In praise of openness and generosity!

-


Taking a break from all things YTYT is not something I care for and so it doesn’t happen very often, however this weekend I did just that.  Needless to say I missed you all lots and the fantastic blogs from Crimson have underlined that greatly but I have to say I had a brilliant couple of days.
Firstly I went to the Directors weekend for Connections –it was marvellous  I met up with old acquaintances that I have at some time worked or trained with, I met new acquaintances and discovered connections with them and I discussed our play which is going to be a wonderful challenge.  As an added bonus I’ve brought back a whole bag of physical and vocal exercises and techniques to enrich our productions and enhance our skills.  It was great to have some time to reflect on what we do and how we do it and think about what else we can do to ensure our work is as inspiring and brilliant as possible.  What struck me throughout the weekend was the generosity and openness with which practitioners, teachers and writers shared their ideas and insights.  Rarely do you get the chance to meet with so many like minded people and benefit from their wealth of experience.   Incidentally the playwright that has written our play – Sam Holroyd is possibly one of the most generous and responsive writers I have ever come across…we chose wisely!
My second stop of the weekend was to Knaresborough where a group of actors assembled to learn about the craft of acting with me as the tutor.  Now having arrived back in Wakefield from London at 12.30 this morning it was somewhat of a wrench to leave it again before 8am but I’m ever so glad I did.  18 people from as far from Knaresborough as Whitby, Sheffield, Bradford and Bingley in addition to more locally based actors devoted their Sunday to the exploration of voice, physicality and characterisation.  Once more I was treated to a full blown display of generosity and openness as they jumped in feet first absorbing information, experimenting with techniques and reflecting on their experiences.  We covered so much ground in the 6 hours we shared it was a truly brilliant day.
Happily my break was both productive and stimulating needless to say however I CANNOT wait to get my hands on Sapphire tomorrow!


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