Sprightly Springlikeness

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There is a sprightly feel to Yew Tree Youth Theatre this weekend…it’s as if we are determined to have a Spring regardless of the strange and chaotic weather.  Everything is new, with a myriad of new projects just launched.  Gold and Crimson began working on their next pieces for a June performance at The Theatre Royal Wakefield.   Entertainingly Gold’s involved exploring Shakespearean insults, among other things, there are some choice examples now plastered over the facebook wall.  Black Company also took the first steps towards their next production a series of scenes inspired by music and its influence on us and our relationships.  It seems like every day this week there has been something new to consider or an opportunity to take.  I have to admit the pace at which everything is happening is enough to make you dizzy but none the less it feels exciting, full of energy and adventure.
Incidentally on the theme of all things new, a new term often brings new members and one of those this term is Sian.  She’s our guest blogger this week with a piece that encapsulates all that excitement and energy I was on about, so take a read.
On more familiar territory and in some ways more substantive there have been some interesting innovations to our work in more established elements of YTYT.  The first is Connections – as I blogged last week we are back in rehearsal to perform at Kendal.  Yesterday’s rehearsal was a delight because despite the familiarity of the play the cast utterly stepped up to the challenge of finding more, of discovering what they hadn’t seen before and being brave enough to tackle things previously untried.  As a result a whole rainbow of shiny newness was created.  The energy and sense of achievement at the end was nothing short of magic!  For proof read Emma’s guest blog…
Which brings me to my final observation of this week at YTYT.  As most of you know Black Company are the oldest most experienced company of the Youth Theatre and in some ways my most challenging as I have been teaching and directing a lot of them for years…some of them over a decade.  I always have an eye on the fact that I need to keep offering them different adventures and that there is a risk of complacency.  I have been reassured entirely this week with the amount of the members of the company that have put themselves up for a new challenge or expressed a desire to try their hand at something different in the next project.  It gladdens me that in the first instance they are looking for that challenge and in the second they believe they will find it in YTYT.
Like I said a welcome spring like freshness in the air at Yew Tree at odds with the force 10 gale howling outside as I type…

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