Jess was on work experience this week and this is her blog...
Yew Tree helps people. After shadowing Sarah for a week on work experience, I've realised amongst the four thousand six hundred and fifty two things Yew Tree undertakes a week, this is the mantra that drives the work forward and is constantly bubbling under the surface.
I have learnt Yew Tree is a company that does more than 'drama'. It develops confidence, consolidates learning, teaches children to have dreams and how to achieve them. It is for some, a path to future careers, and for others is an emotional outlet or a fun time with friends. Yew Tree can be, literally, whatever you want to make it.
As I only knew of the Youth Theatre aspect of YT, I was curious to meet the adults YT worked with, and on Monday morning we met with three writers from Wakefield attending the Telling Tales workshop, where the poems and short stories composed there will eventually be published. Walking in to St George's community centre, Sarah had told me how one of the writers "came for the chat" while the other two really enjoyed being creative and expressing themselves through words. It was when I read their work on the way to photocopy it (standard work experience task #1) for the magazine it became clear to me that Yew Tree unites people. Here were three people that on walking past them on the street, you may never associate one with another, but yet through Yew Tree and writing they had found something in common. They each used the power of poems to say something perhaps they wouldn't in a conventional conversation, and were connected by the way they used letters, words and techniques to convey their feelings.
Throughout the week we visited schools running workshops, the first being on aiming higher in education and going to university. The children in the class we worked with, two not even being able to speak English very well at all, all got truly involved and excited by the the opportunities Yew Tree highlighted in their future left the hall with a new confidence in themselves and what they were capable of.
As the course of the week continued Yew Tree helped classes of year 3's 4's and 5's with their English skills, role playing imaginary chapters from Matilda and in Dimple Well Infant School in Ossett, animated their favourite places in the local area (and created a fabulous song about the joys of Chips). On Wednesday, we even went to a school in Castleford and Yasmin, Dee and Mikey performed their 'Where Will You Stand?' piece to forty Year 5's, a workshop about bullying and the positive roles they could all play to help people. Throughout the performance the characters stopped to ask the audiences advice, and every time nearly a full class of hands flew up bursting with excitement in their ideas. In the final feedback from the class the main themes were they wished it had "been longer" and about how they could all be "champions", neither bully's nor victims but people who could in the future be a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly face and a voice of reason." Leaving that school, I think lots and lots of children will go on to be helped by "champions" at all the schools lucky enough to see the performance, prompted by the work of Yew Tree. Later that day I watched the auditions for a project at Nostell Priory and saw the professional side to Yew Tree, providing people with jobs and helping with future careers. The next day I found myself at Orange Company, where I ran my first ever Youth Theatre game and found myself speculating on the huge variety of my week, and how quickly Yew Tree jumps from children aged 6 and 7 to 19 year olds readying themselves for drama school auditions, to working with the council on a teenage pregnancy project and back to spending a day in Wakefield Theatre, where I helped build a Christmas tree and filming the beautiful tutus of elegant ballerinas.
Which nicely brings my first ever Yew Tree blog to a close, as I am going out tonight, and if you catch this in time I urge you to get to Wakefield Theatre Royal to see the work of Yew Tree, West Yorkshire Dance School and the staff at the theatre combined in the captivating final performance of the Nutcracker, which is where I'm going! Bye Lots of love Jess
Yew Tree helps people. After shadowing Sarah for a week on work experience, I've realised amongst the four thousand six hundred and fifty two things Yew Tree undertakes a week, this is the mantra that drives the work forward and is constantly bubbling under the surface.
I have learnt Yew Tree is a company that does more than 'drama'. It develops confidence, consolidates learning, teaches children to have dreams and how to achieve them. It is for some, a path to future careers, and for others is an emotional outlet or a fun time with friends. Yew Tree can be, literally, whatever you want to make it.
As I only knew of the Youth Theatre aspect of YT, I was curious to meet the adults YT worked with, and on Monday morning we met with three writers from Wakefield attending the Telling Tales workshop, where the poems and short stories composed there will eventually be published. Walking in to St George's community centre, Sarah had told me how one of the writers "came for the chat" while the other two really enjoyed being creative and expressing themselves through words. It was when I read their work on the way to photocopy it (standard work experience task #1) for the magazine it became clear to me that Yew Tree unites people. Here were three people that on walking past them on the street, you may never associate one with another, but yet through Yew Tree and writing they had found something in common. They each used the power of poems to say something perhaps they wouldn't in a conventional conversation, and were connected by the way they used letters, words and techniques to convey their feelings.
Throughout the week we visited schools running workshops, the first being on aiming higher in education and going to university. The children in the class we worked with, two not even being able to speak English very well at all, all got truly involved and excited by the the opportunities Yew Tree highlighted in their future left the hall with a new confidence in themselves and what they were capable of.
As the course of the week continued Yew Tree helped classes of year 3's 4's and 5's with their English skills, role playing imaginary chapters from Matilda and in Dimple Well Infant School in Ossett, animated their favourite places in the local area (and created a fabulous song about the joys of Chips). On Wednesday, we even went to a school in Castleford and Yasmin, Dee and Mikey performed their 'Where Will You Stand?' piece to forty Year 5's, a workshop about bullying and the positive roles they could all play to help people. Throughout the performance the characters stopped to ask the audiences advice, and every time nearly a full class of hands flew up bursting with excitement in their ideas. In the final feedback from the class the main themes were they wished it had "been longer" and about how they could all be "champions", neither bully's nor victims but people who could in the future be a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly face and a voice of reason." Leaving that school, I think lots and lots of children will go on to be helped by "champions" at all the schools lucky enough to see the performance, prompted by the work of Yew Tree. Later that day I watched the auditions for a project at Nostell Priory and saw the professional side to Yew Tree, providing people with jobs and helping with future careers. The next day I found myself at Orange Company, where I ran my first ever Youth Theatre game and found myself speculating on the huge variety of my week, and how quickly Yew Tree jumps from children aged 6 and 7 to 19 year olds readying themselves for drama school auditions, to working with the council on a teenage pregnancy project and back to spending a day in Wakefield Theatre, where I helped build a Christmas tree and filming the beautiful tutus of elegant ballerinas.
Which nicely brings my first ever Yew Tree blog to a close, as I am going out tonight, and if you catch this in time I urge you to get to Wakefield Theatre Royal to see the work of Yew Tree, West Yorkshire Dance School and the staff at the theatre combined in the captivating final performance of the Nutcracker, which is where I'm going! Bye Lots of love Jess
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