What's happening at YTYT

This weeks guest blogger - Nathan Trout - dedicated member of The Gold Company... Having started with a rather fantastic game of musical theatre themed wink murder featuring highlights including a deaf convention organiser, a storm trooper and a somewhat interesting interpretation of Wicked, we returned to A Christmas Carol (I still haven’t got my head around doing it in June) This week we were doing the Christmas party scene and the Cratchit’s Christmas Dinner. This week’s grouping left me devising with a lack of discussion of the Muppets which was both refreshing and admittedly a little disappointing. Getting started with Dickens stuff is always difficult however once we gathered momentum we were all coming up with some brilliant ideas meaning we ended up with what I felt was a really good rendition of the party scene. What I really enjoy about this is that every week we see two versions of the same scene that are completely different but both brilliant including this week two utt

Another visit to Carleton (now called The Green Company) this week. They are now well into rehearsals for “Don’t Assume Anything,” which will be performed in a couple of weeks at the Phoenix Theatre. Such a big step for them – a performance on this scale – but they’re getting there. I’m really looking forward to seeing them perform…and take the next step on their journey…There were some new faces in the group in addition to the familiar ones and it struck me that the group has definitely grown up since I last visited…the issues they are having to deal with in the play are challenging and so, in fact, are the theatrical conventions and techniques needed to carry it off…it certainly feels like these challenges are allowing them to develop as a company and as individuals. So we indulged in an evening of creating…making some of the more physical trickier moments come to life. For the entire session they worked with integrity discipline and flair and because of that by the end of the s

This week our guest blogger is Chinazo...she gratifyingly answered my call within minutes...erstwhile member of the black and the gold company...before they were named as such and now at university...we're enjoying her temporary return visit and therefore its fitting that she has contributed while she's here I’ve been back at Thursday nights (the Black Company) for two weeks now and it’s weird because I feel like I haven’t really been away. Everything seems the same except a couple of new faces and the refurbishment of Sarah T’s. I have sort of struggled a little bit getting back into the whole acting thing...particularly as my voice is really beginning to grate on my nerves. It’s so much fun being back into the whole rehearsal process and the rehearsals for 15 Minute Hamlet are going pretty well. I’ve never actually performed Shakespeare before despite having studied several of his plays but I’ve always had a strong belief that watching and performing Shakespeare is so much mo

Today at The Gold Company we tackled the concept of time…past present and future were personified in the form of spirits and within the context of “A Christmas Carol”…although we were a few members down (I get the impression there were a number of parties this weekend) the results of our creative endeavours were as inspiring forever… One of my highlights in Yew Tree workshops is that whenever I set up a creative task I have no real idea of what the results are going to be…I always, however, have complete faith that there will be results and that these results will surprise, delight or move me and in turn that I will be provoked into a development of my thinking and values…today was no exception… In our evaluations and reflections today we discussed the relationships within the concept of time, the semiotics of multiple actors playing a single role, the juxtaposition of atmospheres and algebraic equations – all this despite the number of parties held last night…and the other remarkable

Hurray for a marvellous blog by the wonderful Gemma Whelan ladies and gentlemen... I’m often asked ‘what do you do for a living’ and every now and again I’ll spend some time thinking about it, and when I do I struggle to come up with a definite answer. So I’m going to tell you story… It’s a Tuesday evening and we have a youth theatre session at Eastmoor, Now just so you get a clear picture the Eastmoor group is bursting with 7-11 yr olds full of spirit and gumption who constantly twirl, fidget, hum, play with there hair, make inappropriate statements like ‘Gemma it’s my first holy communion on Sunday’ or ‘have you seen the scab on my knee?’. It’s one of my most magical times of the week. So we’ve done the best and worst of the week, and after much drama and deliberation we decided the colour of the group, and we’ve played funky seaweed and managed to escape with one minor carpet burn. After a quick break, we began to work on our performance piece for the Shakespeare Festival, and all

After an exhausting day on Friday (4 workshops with primary school children followed by 3 workshops with dance students) I finally got to my last workshop of the day – rehearsals for “Maybe This Time.” We had a number of things we needed to do that included choreographing a foxtrot but the main thing on the agenda was to stage the final scene of the play…we dutifully ploughed our way through it however by the time we got to the end it was obvious that nobody was really “feeling it.” We didn’t do much…talked in groups about the characters people were playing and how they connected with each other and then my trusty mirror exercise. However when we ran the scene again it was immeasurably better. This caused a number of thoughts to fire off in my head of varying significance…Firstly it’s more than rewarding when a technique I take for granted is experienced for the first time and the full force of its ability to transform/enlighten or develop is felt. For some in the MTT cast the mirr

This weeks guest blogger is Helen Butterfield...valued member of The Gold Company and the Monday Night group... It’s hard to imagine at the beginning of summer when the sun is shining outside that anyone would be already looking forward to Christmas. But of course at Yew Tree we are already looking ahead by starting to devise our prospective Christmas performances of Beauty and the Beast in the Monday night group; and A Christmas Carol being preformed by the Saturday morning group (or the newly named Gold company). It’s good to know that in the middle of all the work surrounding exams at this time of year that you can escape that for an hour or two a week at Yew Tree. The new projects have yet again presented us with another set of challenges; whether it was how to make a ghost appear or how to turn a man into a beast! Part of Yew Tree’s uniqueness is that when working in groups everyone, no matter how old or new the member, is listened to and all ideas are built upon to create the bes

This week has seen the launch of many new things…firstly the naming of each company in the youth theatre…something we’ve been attempting to do for ages with very little success…by the end of the week every “branch” of Yew Tree Youth Theatre will have a name. The rules when naming are simple…a colour…no more than 2 syllables voted by the group preceded by the word “the” and followed by the word “company.” So we all ready have “The Black, Gold, Red, Purple and Crimson Companies and the other 6 groups will choose their colour over this next week…I’m so pleased we’ll finally have a way of effectively identifying different aspects of Yew Tree…I wonder how long it’ll take for them to get embedded in the fabric of the youth theatre. Then there are the new projects…this week I have started devising A Christmas Carol and Beauty and the Beast both of which will be performed at Christmas. The initial ideas that have emerged for both of the stories have been rich and inspiring…so much so that