To the cast of The Nutcracker...

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When you start on a youth theatre project you have many hopes.  You hope that you have made the right choices when you chose the story, the theme and the way you would communicate it.  You hope that you have the right people on board and that you have cast them in the right roles.  You hope you have the resources, the skill and the energy to see it to the end successfully.  You hope that you can at least live up to people’s expectations (of course what you really hope is that you exceed them.)  My overriding hope however is invariably that the young people involved get something out of it – that they enjoy it but also that in the course of the project they learn something about themselves, their potential and what they can achieve it.  I want them to be able to look back at the end of it and see how far they have travelled.

The reason I bring this up is that this week will witness the final chapter of The Nutcracker…as we do our final dress rehearsals and then move into the theatre at the end of the week.  This time next week (I’m writing this at 6pm on Sunday) we will be about to perform our final show.  it’s been a truly amazing project to be part of.  I started writing in August last year and since then I’ve been directing it as the talented teachers of West Yorkshire Theatre Dance School have choreographed and polished dance after dance and the students have grafted so very hard to bring all of our ideas to reality.  On Friday and Saturday I sat back and watched the rehearsals so very impressed by the accomplishments of the performers…they have travelled the most astonishing distance…watching them literally takes my breath away and brings a lump to my throat because we’ve seen them scale mountains they didn’t think they could, had the stamina to run miles they’d no idea they would and become more than we could have hoped for…

My hope now?  That they enjoy every moment of the next week making the most of what they have achieved and making memories that will never leave them nor the friends and family that come to see their performances…

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