Company

I have been thinking a lot about the concept of company this week.  It’s a long time now since we decided to create names for each of the groups of YTYT – and when we did there was a lot of debate about what we should go with – numbers were considered but we didn’t like the idea of there being a hierarchy between the groups…we even at one time dallied with idea of naming them after dragons but didn’t think it would catch on (I was a little bit sad when we let that idea go.)  In the end we went with colours hence the arrival of Purple, Crimson, Gold, Sapphire, Ruby, Black and later Jade and Orange were added…other companies have run their natural course – we’ve had Green, Red, Amber and Ivory – the latter of which at times makes a happy resurgence when it’s needed.  There are also others about to be named – we may well be adding a Scarlet Company to our ranks in the very near future and the grown up group is getting to the point of entitlement.  Each group was named with care and attention – the members of the company at the time short-listed and voted the colour they wanted to have as  their identity…once the decision had been made we finally we had a way of talking about the companies that didn’t involve having to go through the place they were running in, the person who directed them and the day they met…at this moment the rainbow of YTYT was born.

Throughout all the controversy about the first word of the group names the word that was never up for debate was company – it’s something I feel really strongly about – the word for me is exactly what I’m trying to achieve in terms of the culture of the youth theatre.  There are lots of reasons for this and many of them were illustrated over the last week:

·      Only in a company would we be able to create a set of costumes for actors to be furniture for Beauty and the Beast with barely any budget and in only an afternoon as Black Company did, with, of course, a lot of help from Gemma.  Essentially what happened here was a group of people solving, what I feared were insurmountable problems, with ease and loveliness

·      This same company organised themselves to go and sort out costume at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, under the excellent guidance of Louis, to fix a myriad of other costume challenges

·      Only a company could create a script in 6 weeks that is an absolute joy as Sapphire company have done over the last few weeks with the Princess and the Frog

·      Only a company could come up with a brilliant set of speeches about what is valuable in the world as Gold Company have done for our performance of Plinth

·      Only a company could support each other and congratulate each other for the distance travelled in bravery and artistry as the adult company have – and to be honest as all of the YTYT companies do on a week to week basis

·      And finally only a company could have dived into to waters both new and slightly terrifying as the actors from WLOG did this weekend making excellent discoveries with enthusiasm and generosity

YTYT and the work I do is built on the ethos of company and this week as is the case in many weeks I am very grateful for it…