London Youth Theatre: A New Beginning

Katie Pesskin and Tom Foskett-Barnes founded Musical Youth London in 2015 as a company for young people aged 10-22. We’re so proud that over 150 talented young people have come through the company. Many past members have studied at the country’s top drama schools and gone on to perform in the West End and in national/international tours.

More importantly for us we’ve become a home away from home; a truly safe space for young people to be themselves, grow their confidence and feel empowered through the performing arts. Central to our ethos is providing a service where finances are never a barrier. We quickly learnt how important this was for many of our members and accessibility became increasingly integral to the work we do.

We’re now embarking on the next chapter in our story, making MYL bigger and better, with the launch of London Youth Theatre. Starting 2023, it will be an evolution of how we work and the service we provide.

We’re currently fundraising for our £5000 Start Up Fund, which will go towards launching the company and securing funding for the next calendar year.

The arts have been ravaged by the concurrent crises of austerity politics, Covid and now the cost of living crisis. There has never been a more urgent time for services like ours to exist. But there is currently no centrally located, city-wide, free youth theatre service in London. We want to fill this gap by offering LYT to 13-21 year olds across the capital.

In a city known around the globe for its exceptional theatre, it seems obvious that a capital-wide youth theatre service, accessible to the next generation of our industry, should exist. And if there’s going to be a London Youth Theatre, then this is what it should look like.