Speaking authentically

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So as I am away from all things Yew Tree at the moment this, and the next couple of blogs, will have to have something of a wider theme...

Today's is inspired by my trip to Alcatraz yesterday... As I picked up the audio tour headphones ready to embark on the tour around the cell block a little bit of me was dreading the prospect of a crass, sentimentalisation of an area of American history that doesn't bare any sort of sentimentalisation...it is a serious story with mistakes and casualties...a story that deserves to be told well..

I was however very pleasantly surprised...because as it turned out the story of the building's history was told by people who had lived and worked in the prison.  Consequently it had an authenticity that was engaging rather than the focus being on mindless entertainment and was sensitively told rather than being sentimentalised and sensationalised.  I left informed yet wanting to know more as there were as many questions as answers in the tour information...I also left thinking about how it is this authenticity that I am trying to achieve every time I direct YTYT as we tell our stories...

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