Some thoughts in Identity...

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Sorry the blog is so late…I haven’t really stopped writing all day apart from a brief trip to Leeds to see my brilliant son, Tom, dance at the Royal Academy of Dance Northern Boys Only event…the result is now there is a Nostell script with a start a middle and an end, 27 characters and 14139 words…some of which are good…and now I just need to fine tune it with the help of my brilliant cast…which is all good as in less than a fortnight it will all be over…rehearsed and performed and done…terrifying…so yeah…that’s my excuse for late blogness…

I’ve been trying to decide what to pick out of this week…and what I have isn’t fully formed but I’m going to run it past you anyway…I’ve been thinking about identity a lot…how we choose to identify ourselves and others…how that in turn makes us behave and how it can work for us or against us…I think it’s been in my mind partly because I have so many characters in my head and partly because I watch so many people defining themselves in terms that either do them an injustice or create expectations they can’t meet…One of the strengths of Yew Tree I think is that it gives people a possibility to drop some of the masks they feel they have to wear in other aspects of their life…and through drama a chance to try on others to see how they feel and fit…when you have this opportunity my hope is that it alerts you to the fact that you have a choice…you have autonomy in terms of the way you are defined and hopefully some perspective to see how you can use this to your advantage…so here is my hope…that Yew Tree can help people not to be victim to the judgmental definitions placed on them by themselves and others and instead can carve out a more positive place in the world…

This afternoon I saw a contemporary choreographer and dancer, tell 40 boys to, “Stand up tall and be someone,” if these boys are anything like Tom then they have to put up with a fair amount of flack for being male and a dancer and for being different…this afternoon this choreographer showed them though his respect and belief in them that dance made them strong and that being different was a positive thing…it was inspirational…and definitely worth thinking about…I have that respect and belief in you…so don’t get dragged down by the negatives…be thoughtful, be respectful and don’t be afraid of your potential to be brilliant…

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