National Youth Theatre’s StoryFest Returns for 2025

This years’ StoryFest has StudioCanal backing and expanded line-up…

The National Youth Theatre (NYT) has announced the return of StoryFest, its flagship new writing festival, set to run this July at the organisation’s award-winning headquarters in North London. Now in its second year, the 2025 edition comes with increased ambition, bolstered by sponsorship from leading European film studio STUDIOCANAL and its associated company, Urban Myth Films.

This year’s festival will showcase ten new plays—four professional commissions and six works by current NYT members, selected through an open call that attracted over 150 submissions. The event continues NYT’s mission to develop and platform emerging writing talent at a time when opportunities for new voices have diminished significantly. StoryFest was launched in response to an 80% drop in “scratch nights”—short play showcases where early-career writers could test their work.

Alongside the live performances, StoryFuture—a strand dedicated to the intersection of technology and storytelling—will return with the support of Microsoft. Curated by The Last Kingdom actor and creative technologist James Northcote, StoryFuture will also feature at the newly launched SXSW London.

NYT Artistic Director and CEO Paul Roseby OBE:

“StoryFest is our response to the 80% drop in scratch nights for new writers and a 30% decline in stories on UK stages over the last decade. This July we’re celebrating ten fresh voices… Come and support new stories performed by Britain’s best young storytellers.”

National Youth Theatre by Helen Murray

Among the plays in this year’s line-up is Disco Inferno by Martha Watson Allpress, to be staged by NYT’s Playing Up Company and directed by Emily Aboud. Other stories span themes of teenage self-discovery, racial tensions, gender identity, and class conflict—with one commission directly inspired by the 2024 UK riots.

STUDIOCANAL and Urban Myth Films’ sponsorship will help support more than 100 young creatives participating in the festival. The partnership builds on their prior backing of NYT’s Write to Shine initiative, which launched a new generation of writers now working professionally in theatre and television.

In another major development, NYT has been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to bring its extensive archive to life. The project, set to launch in the lead-up to the organisation’s 70th anniversary in 2026, will spotlight stories and alumni from NYT’s influential history.

Since its founding, NYT has played a vital role in shaping British theatre, with early commissions handed to now-renowned writers such as James Graham (Sherwood), Jack Thorne (Enola Holmes, Adolescence), and BAFTA-winner Lennie James (Save Me). More recently, NYT commissions have found life beyond the festival, including Debris Stevenson’s My Brother’s a Genius, which will tour the UK in 2026 in a new co-production with Theatre Centre, Sheffield Theatres, and NYT.

As the UK continues to grapple with shrinking arts funding and fewer platforms for emerging talent, StoryFest 2025 positions itself as a critical space for launching the next generation of dramatists.

M-K Kennedy, Executive Managing Director of STUDIOCANAL WORLDWIDE TELEVISION:

‘We’re honoured to partner with the National Youth Theatre on StoryFest. As a studio deeply invested in the future of storytelling, we believe it’s vital to create meaningful opportunities for diverse new voices to emerge, particularly at a time of such rapid change in our industry. Initiatives like this create vital pathways for emerging writers to build the skills and confidence to succeed, and this partnership reflects Studiocanal’s long-term ambition to foster exceptional, original talent for the next wave of scripted television’.