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All the youth theatre directors of Yew Tree spent three days in Darlington this week at the National Association of Youth Theatre’s professional development event, “Raising the Game.”

It’s the strangest thing to attend in some ways…imagine 80 youth theatre directors in the same room…no really imagine it for a moment… yeah…scary isn’t it…

So what did we come away with? Well Gemma and Danny would really need to answer that for themselves but I came away with some really good new games…some new physical theatre techniques…black company you’re going to love them…some food for thought and questions to ask myself about our practice as a company and myself as a practitioner…

Mainly however I came away with a marvelous certainty that Yew Tree Youth Theatre is something very special…so many of the things that very seasoned and experienced theatrical professionals were teaching we either have covered or are well on the way to having covered…we’re not afraid to challenge ourselves, we’re constantly working to improve, we’re an ensemble and we love it…everything about it passionately…

So yeah…a real affirming few days…my major regret is that I missed sessions of black and gold company…so I’m so looking forward to getting back to rehearsals as soon as possible…

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