an ensemble — and where they learned skills that would stay with them long after they left.

The story of NYT is therefore not simply a story of stars who started here. It is a story of thousands of new beginnings: auditions, performances, technical roles, friendships, collaborations, discoveries and the courage to create something of your own.

Seventy years on, that may be the most important thing our alumni reveal. No one has to know where they are going when they arrive at NYT. Sometimes, all that is needed is the opportunity to begin — and to know you’re surrounded by decades of support.

Letters to My Younger Future Self is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 20th September. Tickets from £26 are on sale now at nyt.org.uk/letters.

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