A blog about blogging...

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Last week there were over 400 hits on the blogs…that’s an awful lot of people having the curiosity and making the time to read about the thoughts, experiences and reflections of a youth theatre director and the actors she directs.  They were a particular good crop of blogs I thought…indeed I am often impressed by the standard of guest blogs and the range of people who offer them.  I like the fact that new members share their thoughts along side very much established members and that sometimes their parents get involved too!
Including those posted this week there have been 652 blogs posted in the four and a half years since we launched the “This Week at Yew Tree” blog on the 27th of March 2009.  That’s over 230 blogs written by me (the most popular one being this) and a staggering 420 guest blogs (the one with the most hits being this one.)  I don’t have the stats on how many people have contributed but it’s a lot and I’m so very grateful to all of them to contributing to what has become a rich archive and legacy of YTYT.
My point with all of this is to encourage you to be part of this legacy…sometimes happily I have people at the end of a session asking if they can blog which invariably makes my day.  Sometimes people respond quickly to my weekly call out…occasionally I have to beg someone to step up to the challenge.  Thankfully never has the guest slot been empty and gratifyingly some weeks like last week I get 4 guest bloggers.
The blog is there to celebrate the good times and reflect on the challenges…it’s there to share insights and to ask questions…it’s an opportunity to let other companies know what you are up to or contemplate discoveries.  It’s literally all about you and your relationship with the youth theatre and all that you encounter there…it’s a chance to have a voice and be part of something significant. 
The fact that you are reading this means you’re at least 50% sold on this but only a proportion of you blog for us so my request is that you share your experiences whenever you can…feel confident that your opinion matters and is interesting.  Blogging is simple, you write down what’s on your mind…whatever you have discovered or enjoyed or thought about or found difficult.  If you have a lot of time you craft it carefully if not you make it spontaneous and then you send it to me and I post it up…couldn’t be easier…I look forward to hearing from you…

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