Scottish Youth Theatre

Scottish Youth Theatre is a national young artists' development organisation. It designs projects that offer artistic development opportunities for aspiring and early career artists, age 14 to 25. The company was established in 1976 and has a free to participate National Artistic Programme for young people who are based in Scotland and interested in creating theatre. It strives to broaden young people's artistic experiences, introducing them to a range of art forms and creatives in the industry. The programme is crafted around young people's needs, adopting a variety of physical and digital platforms to produce small scale engagement projects, festivals, full scale productions and national tours. Scottish Youth Theatre is a remote working organisation, delivering in person projects throughout Scotland.

Scottish Youth Theatre started in Edinburgh on 6 December 1976 and held its inaugural Summer Festival in 1977. The company's first production was 'Oh What a Lovely Peace' performed at Moray House Theatre in Edinburgh, written by Hector MacMillan and directed by Denise Coffey. The company was then incorporated on 28 March 1978. The company has occupied various homes in its history, including the Old Athenaeum in Buchanan Street, Glasgow and The Old Sheriff Court on Brunswick Street, Glasgow as part of the redevelopment of that building, opening in 2005. In 2023, Scottish Youth Theatre became a remote working organisation, delivering in person projects across Scotland. Past Artistic Directors include Gareth Wardell, Robin Peoples and Mary McCluskey, who held the role for 26 years from 1992 to 2018. With a change in structure, Jacky Hardacre became Chief Executive in 2016 and Mahri Reilly took artistic lead as Creative Director from 2018 to 2022. She was succeeded by Rikki Payne in November 2022. Following a decision by Creative Scotland to end its funding, the theatre announced it would cease trading in July 2018. Scottish Youth Theatre was then saved by a decision by the Scottish Government to fund it directly, and by extensive private sponsorship and donations. Alumni of Scottish Youth Theatre include Andrew Still, Brian Ferguson, Gerard Butler, Jack Lowden, Jamie Parker, Gayle Rankin, Karen Gillan, Kate Dickie, KT Tunstall, Laura Fraser, Michelle Gomez and Tony Curran.