-

Sam W is our other blogger of the week...

Greetings! It has been a while since I have blogged and with all the opportunities to do so I feel as if I have been doing a disservice, especially since writing the odd blog is rather an enjoyable experience. So, a quick summary of Sapphire company this Monday.

Now, I must say that improvisation is hardly something I feel comfortable with. When I heard that is what we were doing, I had the little devil on my shoulder whispering into my ear about how disastrous it could be and how wrong it could go. A weakness of mine is most certainly my need for some sort of plan before I do anything. For that reason, I decided that a session on improvisation would do me no end of good and I should pull my act together.

We started with a quick Magic Box sesh. Pulling things from the front of your mind rather from its depths, it transpired, is the key to coming up with things quickly and smoothly and very often humorously. So, comedy doesn’t always have to be carefully crafted the way one builds an Eiffel tower of cards… An item which was rather conveniently pulled out from my box at one point. Smooth.

I think that playing Yes But was the most wonderful experience of my entire week. Before today, someone may suggest such a game - with undying enthusiasm - and I would merely “Meh” in relative indifference. Change was bought to my opinion today after trekking across the world’s 5 different biomes, encountering such things as melancholy sharks and veils of darkness. Moving around really bought another aspect to the game and helped our ideas to bounce from one another into what I would consider a masterpiece, which, if written down, could surely be thought of as a revolutionary step into great modern literature.

Make It was as brilliant as ever.

Our creative task, in pairs, was to come up with 5 different ways to show the meaning behind the words:
“Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
“Okay then.”
to rather humorous effect. From wild shindigs to broken nails and uncontrollable sobbing, there was a veritable cornucopia of settings and backstories. I don’t know if I am allowed to suggest this, but, it may cheer you up to think of a few of your own and practice them with yourself in the mirror. It is certainly how I will be spending my Saturday nights from now on. In all seriousness though, the variety of combinations was awe-inspiring and left me feeling much better about improvisation than before. I await next week’s Improvisation: Part II with much anticipation.

Finally, a quick shout out to those people who came to Sapphire for the first time today. Welcome. Do not resist the urge to become a ridiculous creature.

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