There’s been quite a lot of behind the scenes activity this week at Yew Tree…preparations for next term are very much in full swing…which makes me a very happy youth theatre director.
Highlights of preparation are as follows…venues for the sessions booked for required dates, scripts photocopied ready for distribution, theatre tickets for trips reserved, letters for members printed, enveloped and posted, extra projects researched and planned.
I’m going to focus on two of the above for my weekend musings this week…the first is the letters…yes, yes, I’m fully aware that this cannot possibly hold your attention for more than 10 seconds so I’ll make this bit brief…the mountain of letters stacked up in “the office” by the end of the day was a sight to see…a sight to see… And if I could be permitted one more sentence on this topic I would like to thank Ashleigh and Charlotte for their hard work writing out all of the envelopes… we couldn’t have done it without them…
The second area of focus concerns what I did with my day yesterday. Many of you know that we have been asked to perform a piece of original theatre at the Miners Memorial Service at Wakefield Cathedral in October…well yesterday I gave over my day to researching the Lofthouse Colliery Disaster which we’ve been asked to retell in the performance.
It was an entirely humbling journey…to think that something like this had happened in my lifetime to an unsuspecting community… In my first draft of this post I put “ordinary community,” but I realised immediately that this community were anything but ordinary…their determination and unity only made the moment when all hope was lost more devastating…I felt entirely humbled by their story…. So in a couple of weeks we begin the devising and rehearsal process that will result in our interpretation of the events of the 21st of March 1973 and the days that followed it…it’s a humbling challenge…but one I’m looking forward to…
I thought I’d give you a preview of the first draft of the final speech I’ve written for it…
A detailed investigation of the incident was undertaken and concluded that the men had probably died instantly and recommended actions to ensure something like this would never happen again, small consolation to the families who were now without their loved ones…and the certainty that nothing would bring them back…
As the years have passed many have talked about that night and each told a different story, for the truth of a tale depends on the place you stood where you saw it. People will argue over what could have been done to prevent the tragedy, over who might be to blame but the names of the dead will stay in the minds of the mining community forever. So amongst the historical accounts written in the last 36 years what needs to be remembered is that it was real men, not characters of fiction, that went to work that night not knowing that some of them would never return home and it was real wives and mothers, brothers and fathers, sons and daughters that lost men they loved.
Lofthouse Colliery closed in 1981 but the nothing was the same after that night in 1973. Despite the years that pass and the closure of the pits across Yorkshire and indeed Britain the events of that night must not, can not be forgotten, they are part of the fabric of our community, the heritage of our hearts, the presence of our minds…
And so we lay flowers on this day for those seven men Frederick William Armitage, Colin Barnaby, Frank Billingham, Sydney Brown, Charles Cotton Edward Finnegan and Alain Haigh in respectful remembrance of them and in remembrance of their families and their community.
I've also uploaded a blog today at http://www.sarahosbornesblog.blogspot.com please take a look...let me know what you think
Highlights of preparation are as follows…venues for the sessions booked for required dates, scripts photocopied ready for distribution, theatre tickets for trips reserved, letters for members printed, enveloped and posted, extra projects researched and planned.
I’m going to focus on two of the above for my weekend musings this week…the first is the letters…yes, yes, I’m fully aware that this cannot possibly hold your attention for more than 10 seconds so I’ll make this bit brief…the mountain of letters stacked up in “the office” by the end of the day was a sight to see…a sight to see… And if I could be permitted one more sentence on this topic I would like to thank Ashleigh and Charlotte for their hard work writing out all of the envelopes… we couldn’t have done it without them…
The second area of focus concerns what I did with my day yesterday. Many of you know that we have been asked to perform a piece of original theatre at the Miners Memorial Service at Wakefield Cathedral in October…well yesterday I gave over my day to researching the Lofthouse Colliery Disaster which we’ve been asked to retell in the performance.
It was an entirely humbling journey…to think that something like this had happened in my lifetime to an unsuspecting community… In my first draft of this post I put “ordinary community,” but I realised immediately that this community were anything but ordinary…their determination and unity only made the moment when all hope was lost more devastating…I felt entirely humbled by their story…. So in a couple of weeks we begin the devising and rehearsal process that will result in our interpretation of the events of the 21st of March 1973 and the days that followed it…it’s a humbling challenge…but one I’m looking forward to…
I thought I’d give you a preview of the first draft of the final speech I’ve written for it…
A detailed investigation of the incident was undertaken and concluded that the men had probably died instantly and recommended actions to ensure something like this would never happen again, small consolation to the families who were now without their loved ones…and the certainty that nothing would bring them back…
As the years have passed many have talked about that night and each told a different story, for the truth of a tale depends on the place you stood where you saw it. People will argue over what could have been done to prevent the tragedy, over who might be to blame but the names of the dead will stay in the minds of the mining community forever. So amongst the historical accounts written in the last 36 years what needs to be remembered is that it was real men, not characters of fiction, that went to work that night not knowing that some of them would never return home and it was real wives and mothers, brothers and fathers, sons and daughters that lost men they loved.
Lofthouse Colliery closed in 1981 but the nothing was the same after that night in 1973. Despite the years that pass and the closure of the pits across Yorkshire and indeed Britain the events of that night must not, can not be forgotten, they are part of the fabric of our community, the heritage of our hearts, the presence of our minds…
And so we lay flowers on this day for those seven men Frederick William Armitage, Colin Barnaby, Frank Billingham, Sydney Brown, Charles Cotton Edward Finnegan and Alain Haigh in respectful remembrance of them and in remembrance of their families and their community.
I've also uploaded a blog today at http://www.sarahosbornesblog.blogspot.com please take a look...let me know what you think
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