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Showing posts from June, 2011
Cassidy with a work experience blog... The past seven days have been phenomenal, I have enjoyed work experience so ridiculously much and it has inspired me and I now know what I want to do when I am older, running a mini youth theatre. The Normanton transition day was wonderful, and taught me I CAN play the bean game, resulting in me leading it later in the week, I also helped 'whoosh' Snow White' and the children were adorable. I also thought green company's performance of Children’s Excursion was brilliant, they did so well! And then having Friday off was lovely, a bit of a relax and preparing for classics. Classics was such a fantastic way to end a week and one of the best weekends I have had in a while, the atmosphere created by the theatre, people and weather was magical and I would do it all over again, Mili Fretwell as the doormouse was the sweetest thing and it was obvious every single person put their heart and soul into what they were doing!! It makes me so ve
Mel stepped up with a Classics blog... Well, Classics at Clarke Hall... absolutely sensational is the only way to put it!!! Saturday started it all off and the weather wasn't brilliant but nobody complained and everybody still got out there and performed. Sunday, however was a different story, the weather was absolutely glorious and everyone was loving performing and watching everyone else perform, it's always nice to see the support that Yew Tree have to all the many companies, old and young. The audience seemed to be never ending and some performances had to be shown up to 3 times because of sheer popularity and such little space. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves with picnics, deck chairs, and their families all close by, in such beautiful surroundings and in the midst of Yew Tree. What more can you ask for? I have absolutely LOVED the whole weekend and everyone should be soo proud of themselves, i thank you for this, it won't be forgotten in a hurry, the cuteness of P

Classics at Clarke Hall

To be honest I’m a little overwhelmed by this weekend to be philosophical so I’m going to just pour out some immediate thoughts and then hopefully come up with something a little more thought through next week. Gold and Black company, you make me the happiest person as there is no end to your commitment, loyalty and dedication. As a result the work you create is of a standard that both delights and impresses your audience and inspires the next generation of Yew Treers… Everywhere I turned this weekend I was impressed by something…whether it be Jack’s performance of a lifetime as Frankenstein…the charm of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe…the bravery of the solo performance the constantly developing Shakespeare work and the delight in pieces like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I loved the influence that our work in physical theatre had on the Grimm fairy tales and the atmosphere created in Sherlock Holmes and Jekyll and Hyde was utterly effective and fitting…they were all o
Danny S blogs about... Monday 20th June 2011 Right. Well, I’m back guys (both in person and in my epic blogs :D).. After quite some time off, I’ve managed to gather my thoughts together and have created a peaceful and perfect balance of serenity and solitude. Well, in my head at least. It’s hard trying to make words make sense with cousins bawling, parents throwing cutlery out of the window and ‘Judas’ blasting out of the speakers at like a million decibels. But I’ll try. My name is Danny. And this is my blog. Already sounds like a winning tagline, huh? Anywho, I should probably write something about Sapphire Company. Would make more sense I guess… So, this Monday, we were given the task of showing Jack sneaking into the giant’s castle. Simple, eh? Except the fact we can’t really have a giant onstage. That would just be plain silly. Like a sausage. Mmmmm… Sausages… Anyway, back on track, in the group that I worked with, we thought that we would all make the giant’s voice (the classic “
Ashleigh's work experience blog When we go to a Yew Tree Youth Theatre session we are welcomed in to a safe and friendly community. We are given fantastic direction from our youth theatre leaders, however, when you have been there for a long time you can momentarily forget how amazingly lucky we are to have these people teaching us. My work experience has made sure this will never happen to me again. The biggest thing Yew Tree has done for me is build confidence and this week I have seen the confidence in others built within workshops and sessions. The day of workshops with Aim Higher at the University of York showed this so much. The purpose of the day was to make the students taking part aware of what they need to achieve, and how university would benefit them. Sarah, Danny, and Gemma lead parts of the workshop. The game we did not only made the students feel more comfortable, they built their confidence within themselves and their choices to go to university or not, and how they

How it all began...

I had no idea what to write about this week and so I asked for suggestions…the one that came from Emma regarding why I decided to pursue drama and why I founded the youth theatre surprised me as I assumed people either knew or didn’t care, but apparently this isn’t the case so I shall try and answer both questions as succinctly as possible… The first one about why drama is the trickiest…My earliest memories include performing so I reckon I was doing it pretty much from the outset…first of all it was mainly singing, then dancing and finally drama – mainly because this was the hardest to find opportunities in. By age 10 I was pretty much combining the three as often as I could…it was a natural thing…I dreamt of a career in it but wasn’t convinced I’d make it as I lacked confidence in lots of areas in my life and by this point I was being pretty badly bullied. However when I got to High School the bullying stopped and the opportunities to perform increased – I pretty much lived in the mu
Lucy T blogs about Imoves Right, I've only just woken up, so I'm sat here with a coffee and my laptop trying to figure out the age old dilemma... how to start a blog. ... and apparently, that's how. Saturday saw Yew Tree embark on a horrendously quick walk into town. And I must say I'm glad I was part of it, because if I'd have been on the otehr side, walking towards such a huge group of young people dressed completely in black I'd have run a mile. Why were we walking (tooooo quickly) into town? Because we were only part of the IMoves Festival. I think it's safe to say we didn't have a lot of rehearsal time, (I'm pretty sure Cassidy worked it out as being no more than 2 hours...) but some how we managed to pull it off. I should probably say what we managed to pull off, I'm aware I'm being pretty vague about everything... Just a bit of physical theatre in the centre of Wakefield. It was daunting, being in the middle of town, performing to peop

Taking a moment...

It’s been a ridiculously busy week this week…in addition to the usual sessions Black Company visited the playhouse and in return were visited by Rich from Invisible Flock, we’ve cast the Nostell play, we’re in final rehearsals for Imoves and the Classics festival and there were birthday celebrations thrown in there too. It’s difficult at times to take a breath and look at the things you’re getting out of all this activity when you’re being bombarded by so many diverse experiences but it’s so very important that every now and again you do… Over the last 3 or 4 days I’ve suddenly looked at a number of the youth theatre and had to catch my breath…from people I’ve known for years to those just starting their journey with us in relative terms, to those that have moved on (but thankfully still maintain a connection)…the sheer scale of their development of growth both as performers and as people is the most inspiring thing…and then I get that wonderful feeling that Yew Tree had a little bit
Mikey's blog for the week... This is my very first yew tree blog and I get to tell you about our day at the West Yorkshire Playhouse as we participate in the Young Theatre Makers project. We started the day by warming up with all the other groups in the QUARRY THEATRE. I’ve performed in the courtyard theatre but it just doesn’t come compare to the Quarry, just standing there and looking up at all the seats around you, it just gives me a rush. Later in the day we got to meet the practitioner we will be working with and he has some amazing ideas about what we’re going to do. He also taught us the best version of rock paper scissors ever!! I think we amazed him with some of our Yew Tree games too and I know he amazed him with our ability to act like salmons. The entire day was great apart from the fact that it cost £3 for a sandwich. That people, is daylight robbery.

Thoughts for classic actors...

So much about performance is about having a sense of time and place…it’s one of the things I find fascinating about theatre. As a director I demand of my actors that they know where their character is stood physically, historically, geographically and emotionally throughout the play…that’s one of the most important things that I am trying to develop through a rehearsal process…the thing is that, that one demand is ridiculously complex and incredibly difficult to achieve…however the closer you get to it the better your portrayal of that character will be and the richer the performance in general. It occurred to me on Thursday that in your classics performances this necessity of time and place is even more important to consider. Even if you are just performing a small extract from a work you need to have made conscious decisions about the world that character inhabits…have an awareness of the constraints and realities of life in that time as well as having constructed an individual na
Bobbie has sent in a fab blog that will catch you up on all things green company... Oh the joy of a full day rehearsal! With having only three weeks until we performed 'Children's extrusion, platform no .5' Danny decided that we should do a full day rehearsal, in the holidays. And that we did. We started with the normal, Yew-Tree things, best and worst and then a few games to get us to concentrate and then went straight into the Drama! There was a few scene's that, try as we might, we could never get to how we would like, so Sarah came to help us out, and within an hour and a half, we had gotten two scenes to, as near to perfection as we possibly could, the picnic scene and the train scene, with the amazing Amy, there, reading in the lines of those who couldn't make it there. After that, we went through the rest of the play, making sure that it was as good as they could be too. Poor Amy, having to read 2 characters in most scenes, running from one side of the room t