What's happening at YTYT

Thanks to Ellie Moran for this offering...her blogs are always worth a read... So, I'm on a smaller computer, I'm on an old version of word. And I'm practically asleep. Despite all this i'm still one hundred percent ready to write a blog. :) It's one thing, watching a play and performing in a play, it's another thing going through the process of creating a play. You can start off acting out somebody's script, somebody's creation even though you could never know their full intention of how they saw it happening. I can only imagine that it is not easy for a script writer to always accept easily how other people want to interpret the character they have been set. When doing a play and learning a script, there are times when I feel ok about how I come across as that character, but there are other times where i can feel utterly dissapointed at what I have done that day. I don't know if it's bravery, confidence, or feeling generally low on that day an

This week has been utterly dominated by Yew Tree Youth Theatre…in that my usual youth theatre days are Monday, Thursday and Saturday – with a few sessions for the dancers of Sarah Thomas’s thrown in for good measure of a Friday…this week as Gemma was on holiday I was at youth theatre Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday…with a few sessions for the dancers of Sarah Thomas’s thrown in for good measure of a Friday… So here come some highlights… Sunday – the most resilient cast IN. THE. WORLD performed in stupidly cold temperatures and rain…but I mentioned them in last weeks blog… Monday – The amount of laughter that the Sapphire Company create is magic…the princesses are brilliantly absurd and ridiculous…I do worry about both me and the company…what kind of minds invent such nonsense…and thank goodness for Dee this week...she manned up in good style for which I am massively grateful Tuesday – Ah Ruby Company…a lovely combination of mayhem and marvelousness… their cook

Danny Southern...veteran and delightful member of the Sapphire Company...with a style that echoes a certain member we've just lost....at least I think so...see what you think... Well, Sapphire group sure has stepped up its game. After a reeeeaaallly rather late entrance from *cough* Sarah *cough*, and a momentous applause after Dee had done a great job of managing the group (yes including Olena and Jake – them rebels, them), the beauty (but without the beast – couldn’t resist) of the Princess and the Pea resumed. It was brilliant to see how much characters had developed in the space of only a week. Wow! Laura “Staggsy”, “Staggsinator”, “Staggette” Staggs was absolutely amazing with how she’d learnt her lines and had built her character into something unique… even more unique than a one eyed elephant with two legs replaced with pogo sticks. Some peeps had started making their roles different – especially excellent were the newbies of the group. And I cannot fathom for the life of me

Alice documenting admirably the events of the day... So, today we were at Sandal Castle. There were battle re-enactments, falconry shows, doughnuts in abundance, countless hot drinks, waterproofs left right and centre and a pretty good youth theatre. All these things promised a brilliant day and I’ll be honest the falconry didn’t disappoint...ha In August we began devising a play to be performed at today’s event telling the story of the battle of Wakefield. It was a challenge not to include myth or folklore as fact, it was a challenge to create such a horrible thing such as the battle scene with integrity and it was a challenge to tell a story so difficult to relate to. By the end of last night’s rehearsal we had overcome these threats to our performance but little did we know there would be a brand new battle to fight today. We arrived to a blustery, drizzling and subsequently cold sandal castle... Gutted. The first performance was the rainiest but with a few costume alterations to ke

Rob's farewell blog... Okay so this is my last blog as a proper youth theatre member and I have no earthly idea how to sum up my time at Yew Tree. All I can say is that if I had realised what would have happened when I joined Yew Tree I would have done it a lot sooner. I have genuinely had the best years of my life here; Yew Tree has shaped me into the person I am today and I’m incredibly richer for it. It’s made me reflective; it’s given me the ability to think out of the box and to be creative. It’s allowed me to experiment in a safe and confident environment. It’s empowered me and enriched me beyond my wildest dreams. It’s allowed me to laugh, joke and run around like a headless chicken. It’s pushed me to my very limits, testing me and seeing what I am capable of. It’s given me friends for life, friends that have offered so much more than just friendships, friends that have truly been there for me, that have guided me and helped me to be a better person. It’s given me experience

Normally I like doing the youth theatre blog…but not this week…For the last couple of days I’ve been searching around for something that would inspire the prerequisite 4 to 5 hundred words demanded in such a task and I haven’t been able to alight on any one idea that I was happy enough with to develop into the finished product. I have now decided there are two reasons for this…the first is the dull but now immortalised line by Ed…”No time, no time.” As I’ve been with the Youth Theatre more or less all of the waking hours of the weekend…and certainly all of the working ones…an occupation that makes writing about it tricky…the second is that I’m a little, in fact a lot, overwhelmed…and it’s hard to write about things that overwhelm you…the words just don’t come… Here are a few of the things that are overwhelming me…losing precious people and coping with that loss, watching the way the youth theatre just changes shape to accommodate that loss so although things shift and alter there ar

I’m ridiculously inspired at the moment…just ridiculously inspired…and considering my usual level of feeling inspired is way above average…this means that at the moment life is particularly good… It makes me feel so very lucky that in amongst the doom and gloom of cuts, an economic down turn and diminishing funding which is enough to make most organisations give up entirely or at least lie down in a darkened room for a while Yew Tree Youth Theatre and Yew Tree is in it’s creative prime… I’ve just launched the 6 Christmas shows I’ll be directing, my solo show, “Getting Through,” is about to go on tour, the National Connections play choice has now been submitted and we perform at Sandal Castle next week. In addition I have my next two writing projects sorted…and that’s just the highlights…and that’s just me if you add it Danny and Gemma’s output it increases again…there are things happening that are so exciting I can’t even talk about them yet… and just to add yet more wonderfulness int

India's farewell blog... Thursday was my last yew tree session and it is literally the end of an era! I can still remember my first session ten years ago at balne lane library... my dad took my sister and myself along because he wanted us both to come out of our shell as, believe it or not, we were both really shy! And it has done more than that. When you type in ‘yew tree youth theatre’ on Google, it pops up with “Yew Tree Youth Theatre - Building Confidence & Self-Esteem. The overriding aim of all Yew Tree work is to build confidence and self esteem – the youth theatre is at the heart of that aim. ...” and it really is. I have grown in so many ways, and like I said to Sarah it has shaped me in to the person I am today. I’ve got a lot to thank yew tree for, the opportunities I have been given such as performing at the Leeds playhouse, going to Kendal and just the chance to escape has been amazing. My favourite game at yew tree is without a doubt; cowboys and Indians :) nowhere

And here is Jack's take on the physical theatre day... OK, I'll start my first ever blog by simply saying that Yew Tree are just brilliant....brilliant brilliant brilliant people. It's so nice to be able to work (and play) with people that you know have the perfect ratio of professional awesomeness to playfulness. .. A perfect example of this is the Physical Theatre workshop earlier this week... after the day, I tried researching more into physical theatre and found this defenition: "Physical theatre: -Goes beyond verbal narrative, incorporating physical and visual elements on a level at least equal to verbal elements -Is more than simply abstract movement – it includes some element of character, narrative, relationships, and interaction between the performers, not necessarily linear or obvious -Includes a wide variety of styles, approaches, aesthetics – can include dance-theatre, movement theatre, clown, puppetry, mime, mask, vaudeville, and circus" It's not

I’m going to say/write a controversial thing this week…I’m not sure how it’s going to be received…but I’m not scared…I’m going to say it anyway…despite the uncertainty…and I’m going to blame Ellie Moran for planting the seed for what I’m about to say in my head… So…here goes…I’m putting it out there… I think we take Yew Tree for granted…not all the time…and not everything about it…but none the less… I suppose you’ll want some evidence…well I’ll give you Ellie’s insight that sparked off the thought in my head to begin with. On Thursday she mentioned how she’d noticed that everyone leaves their personal belongings – phones, wallets and money around the hall without the fear that’s it’ll go missing…to which I responded that there wasn’t person that I didn’t trust in the room…a room full of people…when I said it I realised that this is pretty impressive but it’s just something that I assume is in place…I take it for granted… This thought then in turn made me think about how much I take fo

And here are more thoughts by Nathan Trout... When Sarah interviewed me for her doctorate I talked about how there are certain aspects of youth theatre that I like less than others (mostly just games and the like) but you do them anyway. It doesn't hurt you, and it's all part of the game. It helps you become rounded. I say this because I don't like physical theatre, or at least it isn't my favourite thing. That said I was one of the gold company members who offered to do the physical theatre piece in the Hepworth performance. Then again I decided to go along to Wednesday's free special-edition one time only, day-long, zero-cost, physical theatre session, because, you know, why not it's free and my days at Yew Tree are alarmingly numbered. With that in mind I actually had a really good time on Wednesday. The things like columbian hypnosis and the game which I don't remember the name of but involved me and Jo Nicks pushing each other around are brilliant. They

Lucy with a thought or two about the physical theatre day we did on Wednesday...a sort of mini blog... Now I’m not very good at talking about stuff like this, so I’m not going to write a proper blog or anything, I just thought I’d say this; On Wednesday we had a full day of physical theatre. Now usually when someone mentions physical theatre my automatic reaction is “Can’t we do something else?” but spending the whole day doing it, and with such a brilliant group of people, has really changed my mind about the whole thing. I may even go as far as saying it’s my favourite kind of theatre right now. It’s just so brilliant to be able to get so wrapped up in something and completely immerse yourself in the whole experience to the point you stop thinking and just go with it. I don’t think that sentence made sense at all. But yeah, I pretty much full on love physical theatre now. That’s all :) Lucy T.