What's happening at YTYT

Dee West (Saturday, 17+ group and Heights cast member)is our guest blogger for this week...with a reflective account of last Saturday and tHe HeigHts in general... I will apologise in advance for this blog it may end up being a little ramble ha, but yeah, I remember sitting in the audience watching the first play on before us not being able to concentrate and then an applause sounded, yep that meant we had 15 minutes to get changed and then it was our turn. Excitement began to pump everywhere and I recall that all that was going through my mind was ‘can’t breathe’ ‘cant breathe!’ but after being calmed down and getting in my pretty little costume for the very last time I just thought to myself… man up dee we can do this, however cheesy that sounds :) and we diddd!, sat on my little bed drawing my pictures and that … (and for the thousandth time Callum I apologise, but hey, I was kinda busy…) Awww Connections is overrr, super bad times! Buttt, how amazing was it team? Sooo amazing :). L

As it’s half term and there has been minimal activity for the youth theatre (I say minimal because excitingly Gemma and Sam were rehearsing Midsummer Night’s Dream at Clark Hall this week meaning we didn’t shut down altogether) I decided to make this week’s blog a practical one. This “guide to learning lines” was inspired by the response I got last night in, “Maybe This Time,” rehearsals when I asked all the actors to have the first half of the play learnt by next week. The response was as ever mixed…the pleased/slightly smug faces of those who have already learnt them…the almost audible inner groan of those who dislike learning lines or can’t see when they’ll have the time and finally the look of absolute panic or absolute defeat for those who find the whole thing a seemingly impossible challenge. For the last two categories of actors here are some top tips… 1) Say your lines out loud to yourself and in your head. Each way places them in different parts of your brain. 2.) Write the

Jess Hopwood - tHe HeigHts cast member and member of the 17+ group stepped up to the challenge this week...Hurray... Somebody asked me the question this week, “How do you have the time to revise for your GCSE’s with all the drama and dancing you do?” Looking past all the caffeine and crazy sleeping patterns, it made me realise how absolutely dull my life would be without yew tree. Although admittedly, a fair few maths lessons have been slyly spent learning lines. Since auditioning for connections and moving to the Thursday night group, I’ve found myself becoming more and more involved with yew tree; but I can honestly say that time couldn’t be any better spent. Yew tree sessions are definitely one of the highlights of my week for so many different reasons. As Jamie so rightly put in his blog below, it isn’t just about acting with a group of people; it’s about acting with a group of friends. Before moving into the +17 group I remember thinking, “What if I don’t fit in with everybody?” T

Strangely, for a very happy and fulfilled person, very rarely do I get a moment of pure artistic fulfilment. Most of the time I’m pleased in general terms and delighted by particular aspects of a performance but there is always something I’d like to have another go at…a slight alteration I’d like to make, another set of notes before a final run of a production. Not so last night…last night I had a breath taking moment of pure artistic fulfilment…thanks to a cast of committed and talented actors, a great venue and a unique team of wonderful support…including my assistant director, my Yew Tree artists, the theatre staff and last but certainly not least the invaluable and irreplaceable Oz. It felt great and I still have a warm glow about it, slightly tinged now with a hint of sadness as I say goodbye to tHe HeigHt’s. The great thing about my job is that after a very short break (did I tell everyone I have West End tickets for next week?) I get to start all sorts of creative journeys a

This week's guest blogger is Jamie Mottershaw longstanding member of Yew Tree and current member of the 17+ group and Saturday morning Thornes group. Jamie will be performing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on Saturday the 23rd of May as a cast member of tHe HeigHts So, Yew Tree has been in the local paper again for “tHe HeigHts” and towards the end of the article there is a quote from the National Connections assessor that caught my eye and has stuck in my mind. It was the description of the cast being a “powerful ensemble”. It has been mentioned a few times before, but having it publicised as something that makes Yew Tree stand out from the rest is something that has made me think. You go to Yew Tree and you are surrounded by friends, not just people you act with. This does not just apply to the Connections cast. It happens at every group throughout Yew Tree. For example, at the Saturday morning session last week we did a warm up where, in pairs, one person had to be led around

Sound has played an important role at Yew Tree this week…however when I started to think about what I’d write with sound as the theme it led me to a much more interesting place as is luckily so often the case… The first thing that made sound important was the 17+ group’s performance of The Chrysalid’s. This was firstly because Jamie and I struggled with the sound track all week in one way and another. Little did we know that in the actual performance we would be aided and abetted in creating the required atmosphere by a thunder storm which amusingly many of the audience thought was down to us not the natural elements. The impact of this unforeseen aspect of the performance was an unrepeatable evening’s theatre. As I’ve brought it up I’ll just take the opportunity to thank again both the people that came to see us for their overwhelming support and the actors for their commitment, energy and talented performances. The second sound reference is (unsurprisingly for those who were ther

This weeks blog is by Amy Walton a relatively new member of the Saturday morning Thornes group and already a indispensible member of the company...she contacted me after this weeks session to say she'd enjoyed it so I asked her to write a blog telling us why... This week at Yew Tree was amazing. Why? Because we learnt some new games which are great, the games were: The Hop...Name and Tap...and Complicite Tag. The starter activity after the games was mime, thinking of three places to put mime in, the ideas that were produced sort of made you think, “Aww, why didn't I think of that?” The main activity was thinking of childhood stories in your groups and making one into a short piece. Some were hilarious and others were amazing. The concentration put into the pieces was immense. I really enjoyed this morning.

For the first time in my memory, or at least in my earshot, a Yew Tree rehearsal was described as stressful this week. Now if you’re wondering whether this was just between the company involved in the rehearsal you’d be wrong…nope…the stress level of this particular rehearsal was broadcast to 378 “friends,” as a facebook status. When I saw the aforementioned status it made me reflect on the events of the evening…obviously only after I’d laughed at the comments that followed it which were gratifyingly amusing…I do enjoy Facebook immensely… We work in a potentially stressful field when we are creating performances… mainly because we have a standard to hit and a deadline to hit and personal ambitions to hit and unfortunately I’m not allowed to hit actors (obviously joking there but I did consider just for a moment how significant that strategy might be for stress release.) I digress…the result of my reflection was the realisation that I , in fact, wasn’t stressed at all during that reh

This week the guest blog is by Alice who has I reckon been a member of nearly every session we run... Hmmm, how to start a blog... earlier this week I was tidying my room and I found yet another old school Yew Tree photograph. I’m at Drury lane library dressed in dungarees and odd shoes playing muddles in the one of Yew Tree’s first Pantomimes. I sat and thought about how much the youth theatre has changed in the 9 years that I’ve been there and how it’s grown and become so successful. This thought was renewed on Thursday when I was at the 17+ group and I did a double take as I spotted Kate who I knew from ‘old school yew tree’. She said after about 10 minutes that I ‘haven’t changed a bit’. Yew Tree has influenced me in so many ways and taught me thousands of things that GCSE and A-Level drama don’t scratch the surface of – this is one of things that make it unique. A young person can take as little or as much from a session as they wish. However it’s not just about the drama, it’s ab

Time has definitely been a major factor in my life this week, both at the youth theatre and at Yew Tree (as in all the rest of the stuff I do that isn’t the youth theatre or my family.) The major feature of this factor has been the lack of it…just no time…no time to finish, develop, perfect…and certainly no time to chat and catch up. Chrysalids is almost at its performance week and I feel like we could fill another 6 weeks with rehearsals…equally The Heights is suddenly imminent…our first performance at the West Yorkshire Playhouse…However I’m equally sure we can make the most of the time we have left to produce something of the quality expected from Yew Tree Youth Theatre. Just this morning doing the Complicite style workshop at Thornes (I’m writing this Saturday afternoon) I wanted 1pm to be pushed back about 2 hours…there was so much more we could have explored…you had presented me with so many ideas that I then wanted to develop…the pieces you created were delightful and deserve