Not all actors have to go to drama school

Anna Niland and I set up the National Youth Theatre Rep Company (NYT REP) in 2012 as a direct response to the rise in tuition fees that led to young people paying £9,000 a year for formal training. It was sparked by conversations with our young members who no longer felt training was an option for them, daunted by the prospect of taking on huge debt before entering an uncertain industry. 

A number were also frustrated by not being allowed to take part in our summer programmes while they trained. We decided it was time to try something new.  After 10 years the often-loaded question of ‘where did you train?’ is now better framed as ‘how did you train?’ In a volatile world we all need the diversity of experience to keep on learning, whatever the route to success may be. 

The form of our free alternative was shaped by a conversation with one of our Patrons, and brilliant supporter, Ian McKellen. Ian spoke about how he learned to listen to an audience and the resilience required for a career on stage by rehearsing and performing multiple plays at the same time in the regional repertory system. 

‘Learning by doing’ in front of a paying audience has always been the mantra at NYT and through the REP we focused this approach for a company of 16 actors with 10 weeks of industry-led workshops followed by three productions in big theatres. We wanted to create a unique free opportunity for young actors to learn their craft and also to inspire a new generation with large schools’ audiences watching relevant theatre on affordable trips to the West End.

Young talent needs support from theatre owners and producers

Securing big stages to platform young talent has been one of our biggest challenges. Through a five-year partnership with the Ambassadors Theatre, our companies played on the stage of STOMP, sharing performance schedules and costs with the commercial hit, enabling our young actors to benefit from a 10-week run in the West End. 

Coming out the other side with hours of on-stage experience playing to all types of audiences, many have quickly picked up major stage and screen roles. They’re proof there’s more than one route into the industry. I hope there always will be.

With rising rents and producers squeezing every slot in schedules, securing a West End theatre is becoming increasingly challenging. This year we’re back in the West End at the Duke of York’s thanks to the support of Ambassadors Theatres Group (ATG). 

We need more support from West End theatre owners and producers to back young performers and audiences and invest in the talent pipeline. It’d be a gamechanger if every major West End theatre gave young talent a break each year. 

To attract a new generation of theatregoers, theatre must take risks

Another challenge has been choosing the right shows to fill these big theatres with a new generation of theatregoers. We’ve addressed this by programming relevant re-imaginings of curriculum texts and working with leading artists and companies from Lolita Chakrabarti and James Graham to Frantic Assembly and Roy Alexander Weise. 

If theatres want to attract the next generation they must innovate, stay relevant and take a risk on new talent. In the last 10 years the NYT REP have played to over 100,000 people, over 50% of whom have been young people on trips. 

During the same decade, arts GCSE entries have fallen 40% and rising costs and paperwork mean cultural school trips are increasingly under threat. We need government support to ensure young people can continue to be inspired by our world-leading cultural experiences. 

Another success of the REP has been bringing through working class talent and championing diversity in every sense of the word. Through the REP, we’ve cast the first female Macbeth on a West End stage, toured a queer female-led Othello around the country and seen disabled talent thrive and quickly go on to work professionally at leading theatres. 

We aren’t complacent though and there’s more work to be done to ensure our industry looks and sounds like all of us, not just some of us. The priority is bridging the opportunity gap for those who are no longer offered arts at school.

Challenges ahead

The way we watch theatre is changing and, as an industry-led initiative, the REP is responding with high quality filmed captures that will be released to schools around the world alongside wrap-around content in partnership with a streaming partner in 2023. The REP’s 2018 production of Frankenstein achieved a world-first in incorporating over 300 audience members in VR headsets simultaneously into a stage production. We are committed to continue to respond to the latest industry innovations from acting for gaming to immersive technology. 

There’s also a crisis in the lack of technical theatre and TV and film production talent being nurtured. We’re beginning to address this through the REP, with assistant designers training alongside the company. Our creative industries will only continue to thrive if we support the talent pipeline both on and off stage that fuels them. 

For the REP that looks like £30k per young person per year. The next challenge is securing industry supporters to guarantee this vital free alternative route remains open for another 10 years. Like our young actors who’ll make their West End debuts at the Duke of York’s Theatre with Much Ado About Nothing next month, we won’t shy away from the challenges ahead. 

Paul Roseby is co-founder and Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre Rep Company.
@rosebyp | @NYTofGB | @NYTREPcompany
www.nyt.org