How to create a Write it, Perform it site specific performance in a week in 10 steps Yew Tree style:

Step 1:            Make sure your planning is in place, meet with visionaries who had the idea of a litfest in the first place and the enabling and wise writer in residence.  Engage the time and interest of potential participants for workshops, writing and performances…talk to primary schools about engaging with their pupils…plan what you hope are going to be a series of thought provoking, word catalystic workshops…

…hope, a lot, that everything is going to fit into place

Step 2:            Spend an interesting, inspiring and creative Saturday at a beautiful, historic building and its grounds facilitating workshops with talented Youth Theatre members in the morning and be part of a creative workshop with young writers of Wakefield in the afternoon led by the wise writer in residence 

Step 3:            Spend a significant amount of time drawing strange not to scale diagrams and maps of the beautiful and historic building and its grounds to find a way of weaving the ideas that have been generated together, use lots of colours to try and make sense of the chaos…keep changing it as new thoughts occur

Step 4:            Gather together all the brilliant writing and devising from the young people together and cut and paste A LOT until it hangs together as a script, adding a sonnet your own here (1) and one from the writer in residence there (2) to turn it into a cohesive whole…a script of sorts…

Step 5:            Distribute said script to youth theatre performers along with all the information you think they will need.  Schedule rehearsals within the remainder of the week…realise Monday is already over…

Step 6:            Spend 2 fab days in Wakefield Primary schools playing with the idea of stories creating a wealth of original worlds, characters and stories…enjoy a visit from the writer in residence, negotiate with parents and teachers about the possibility of getting children to the performance…accept that Tuesday and Wednesday have come and gone

Step 7:            Fit in rehearsals where possible, write a poem inspired by the creativity of the school children (3) ask someone to perform it, feel relief and gratitude when they agree…

Step 8:            Take an evening off and be reenergized and revitalized by the wit and wonderfulness of Simon Amitage….acknowledge that Friday has come to a close and the performance

Step 9:            Squeeze in last minute rehearsals, run throughs, do some running around with tealights and torches and then, once the audience is in place, begin…watch with gratified awe as talented, brilliant young people rise to the occasion beautifully and acknowledge that in that place, at that time something unique and lovely has happened (4)

Step 10:            Sleep soundly with a sense of accomplishment and thanks…

(1) The Joys of Story

I once heard it said,

Wakefield children have no imagination,

But I’m here to assert

(With a sense of outraged consternation.)

That this lie is most certainly untrue.

Given the chance

They fly unfettered in full flights of fancy.

There are simply no bounds

To their passion for lovely literacy…

They are full of the joy of story

I myself saw them make

A wealth of characters with new worlds to house them.

A rockodile with boulders for hands

In the centre of its forehead a gem…

Without which it falls down dead

There were mermaids,

Whose precious pearl was stolen by pirates

Whilst they slept on the ocean floor.

But they finally one upped these tyrants…

The pirates were unimpressed

An improbable jungle

Where a good looking, happy panda resided

And a poisonous tree frog to boot.

There was drama when explorer and jungle collided…

And the traveler did not survive

Then a couple of pretty princesses

Who tragically lost their jeweled crowns

Happily the thief was apprehended

And a beaming smile replaced their frowns…

Whist the robber was thrown in jail

There were

Sleepovers and battles and time and space travel

Comedy and tragedy, laughter and tears

There were pet shops, the owner began to unravel…

When a hooligan threw her in a pond

Such a wealth of delights

A celebration of minds open to the glory

Of reading and writing of words and ideas

Of the wonderful joys found in story…

To inspire them through all their years.

© Sarah Osborne 2012

(2) Sonnet: Words in Art

If Man is this world’s brightest only hope

And from all other creatures set apart,

Should we not strive to understand the scope

Of what we can achieve through words in art.

I search in all I meet for true compassion

In a world that often instigates despair,

Knowing what we need is clear connection

Conviction those around sincerely care.

If we could shed the chains of pride and glory,

Beat insidious fear and envy to the dust,

See beauty in each friend and stranger’s story,

Refrain from sinking into empty lust.

The world would be a place that we could live in,

A place where every gift desired is given.

© Sarah Osborne 2012

(3) Sonnet: On Reading

I have fought in the wars of Greece and Troy,

Explored countries I had not thought to find,

Sailed the Amazon’s length while still a boy,

And lived in a serial killer’s mind.

I have dreamed the madness of poets’ dreams

And laughed, and gasped and wept at others’ lives,

Learned that nothing is ever what it seems,

And the human spirit always survives.

How do I know and feel all these things,

In a life of living in one place?

I have not met with wars, or want, or kings,

No marks of torture on my heart or face;

But I’ve known ‘the thousand natural shocks,’

Gained understanding from the worlds in books.

© James Nash 2012

(4) Something that wouldn’t have been possible without the brilliant Yew Tree

artists and Youth Theatre, James Nash AKA The Wise Writer in Residence, Beam,

The Orangery and Arts Council England