Distractions...

Distractions are all over the place…even as I write this my eye is being constantly drawn to the sights of other people in the café I’m sat in, the sound of other people’s conversations.  In some ways distractions are good…they keep us entertained, they provide unexpected inspiration…they can make us feel like we belong, that we have allies…that we’re connected to more of our world…which is good as there is no escape from them…facebook, tumblr, twitter etc etc etc mean that we can be equally as distracted in an empty room as I’m being now.

However these distractions demand a price and that price becomes infinitely greater the minute there is something that needs doing…and greater again when there is a time constraint on that something being done, like thinking about a character for example or sorting out and finding costume or dare I say it…learning lines…

Far be it from me to dictate what people do in their spare time…once you walk out of the rehearsal room I am aware I have no jurisdiction at all…however there is a self awareness thing that needs to kick in, especially for those that are working their way up the Yew Tree hierarchy and especially those that have committed to Connections, our most demanding project. 

The equation is really very simple…if you spend enough time on lines, both finding a strategy that works for you and employing it…then in rehearsals you can concentrate on character and relationships and interactions and intention…if you reflect on the discoveries that have gone before then you can build on that in the rehearsal room.  If you spend some time before the rehearsal sorting out costume and props then you’re going to have everything you need…the result…rehearsals are a pleasure…creative, challenging, rewarding times with other people as committed and brilliant as yourself.

I’m imagining the quiet resentment or even indignant outrage of those of you reading this that might think it is aimed at you…all the excuses about how you don’t have any time and I’m genuinely sympathetic…you’re all busy, vibrant people with lots to do…you know however that I am your biggest fan and that applies to all of you…my question to you is only this…how much that fills your time is chosen consciously and how much of it is just being pointlessly absorbed by the distractions that surround you…

Rhiann is our guest blogger this week


So Crimson’s session this week started the best way. Laughing our socks off over absolutely nothing, okay it was over something, a joke which wasn’t even funny yet we all couldn’t stop which was possibly the most hilarious thing ever, One of the best points about Crimson is we can act like idiots and no-one cares! Worst thing is that’s nobody cracks at ‘if you really loved me, you’d smile’ (except the crazy few of us) since I was the one left in the middle after asking three people – never felt more unloved. Then we had to come up with three reasons why we liked and three reasons we didn’t like Shakespeare. Now in my opinion, there are no reasons but apparently he’s boring, nobody understands his language and he’s a party crasher since he died on his birthday! The best part of the session was definitely reading Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ famous speech which happens to be my favourite. We discovered so much about why Shakespeare used the words he did and what he wanted to explain. Then we were given the task of creating a short piece based on it using the stages. I was given the honour of reading the piece out in our group which was probably the highlight of my day! In all, was a more than amazing session at Crimson (oh and I nearly got close to winning Coconuts… one day, I’ll win!) and I can’t wait to be back after half term! See you all soon, Rhiann xo

The next in our series of higher education blogs by Matthew Plummer...


Drama: From the view of a first year at Liverpool college...

It isn’t easy. But, at the same time, it is not hard if it’s what you love.
I won’t go into auditions except to say: Auditions (for me) are hell until you’re there, then you lose yourself like a workshop and it’s great, you see moments of genius and people fall on their faces. I fell on my face. But I wouldn’t change it for the world, sometimes mistakes are better than conscious designs.
You’ll spend your contact hours with your tutors (12 hours for me) but you won’t want to leave the inspiring environment, surrounded by inspiring people from different backgrounds all with inspiring ideas and stories to tell. 
I took a huge leap going to university, I went against my dream of being an actor leaning towards more of a creator (god complex). I moved away from home, to a strange city (Liverpool doesn’t get much stranger) and dove into every workshop with a confidence I never knew I had. This was a real culture shock, I never expected the atmosphere, everyone is so laid back about working practically, I would say we explore practitioners and ways of working but we don’t, we play. In every exercise we have so much freedom; it really is just about taking away your inhibitions and playing with movement like a child. Of course this is not going to be the same for every course, not everyone will be taught by a clown, a radical feminist and a post-modernist who advocates theatrical anarchy (ugh.). 
Alongside the physical theatre we did drama facilitation, so I got to play Sarah for a few weeks, introducing people to games we all take for granted (group juggling and Ha are favourites now, thanks YTYT). And now we’ve moved onto devising, not quite like high school, we got a selection of stimuli and have just run with it. You aren’t given suggestions as much as questions that provoke you and lead you in directions you would never have thought of.
What about theory I hear you scream. There is plenty of that, half my time actually, practitioners, companies, movements of theatre, history, journal articles, seminar papers, books and specialists (trust me you don’t need to worry about them, it’s all so simple when you’re here). Yeah there have been theatre reviews, there have been essays and there are presentations and referencing (a torturous process) and there is reading. A few dozen books a term on your reading list is nothing, you read them cover to cover on your days off and while you’re in the library you see a beaten book that catches your interest and you take that out when you’ve got a day or two to chill and theatre isn’t quite the same.
University isn’t for everyone, but in one term I’ve been inspired, over worked, pushed to my absolute limit, forced to sit through performances (for want of a better word) in sold out auditoriums and works of genius in empty pub rooms, chatted with Godber and his company, slept through lectures, played more games than a week at Yew Tree, worked for 36 hours and learnt to juggle. For me its fun or I wouldn’t be here in this god-forsaken wind.

Theatre of the Absurd

One of the joys and difficulties of my job is the uncertainty of knowing how a group are going to respond to a task or idea…you can never predict what a company will pick up and run with or what will get a luke warm response…this was illustrates very clearly on Monday…

I’d decided to do Absurdist theatre, something that in my college lecturer phase I had specialized in to some extent…I’ll be honest, I was in two minds right up until I gave out the excerpts of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” as to whether my plan was a good idea or not…Sapphire are made up of many talented individuals but some of them are only 11 and very much at the start of their Yew Tree climb to greatness…I had a horrible feeling it might turn out to be too challenging for them…

Turns out it was a brilliant idea…the group responded so creatively and with such integrity their shared work at the end was a pleasure to behold…some of them struggled in the making but were happy to follow advice and ideas which guided them to success.  There was a mixture of realizations of the script and devised responses and all of them had something to say about the genre of theatre we were exploring (you can read about what it felt like as a participant in some of this week’s guest blogs.)  In fact the only bad thing about the workshop was that we ran out of time and didn’t get chance to see every piece that had been created…

It occurred to me as the week went on that one of the reasons for the success of the workshop may well be the genuinely open attitude of the participants…this openness and the assumption that something can be made out of anything coupled the ambition to make the most out of every opportunity given is in abundance in Sapphire.  It is something to be treasured as I’ve noticed there is sometimes a tendency for it to lapse in the older groups…whether through complacency, a lack of motivation, a more complicated relationship with life’s demands or a stifled imagination there is a risk that older actors lose this fresh faced curiosity…this is a shame and something worth evaluating about yourself…

At the end of the workshop I was left fulfilled and fired up by the work I’d enjoyed and the process I’d participated in as I watched over 30 young people leave the building in a similar state…not bad for an evenings work.

Michael takes our third and final guest slot this week...


So, Sapphire...
Monday was pretty great I think, started off with best and worst (for a change) and had a cheeky round of the bean game  In which a new bean was discovered: "Pirates of the carriBEAN". Utter genius in my opinion.
We then proceeded to the meat of the session: the creative task. We were all split into twos and given a piece of duologue and were told to make something from it. Not necessarily stage it, but make something. 
So we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted, so long as it was inspired by the script. And the results we got we very impressive, my personal favourite being Tom and Ross's piece. Specifically Tom's speech about how to win at a game of chess, it confused the hell out of me, how on earth can someone memorise such long numbers?! But Ross's comedic timing with his "Checkmate" was brilliant. Shame we didn't get to see all of them really... 
But yes I would say that absurdism with Sapphire was a huge success...

On an unrelated note, well related if you consider it's Yew Tree based... Our Connections performance is coming up at the end of February, and it is beyond exciting  And afterwards KENDAL! AHH!! Yew Tree is so cool... 
Sooooo yeah, this is Sir Michael Brown... Thanks for reading my blog... 

Olena is our next guest blogger...

Heads...Heads…Heads…

On Monday, the wonderfully awesome Sapphire Company were studying absurd theatre. It sounds absurd... it is absurd... and it was absurd. Warming up with the chaos game, one of my favourites although it isn't as good as park bench, prepared us perfectly for what was to come. With instructions like every 5 seconds walk up to somebody and give them a hug and constantly skip around the circle shouting ''I'm Mary Poppins'' (one of the best things I’ve done, it was surprisingly fun) set us in the right mind to produce some lovely pieces of drama. Reading through the scripts that were handed out to us, we all quickly engaged with our partners and from what I saw our minds swiftly set to work. From the pieces that were shown I particularly enjoyed Michael and Brittany's interpretation was brilliant. Michael's character was very well portrayed and his, what I call ''pleh'', attitude to everything was something I think everybody can relate to. Especially the; Michael: If I open the door will you go away Brittany: Yes Michael opens door and Brittany comes in Michael: (drowsily) Oh you tricked me… It was undoubtedly my favourite part of the piece and Ross and Tom’s piece, a very good twist on the original script, was hilariously cool as well. Changing the scene to revolve around a chess game was a simple but fantastic idea and worked tremendously well. Last but not least I have to mention the short (not sure how long he will continue to sneak into our sessions) return of Danny! Aaarrrghhh! Yay! I honestly truly missed him! Sapphire didn’t feel right without Danny there. So I’m glad he invaded and hopes he will invade again soon.

India with the third of our series of blogs offering insights into Drama in Higher Education


I am currently in my second year studying Acting BA (Hons) at the University of Central Lancashire and I love it! 
Like most people wanting to become an Actor I originally looked at drama schools and when my Dad suggested I apply at some Universities I turned my nose up. However, I went for the audition and fell in love with the ‘Media Factory’ which is where most of my lessons/lectures take place. I was still a bit hesitant after I received a place on the course but after my parents told me I wasn’t allowed to stay at home if I didn’t go to uni I didn’t realise have a choice! I thank them for pushing me now though.
My course is made up of 80% performance and 20% theory sooo, essays and stuff.
My first year was spent trying to reach the goal that was called ‘re-patterning’ the body, I did this through 6 hours of voice, 6 hours of yoga and movement, 3 hours of biomechanics, 3 hours of classical acting and 3 hours of theatre studies a week. It had its intense moments but because I was at university I still managed to spend the year living the student life-style of meeting new people, going out and blowing my loan, leaving essays till last minute. I managed to scrape through. This year I am very happy for the harder hours and work that we have to do, partially because I have no loan left!
Currently I am in 9 till 5, 5 days a week as we rehearse with the international Director, Marek Whitelaw. We shall be performing the play Mephisto in the first week of February after which I will have to write a 6000 word essay on the process. It is very hard work but I am loving every minute of it! These past couple of weeks has reiterated to me how much I want to do this for a living. 
After Mephisto we shall be working with a television director on ‘acting for the screen’ and then in the last few weeks I will have to work towards 3 more assessed performances, one for voice, one for biomechanics and one for contemporary theatre, each with a follow up essay and I’ve also got to write a 6000 word analytical essay of my choice on anything we have looked at in theatre studies over the last year. 
In my third year we shall be working towards our showcase in Manchester and then London, which agents shall be invited to and if I’m looking I shall be spotted and then who knows what’s next!
Now, studying Acting at University is known for being not as intense as Drama School, although it has its moments. One thing I feel I have learnt that I wouldn’t have had I gone to a Drama School is independence. Not being in class every day 9 till 5 has prepared me for when I graduate and I’m dumped in the big bad world where I shall have to fend for myself. I plan to move to Manchester with 2 girls I met on the course, hopefully I shall get an agent from the showcase but if not, my time will be spent finding agents myself and advertising myself. 
Studying Acting as my degree has been absolutely amazing, if I were to give 3 tips it would be; 1. start saving up as soon as you can! You have no idea how expensive it can be and the books you’ll be asked to buy can cost up to £50! 2. Learn as many monologues you can squeeze into your brain, couple of Shakespeare’s, contemporaries, Greek tragedies… you will definitely need them at the oddest of times. 3. Just enjoy it, sounds so cliché but everyone I’ve spoke to has gone in thinking ‘right, these people are my competition, I need to be really serious’ but if you make friends, have a laugh with it, it will be a lot easier and what we keep getting told is no director wants to work with a stone.

x