The one and only Sam MG ladies and gentlemen,,,
know that guest blog’s usually just surmise the week in Yew Tree, but as this is my first ever one (I honestly don’t know how Sarah has let me get away with it for nine months) then I wanted to just do a tad more. From day one, I’ve had a weird relationship with Yew Tree Youth Theatre. The idea of waking up at 9am every Saturday morning (as a Gold Company member) seemed alien – and, quite frankly, absurd – even though I knew I was going to enjoy the three hours I spent performing theatrics to my heart’s content. It would get to Friday night and a feeling of dread would enter my stomach, knowing that I’d have more or less the same amount of sleep I get when I have to go to college the next day; and yet, not a single moment passes in those three hours in which I feel discontented. This, to put it simply, offbeat relationship doubled recently with the start of Connections. 5 until 7 on a late Saturday afternoon seems simply inconvenient – could I not be working, making money at this time, or getting ready for a party? – yet, when I step into the acting space at Sarah Thomas’s I enjoy every moment of it. Connections challenges me and my acting skills, pushing me to the boundary of taking chances with my role, having to truly understand the character and the situation that they are in. For a person whose real previous theatrical roles have been the comic relief character, playing a whimsical and yet darkly messed-up character isn’t the usual for me – but I love what the challenge makes me do. This week, a conglomeration of Orange, Purple, Sapphire, Crimson, Gold, and Black Company came together to perform the Youth Theatre’s Christmas Showcase; two hours of festive frivolity, ranging from Purple’s story of the Christmas Lights to Black’s autumnal, physical retelling of Red Riding Hood. As part of Gold Company, I took great joy in performing in ‘The Snow Queen’, an adaptation of the fairy tale written by Hand Christian Andersen in 1844. Whilst backstage is almost always the funniest part of performing for an actor, unfortunately what happens backstage stays backstage so I can’t recount any tale of that to the reader. Onstage, I played The Robber on Wednesday night – particularly loving doing my best Danny Dyer impression for the role – and Kai on Thursday, the manipulated boy who has to be saved from the icy grasps of the Snow Queen herself. I felt at home on the stage these two nights and am hugely thankful to those who came to see us perform. Congratulations to all of those who performed, especially my comrades in Gold Company whom I know worked hard for the past few months to make a masterful performance on those nights. The next of my Yew Tree antics for the week was only the night after, when Ysanne hosted a party. Once again, what happens at the party stays at the party, all I can say is that I’m glad I was in attendance. When my alarm went off on Saturday morning, even my raging tiredness couldn’t stop the feeling in my stomach dropping – why, oh why, after a week of waking up at 6am, not getting home until 10 because of the shows, and then an outrageous night at a party was I waking up so early? Did I value Gold Company that much? In short, the answer was yes. I’ve come to realise that, whatever we do at Yew Tree, chances are I will enjoy myself for the few hours I am involved in it. On Saturday morning we enjoyed a prolonged games session and, even though I can barely remember the rules to any of them (as Sarah knows), the enjoyment was high. I partook in my first ever game of ‘Ratchet Screwdriver’, which was a real experience, yet I don’t believe the oath we swore before it would hold up if I went to someone about how much my knee is hurting; I personally blame Tom. I believe that night was our fourth Connections session, and I dare say it was the best yet. We started to break down not only the characters we play but also those we interact with, beginning to find the intricacies with their back stories and the intricacies of acting them. I truly believe that I started to find who ‘Glue Boy’ – the character I play – really is; how to portray him, how to embody him, how to be him. But this is only the start, we still have many sessions to successfully break down all of the characters, all of the context that we are placed in, and how to present this to the audience. I, for one, cannot wait for the performance showcase in Kendal. So this brings me to the end of the week, the end of this guest blog. I’ve written my true thoughts about Yew Tree here and, as I it here at midnight, almost too tired to keep my eyes open and needing to go to sleep as we have one more performance of ‘The Snow Queen’ on Sunday morning, I truly hope that you have enjoyed this read. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Have a merry Christmas, everyone, and I shall hopefully see you all in some Yew Tree-related event in 2016.
know that guest blog’s usually just surmise the week in Yew Tree, but as this is my first ever one (I honestly don’t know how Sarah has let me get away with it for nine months) then I wanted to just do a tad more. From day one, I’ve had a weird relationship with Yew Tree Youth Theatre. The idea of waking up at 9am every Saturday morning (as a Gold Company member) seemed alien – and, quite frankly, absurd – even though I knew I was going to enjoy the three hours I spent performing theatrics to my heart’s content. It would get to Friday night and a feeling of dread would enter my stomach, knowing that I’d have more or less the same amount of sleep I get when I have to go to college the next day; and yet, not a single moment passes in those three hours in which I feel discontented. This, to put it simply, offbeat relationship doubled recently with the start of Connections. 5 until 7 on a late Saturday afternoon seems simply inconvenient – could I not be working, making money at this time, or getting ready for a party? – yet, when I step into the acting space at Sarah Thomas’s I enjoy every moment of it. Connections challenges me and my acting skills, pushing me to the boundary of taking chances with my role, having to truly understand the character and the situation that they are in. For a person whose real previous theatrical roles have been the comic relief character, playing a whimsical and yet darkly messed-up character isn’t the usual for me – but I love what the challenge makes me do. This week, a conglomeration of Orange, Purple, Sapphire, Crimson, Gold, and Black Company came together to perform the Youth Theatre’s Christmas Showcase; two hours of festive frivolity, ranging from Purple’s story of the Christmas Lights to Black’s autumnal, physical retelling of Red Riding Hood. As part of Gold Company, I took great joy in performing in ‘The Snow Queen’, an adaptation of the fairy tale written by Hand Christian Andersen in 1844. Whilst backstage is almost always the funniest part of performing for an actor, unfortunately what happens backstage stays backstage so I can’t recount any tale of that to the reader. Onstage, I played The Robber on Wednesday night – particularly loving doing my best Danny Dyer impression for the role – and Kai on Thursday, the manipulated boy who has to be saved from the icy grasps of the Snow Queen herself. I felt at home on the stage these two nights and am hugely thankful to those who came to see us perform. Congratulations to all of those who performed, especially my comrades in Gold Company whom I know worked hard for the past few months to make a masterful performance on those nights. The next of my Yew Tree antics for the week was only the night after, when Ysanne hosted a party. Once again, what happens at the party stays at the party, all I can say is that I’m glad I was in attendance. When my alarm went off on Saturday morning, even my raging tiredness couldn’t stop the feeling in my stomach dropping – why, oh why, after a week of waking up at 6am, not getting home until 10 because of the shows, and then an outrageous night at a party was I waking up so early? Did I value Gold Company that much? In short, the answer was yes. I’ve come to realise that, whatever we do at Yew Tree, chances are I will enjoy myself for the few hours I am involved in it. On Saturday morning we enjoyed a prolonged games session and, even though I can barely remember the rules to any of them (as Sarah knows), the enjoyment was high. I partook in my first ever game of ‘Ratchet Screwdriver’, which was a real experience, yet I don’t believe the oath we swore before it would hold up if I went to someone about how much my knee is hurting; I personally blame Tom. I believe that night was our fourth Connections session, and I dare say it was the best yet. We started to break down not only the characters we play but also those we interact with, beginning to find the intricacies with their back stories and the intricacies of acting them. I truly believe that I started to find who ‘Glue Boy’ – the character I play – really is; how to portray him, how to embody him, how to be him. But this is only the start, we still have many sessions to successfully break down all of the characters, all of the context that we are placed in, and how to present this to the audience. I, for one, cannot wait for the performance showcase in Kendal. So this brings me to the end of the week, the end of this guest blog. I’ve written my true thoughts about Yew Tree here and, as I it here at midnight, almost too tired to keep my eyes open and needing to go to sleep as we have one more performance of ‘The Snow Queen’ on Sunday morning, I truly hope that you have enjoyed this read. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Have a merry Christmas, everyone, and I shall hopefully see you all in some Yew Tree-related event in 2016.
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