-
Toni is our excellent guest blogger this week...

Connections is back! You probably weren't very aware that it was away because of how quick it seems to have been since we performed Hacktivists at Kendal but we're more than ready to say 'welcome back' to the 5-7 Saturday night slot. And so, with a few extra recruits for this year, tonight's rehearsal was the first read through with the set casts and a time for us to discuss our thoughts on the play Eclipse and the partner piece we are creating along side it: The Darkness in the Light.
The thing that struck me the most while listening to the read through was how utterly different Eclipse is from Hacktivists. Pretty much the entirety of the play is written in verse with rhymes- a complete contrast to the naturalist dialogue of last year. Hearing the lines read out, though, suddenly gave parts of the play a definite eerie sense and others a more playful feel that works very well- especially with the links of paganism and rituals- and it seems the Eclipse casts are going to have a lot of fun creating the rhythm for the play.
Having not been at the auditions last week, this was the first time we, the Darkness in the Light cast, have heard the play out loud- and that's when it seems to piece itself together. Already, there have been so many ideas thrown about for how character's could be portrayed and how they could do it. The twins (Polly and Jane), played by Charlotte and Eve in the cast we were listening to, particularly caught my interest as dynamic characters whose bond changes throughout the play. Hearing Charlotte and Eve bring the characters to life seemed to make even more apparent the use of rituals other than the obvious ones in the play and while the eclipse is happening. It also made you slightly uneasy at how in tune Polly and Jane are with each other which will only get stronger throughout the rehearsals- exciting!
Lastly to touch on the partner piece, as we're devising it ourselves, it could take us anywhere and I am so excited to get started on it! We'll be looking at the light, dark, sun and moon in the play and bringing it together with the previously mentioned connotations of paganism and rituals. With us about to start some research I can already tell we'll be coming out of rehearsals on a Saturday night feeling way more knowledgable and thoughtful than before, which might get tiresome for my parents on a Saturday night, but will no doubt contribute to the audiences thoughts about the story when we perform in February.
Effectively, we've just set off on 2015s connections journey and it's looking like it's going to be a great one! Eclipse definitely seem like the type of play that we can constantly keep revealing things about each character and so always keeping us intrigued and it has a great platform to create another piece off entirely from scratch- bring on next week!

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