Going National...

-

YTYT went national today as I travelled to Bexhill on Sea to deliver workshops for a youth theatre based there.  Now for those of you who have never been, which up until this weekend included me, Bexhill on Sea is way, way, way down the country…past London and keep going for a good couple of hours…until you reach Sussex.  As I type this I am still making my way back to Wakefield with a good couple of hours to go. 

So was it worth it…all that travelling to work with a group of strangers.  The answer is definitely yes…I spent all day playing games, creating theatre, teaching physical theatre.  The satisfaction of bestowing the gift of continuous images on a group of 15 year olds that have never come across it and then turning devised physical duets into a piece of theatre with scripts they had written themselves was magic.  Not to mention of course that I found myself in the same restaurant as my absolute hero Eddie Izzard on the Saturday evening, I was entirely start struck for a moment - a very unfamiliar feeling for someone like me...

On a more down to earth note, I was also reminded of how lucky we are…all the freedom we get to explore such a wide variety of things within Yew Tree and also how lucky I am to have met and worked with so many inspirational practitioners that have introduced me to so many lovely techniques and ideas allowing me to develop my own method and approach to making theatre with young people.

In addition to the workshops I did a Q and A with the volunteers that work with the young people and they asked me how we keep things fresh in terms of what we do at the Youth Theatre.  It took me a while to come up with the answer but in the end I realised it was a combination of always being ready for a challenge and also trying to listen to you, the members, as much as possible as you guide us brilliantly in what creative outlet you need from us and in so doing provide us with the challenge we need to meet.

I’ve spent the journey back breaking down the stories of Aladdin and Cinderella which can only mean one thing…that I’m coming back to one of my favourite but also one of the most ridiculous times of the YTYT year…in the next 8 weeks I will write 3 plays!  With your help of course…so get ready for the new half term Yew Tree it’s going to be a good one!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chloe's Leavers Blog - finally :)

-
  Please excuse how this was written, I do a very silly drama school course, and I haven’t had to write more than my name in 9 months. I’m sat in my silly dorm bed writing me this on my DSA laptop (a win for the mentally ill girlies), realising how utterly bad my ability to Words has become. Anyway.. Leaving YTYT was one of the oddest experiences of my life, and yet, I don’t remember it at all. I’d spent the last few years, waving off some of my closest friends as they went on to conquer their dreams, in a tearful circle, yet all I have is a fuzzy memory and a video saved in an instagram highlight. I’d sell a kidney to try and bring back that experience, to do my final show unclouded by new medication and intrusive thoughts, but as that isn’t possible, I thought I’d finally write my leavers blog, even if it is a year late. I started Yew Tree in 2017, as a way to explore drama outside of the agonising GCSE setting, and across the years, it became a lifeline for me, providing confidence,
Read more

Arwen's Leavers blog

-
I made a start writing this leaver’s blog when I was on a bloody needed holiday over a month ago, on the glorious Isle of Islay in Scotland. I’m re-writing it now, because I think it was naff to be honest. And I’m not in the same mindset as I was then. Also I might have had a few too many drams of whisky whilst writing it there, so there’s that. A line I’ll keep from it however is: “How am I meant to do justice and summarise in my writing the enormity of an impact that Yewtree has had on me these last 5-ish years?” How can I articulate all the skills that I've learnt and developed? The experiences I’ve had? There’s so much, where and what do I start on? So I’ll do just that, and put some of the skills I’ve learnt into use: “You can’t be a creative, a critic, and an editor at the same time” But in fairness - I don’t think I could share and articulate all those things. And I’m not sure that I want to, they’re for me. I can’t put that expectation on myself. The past year I’ve felt as
Read more

Celebrating the past in the present...

-
  Next year Yew Tree Youth Theatre will be 30 years old.   We haven’t quite decided how we will celebrate - any suggestions would be gratefully received. No doubt there will be some nostalgic perambulating down memory lane and some haphazard but joyous celebrating of three decades of creativity we have shared.   Some variation of those two themes would feel fitting. This blog however is something different. This blog is a celebration of the present of those who attended YTYT in the past. Alumni, graduates, previous members – I can never seem to find the right term – but whatever word is chosen I know for sure they are part of the fabric of the youth theatre and I’m grateful to have known all of them, mainly because I have learnt so much from them.   I also can’t put a number on how many people have spent significant time with YTYT over the last 29 years.   I know we started with a group of 8 and now have about 80 members, I know at our peak just before COVID we had about 130 young pe
Read more