Lights, Camera, Copilot: How the National Youth Theatre is innovating with AI
Performers and leaders from the National Youth Theatre made a guest appearance at Bett UK 25, the world’s biggest educational technology event, to demonstrate how they are using AI as a catalyst for creativity.
In 1956, two revolutions quietly began. One in the arts. One in technology.
That year, the UK’s National Youth Theatre (NYT) was founded, giving young performers a platform to shape the future of theatre. At the same time, John McCarthy, a professor at Dartmouth College, organised a workshop to clarify and develop ideas about thinking machines — and coined the term Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Fast forward nearly 70 years, and those two worlds collided in spectacular fashion at the world’s biggest education technology exhibition, Bett UK 25, in London’s ExCel centre in January. NYT, in partnership with Microsoft, took to the stage to explore the role of AI in live performance, not as a replacement for artists, but as a powerful creative tool and partner to its troupe.
Paul Roseby OBE, NYT’s CEO and Artistic Director, reflected that joining NYT had given him “a voice, a space to create, and a belief that storytelling could shape the world.”
Young performers today aren’t just using their voices and bodies to tell stories, he said, they’re using AI, immersive tech, and digital tools to push creativity even further.
“AI doesn’t create – people do,“ he argued. “Technology is hungry for human input; it craves our leadership, our curiosity, our imagination. It’s not here to take over, but to amplify and support us.”
The future stage
James Northcote, actor and NYT alumnus, introduced a cast of young performers, and alongside these budding stars, unveiled a new creative collaborator, one incapable of breaking a leg: Microsoft’s Generative AI tool, Copilot.
He demonstrated how Copilot could support actors in their improvisations by generating scene prompts and character backgrounds.
The first scene Copilot prompted saw two friends meeting at an airport. But James encouraged the digital co-star to push them further. Suddenly, the cast became rival treasure hunters in an airport lounge, scheming and competing before a flight.
Copilot didn’t just suggest ideas, it responded and adapted, assisting in the creative process. It provided on-the-fly script generation, allowing actors to tweak lines and explore different emotions in real time. It improvised games, feeding performers unpredictable twists and challenges – instantly transporting actors and audiences alike to haunted houses, wizarding castles, or futuristic cityscapes.
NYT performer Sanya commented: “I was surprised at how natural it felt. At first, I thought it might take away from the spontaneity of performing, but instead it gave me something to bounce off – like a creative partner throwing out unexpected prompts.
“For an actor, having that extra source of ideas can be a huge advantage.”
Another NYT performer added: “We’re using AI as a collaborator, not a crutch. It challenges us. It pushes us to be more inventive.”
Roberta Zuric, Director and NYT Associate Artist, said: “We’ve been pushing their understanding of what tech is and how to use young people to experiment and explore what the future of performance and live performance is with integrated tech.”
Northcote emphasised that the purpose of AI wasn’t to replace writers or actors, but to “enhance our storytelling; to make creative thinking more dynamic and accessible.”
This wasn’t just an improv performance the crowd witnessed in London ExCel’s cavernous halls, it was a glimpse into the future of theatre.
Beyond the script
Through Microsoft and the National Youth Theatre’s Digital Accelerator Programme, young artists are experimenting with AI-powered tools to create immersive theatre experiences, fusing storytelling, technology, and live performance to open new creative avenues without diminishing the human core of theatre.
One recent production even incorporated VR headsets, transporting audiences to the North Pole through fully realised virtual worlds.
“We want to make sure young people aren’t just reacting to technology,” Paul Roseby says. “We want them to shape it.”
Northcote is optimistic and excited about the role AI can play in the creative arts.
“AI is shaping entirely new creative roles,” he said. “In the near future, we won’t just have actors and lighting designers; we’ll have AI-assisted dramaturgs, projection-mapping specialists, and interactive experience designers.
“The next generation of theatre-makers will need to understand how to use AI, not just as a gimmick, but as a fundamental part of their creative toolkit. That’s what excites me most — helping young people not only adapt to AI but become the ones defining how it’s used in the arts.”
Fuelling creativity
Some creative people are understandably wary of AI, Northcote concedes, but he insists that AI can “open new doors, enable new forms of expression, and reveal new ways to engage audiences.”
Copilot may have been able to play a convincing villain in the improv games demonstrated by NYT at Bett UK 25, but Northcote, Roseby and the cast made clear that AI isn’t so much a villain as a supporting character, a writing partner, an improvisation coach, and an artistic co-pilot.
It is giving young creators the tools, freedom, and confidence to experiment in ways that were once impossible.
As one NYT actor put it: “It doesn’t replace our creativity. It fuels it.”
The applause that followed? That was all human.
Learn more about National Youth Theatre and the Digital Accelerator programme here