Tiff is our first blogger about One Night Only
There were tears, laughter and a few tuckered out kids at the
Theatre Royale on Sunday and no, I’m not talking about the adorable little
ballet dancers that stole the show (and a few hearts
too!).
Indeed, I’m talking about the marvellous members of Gold, Black and
Crimson Company that gathered yesterday at the theatre to perform in One Night
Only along with West Yorkshire Dance Centre.
The day kicked off for me with an icy journey to the theatre, Facebook a-buzzing with excited messages about the day ahead. The Yew-tree-ers kicked off, performing pieces ranging from Gold’s hilarious History of Theatre in 15 Minutes (reduced to just 40 seconds at the end of the piece – a real feat!), Black Company’s powerful fairy-tale of Anna Rose (the final song of which I will never stop searching for) and the on-stage anthology/physical theatre piece that Crimson company lovingly laid on. The three performances were wildly different and yet, in true YTYT style, each piece was a slice of awesomeness and every actor, actress and stressed-out director sparkled.
We had a short hour-or-so break which I’ll breeze over in the way that only an excitable blog post can and jump straight to 1:30, when we were all back in the stalls of the Royale, surrounded by the ballet-shoed, costume-perfect dancers of West Yorkshire Dance Centre. Readied with sandwiches and much needed energy drinks, we began our full run through, in which we smugly took in the wide array of dances and enjoyed once more the wonderful YT performances in the knowledge that a great perk of acting is seeing great shows for free.
And believe me, the acts were great. From tap dancing to street dance, One Night Only was unique, fun and brilliant. The tone was electric, the theatre was as elegant as the words on stage and the YT crowd was as ready as ever, ready to take to the stage and knock ‘em dead; all of which culminated in…
The wait.
I learnt a very important thing about acting on Sunday. People may tell you that it is all about the ability to command the stage, to project your voice, to captivate an audience but if there is one piece of advice I will give to you, one YT member to another, it is this: Acting requires the ability to wait. And a good selection of ham and cheese sandwiches while you do so. After the run, we had another few hours or so to wait while the final preparations were set and the show began, in which some of the craziest and best memories of the day were made. I think I can only speak on behalf on my Company here (Crimson, in case somehow you happen to not know who I am), since we’re all batscat crazy, but I for one enjoy nothing more than hanging out with my YT friends – in the snow no less – on a Sunday afternoon. Because, let’s face it, YT peeps are the best, we really are. And there’s nothing more important about Yew Tree, for me anyway, than being with awesome people.
So, eventually, performance time came for my company. A few strong volunteers were called up to carry the ballet-dancing mice across to the Theatre and we headed into the freezing cold to the waiting crowd of over 400 people that had come to see the show. I mean it, it was freezing. And most of us were only in tee shirts and leggings. Even though I’m currently sat, warmly, in front of my computer, I still feel the cold breeze and, yes, the snow, which was trying to claw up my leg. I think I’m just talking about Crimson here again, but I think that some of us will be having nightmares about that cold for the next 12 months.
Luckily though, we brave soldiers trooped into the nervous bubble of air that was Backstage and waited for our time (Gemma and Sarah, who made excellent shepherds of our crazy band of Crimson-ers may say that we were anything but brave troopers and we complained the whole way in but we’ll ignore that kindly).
Personally, I’m just gonna put it out there: Crimson, we ROCKED. IT.
And though I couldn’t see the other performances, I only need to look at the run and the great actors and actresses that make up Black and Gold Companies to know that you guys did too.
All in all, Sunday was a rocket-speed flare of excitement, a cracking good day and a marvellous opportunity to showcase our brilliance (and, but of course, to be applauded for our excellence, as ever). It was a moment in time that should be placed in a glass chamber forever and cherished by all the people of the land. A tumultuous ocean that carried the sky.
“Oh no it wasn’t!” I hear you cry. Oh yes it was.
See what I did there?
Classic.
The day kicked off for me with an icy journey to the theatre, Facebook a-buzzing with excited messages about the day ahead. The Yew-tree-ers kicked off, performing pieces ranging from Gold’s hilarious History of Theatre in 15 Minutes (reduced to just 40 seconds at the end of the piece – a real feat!), Black Company’s powerful fairy-tale of Anna Rose (the final song of which I will never stop searching for) and the on-stage anthology/physical theatre piece that Crimson company lovingly laid on. The three performances were wildly different and yet, in true YTYT style, each piece was a slice of awesomeness and every actor, actress and stressed-out director sparkled.
We had a short hour-or-so break which I’ll breeze over in the way that only an excitable blog post can and jump straight to 1:30, when we were all back in the stalls of the Royale, surrounded by the ballet-shoed, costume-perfect dancers of West Yorkshire Dance Centre. Readied with sandwiches and much needed energy drinks, we began our full run through, in which we smugly took in the wide array of dances and enjoyed once more the wonderful YT performances in the knowledge that a great perk of acting is seeing great shows for free.
And believe me, the acts were great. From tap dancing to street dance, One Night Only was unique, fun and brilliant. The tone was electric, the theatre was as elegant as the words on stage and the YT crowd was as ready as ever, ready to take to the stage and knock ‘em dead; all of which culminated in…
The wait.
I learnt a very important thing about acting on Sunday. People may tell you that it is all about the ability to command the stage, to project your voice, to captivate an audience but if there is one piece of advice I will give to you, one YT member to another, it is this: Acting requires the ability to wait. And a good selection of ham and cheese sandwiches while you do so. After the run, we had another few hours or so to wait while the final preparations were set and the show began, in which some of the craziest and best memories of the day were made. I think I can only speak on behalf on my Company here (Crimson, in case somehow you happen to not know who I am), since we’re all batscat crazy, but I for one enjoy nothing more than hanging out with my YT friends – in the snow no less – on a Sunday afternoon. Because, let’s face it, YT peeps are the best, we really are. And there’s nothing more important about Yew Tree, for me anyway, than being with awesome people.
So, eventually, performance time came for my company. A few strong volunteers were called up to carry the ballet-dancing mice across to the Theatre and we headed into the freezing cold to the waiting crowd of over 400 people that had come to see the show. I mean it, it was freezing. And most of us were only in tee shirts and leggings. Even though I’m currently sat, warmly, in front of my computer, I still feel the cold breeze and, yes, the snow, which was trying to claw up my leg. I think I’m just talking about Crimson here again, but I think that some of us will be having nightmares about that cold for the next 12 months.
Luckily though, we brave soldiers trooped into the nervous bubble of air that was Backstage and waited for our time (Gemma and Sarah, who made excellent shepherds of our crazy band of Crimson-ers may say that we were anything but brave troopers and we complained the whole way in but we’ll ignore that kindly).
Personally, I’m just gonna put it out there: Crimson, we ROCKED. IT.
And though I couldn’t see the other performances, I only need to look at the run and the great actors and actresses that make up Black and Gold Companies to know that you guys did too.
All in all, Sunday was a rocket-speed flare of excitement, a cracking good day and a marvellous opportunity to showcase our brilliance (and, but of course, to be applauded for our excellence, as ever). It was a moment in time that should be placed in a glass chamber forever and cherished by all the people of the land. A tumultuous ocean that carried the sky.
“Oh no it wasn’t!” I hear you cry. Oh yes it was.
See what I did there?
Classic.
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