National Youth Theatre to transform London home with £2,000,000 mayoral funding
(© DSDHA)
National Youth Theatre will transform its north London home following a £2,000,000 grant from the Mayor of London's Good Growth Fund.
With the funding, the NYT will create a new accessible entrance on their Holloway Road site, as well as a new rehearsal studio and reception. There will be a new 200-seat 'workshop' theatre for young people to create work, running alongside the NYT productions at other locations across the country.
The new work will commence in May, with an opening of the new building planned for late spring 2021.
Through support from ACE, the company has also been able to secure a 999-year lease to the Holloway Road site, where the company has been since 1987. The company has also received support from The Kirby Laing Foundation, London Marathon Charitable Trust, the Christina Smith Foundation and City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation's charitable funder.
The company's north London home has allowed creatives such as Daniel Craig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rosamund Pike, Matthew Warchus and more to cut their teeth in the creative world. Other names attached to the space include Zawe Ashton, David Oyelowo, Orlando Bloom, Adeel Akhtar, David Walliams and Matt Lucas.
National Youth Theatre CEO and artistic director Paul Roseby said: "Alongside our expanding national programme at over 100 venues around the UK in 2020 and our continuing cultural exchange work around the globe, today's news will secure an inclusive and engaging offer to our local community for many years to come. This is an exciting new chapter in our history as we continue to grow new audiences by telling new and relevant stories of our time. Whilst 70% of our membership and work will continue to be outside of London, we can't be a truly national organisation without an aspirational local presence in our home borough of Islington, where, as child poverty rates show, the need is great. We're grateful to all of our supporters for making possible this vital work with those who need it the most."
