The blog that tries to reflect on Yew Tree's Titled Connections project 2011...
Always a little difficult to know where to start after a week like this one…every connections is special and every one has it’s own identity…so I’m going to start by identifying what made this particular one special...
Shooting Truth is the first connections for a while where there’s been no double casting…instead we made something new…by making “I draw this Circle,” we became the proud owners of something no other participant in connections had…and in so doing we created something beautifully powerful…something I simply won’t forget…so in a way this years connections is special before we even get to the actual text bestowed on us by the National.
However undeniably the script itself added to the identity of the project, particularly in the way it challenged us all, technically, emotionally and intellectually. To pull it off with any kind of quality all of us had to dig deep…face our own fears and deal with the “demons within.” No short cuts for the cast of Shooting Truth in terms of understanding character or situations. Each moment required an in depth look at exactly what was happening and why…and more importantly what the consequences…or should we say stakes (in fact we did say stakes…a lot) were… And that was only half the task…once we’d identified all of those things I’ve just listed, the energy required to realise them on stage was immense…
But in fact the main thing that made this particular connections so special was the immense support and generosity each member of the cast gave the rest. The utter devotion of each individual to the rest of the cast has been a wondrous thing to behold…so much so that we had to invent ways of making the necessary aggression emerge in the play. In turn the amount of support you got in terms of how many people came to see it and the overwhelmingly positive response they gave you was second to none…
The important thing I think is that you don’t take your achievements as individuals and as a group for granted…you have been a delight to work with…a pleasure to direct and a sight to behold in performance…you have risen to every challenge and emerged more developed, skilled and insightful people as a result…the joy and fulfilment I’ve experienced since we started in December makes it very hard to let it go…even temporarily…I hope as you grow into your successful lives to come you never forget it…I’m damn sure I won’t…
Shooting Truth is the first connections for a while where there’s been no double casting…instead we made something new…by making “I draw this Circle,” we became the proud owners of something no other participant in connections had…and in so doing we created something beautifully powerful…something I simply won’t forget…so in a way this years connections is special before we even get to the actual text bestowed on us by the National.
However undeniably the script itself added to the identity of the project, particularly in the way it challenged us all, technically, emotionally and intellectually. To pull it off with any kind of quality all of us had to dig deep…face our own fears and deal with the “demons within.” No short cuts for the cast of Shooting Truth in terms of understanding character or situations. Each moment required an in depth look at exactly what was happening and why…and more importantly what the consequences…or should we say stakes (in fact we did say stakes…a lot) were… And that was only half the task…once we’d identified all of those things I’ve just listed, the energy required to realise them on stage was immense…
But in fact the main thing that made this particular connections so special was the immense support and generosity each member of the cast gave the rest. The utter devotion of each individual to the rest of the cast has been a wondrous thing to behold…so much so that we had to invent ways of making the necessary aggression emerge in the play. In turn the amount of support you got in terms of how many people came to see it and the overwhelmingly positive response they gave you was second to none…
The important thing I think is that you don’t take your achievements as individuals and as a group for granted…you have been a delight to work with…a pleasure to direct and a sight to behold in performance…you have risen to every challenge and emerged more developed, skilled and insightful people as a result…the joy and fulfilment I’ve experienced since we started in December makes it very hard to let it go…even temporarily…I hope as you grow into your successful lives to come you never forget it…I’m damn sure I won’t…
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