What's happening at YTYT

I often ask people in my role of director and facilitator to try and walk in someone else’s shoes for a while…it’s vital for both actors and indeed anyone who wants to understand the world a little better.   We can so easily get locked into a way of seeing the world which means we miss so much or fail to understand why people behave the way they do resulting in dismissal or condemnation.   I can’t count the amount of times I hear someone say something or read a status/tweet/ and wished that the speaker (or typer) had taken a moment consider things from a different perspective… Well yesterday I spent the majority of the day walking or rather jumping, turning and at times shuffling in a dance teachers shoes.   I was helping out my colleagues and friends at WYTDC and in so doing I got the chance to spend a very enjoyable Saturday, which was somewhat different to the norm. So many new faces and an entirely different set of creative challenges resulted in a very charming theatre craft

Our guest blogger is the lovely Georgia The start of the summer holidays usually means that there's a lack of rehearsals, however that is not the case this year, along with summer project, rehearsals for the 20th anniversary celebrations are well under way.  This years summer project is based on Robin Hood, but it is a more modern approach to the story. It's called 'Brin and his everyday heroes'. So far we have had two sessions; to devise new material, and read through the script. The read through was really useful to see the shape of the play, and to see the bonds between characters start to develop. The project has had a change of scenery this year, moving from Nostil Priory to the Hepworth in Wakefield. The new venue helps to develop the play as the playground in which it will be staged helps create the atmosphere for the play perfectly. Rehearsals for Mugged are going very well, as all cast members are making more and more discoveries each week. This week we f

I got the rare chance to go visit Crimson Company yesterday…it was lovely to check in with youth theatre members I don’t normally get the chance to see unless we’re in the middle of Christmas shows.   Under the care and inspiration of Gemma they are a lovely set of young people who like Gold Company spend their Saturdays exploring, collaborating and playing. At the moment they have exciting things going on as they are creating a new play for our 20 th birthday celebrations.   It will explore the role of women over the last 8 decades and is inspired by a picture of   a 1930’s Miss Wakefield that no one can find the identity of…I love the idea of delving into history to see what can be discovered and am very much looking forward to seeing their creation.   It’s another brilliant example of actors creating a piece of theatre that teaches them something about the individuals and communities who built the foundations they now stand on and in so doing something about themselves.   In Septe

Gillian Walmsley...member of Silver Company - our company for Grown Ups and Mum to Lauren member of Sapphire with her debut blog... I am new to writing blogs but I wanted to try to show Sarah how good Yew Tree is.  She does a marvellous job with all the young people in Wakefield from the young to now the more mature. I'm a parent myself to a girl who goes to one of the Yew Tree groups: Sapphire and she loves it, it has given her confidence to speak out and make new friendships so when I found out about Sarah starting a new Yew Tree group this year for adults I decided to give it a go. I don't have much confidence in myself or make friends easily so don't have much of a social life. The Yew Tree group for grown- ups has been going now for two terms, about ten weeks. We are called Silver Company. We have done numerous things like Physical Theatre, which I really like, and doing plays/scripts by   different playwrights such as Noel Coward, Shakespeare etc. Some we

I woke up yesterday morning feeling more than a little daunted...for an outline of the day I had in store you can do no better than reading this weeks guest blog by Sam Winder...I'm going to endeavour not to repeat his blog from a parallel perspective but instead share with you the realisation that became a theme of my day... So first off I had Gold Company...it was a great session - people were back after breaks, we had a new starter...we read our new play which I'm more than a little pleased with and we said goodbye to Matthew.  Now Matthew has no desire to be a prfessional actor and I think it's safe to say that drama, performance and therefore YTYT at first took him pretty much out of his comfort zone however pretty much every term time Saturday for over 3 years he's been at Gold Company.  There are a hundreds of reasons as to why he could have stopped bothering...he had to travel quite a distance each week, the friend he originally came with stopped coming, n

Sam Winder is the guest blogger... Saturday became something of a packed day, but you can’t really complain when it is packed full of YTYT, let’s be honest. Gold company fell victim to one of my infamous gatecrashes again so I was lucky enough to listen in to the read through of their Christmas show, “The Snow Queen.” It was unusual to be sitting in on the initial steps of a play with a company I am not strictly part of but at the same time it meant I could focus on the play itself rather than where I would place myself within it. This play, as one of the lesser known fairytales – it is not Disney’s Frozen, I assure you - was an honour to listen to; I feel like we almost owe it to Anderson to share it, minus the disneyfication. With friendship being a central idea, The Snow Queen is a play that we can all relate to and, I have utter faith in Gold Company to produce something real and honest. We played lots of games too, that was good. From Gold Company, three of us from Sa

The Summer YTYT term is definitely winding down and as it does the structure of our weekly sessions gradually melts into the freedom of summer.   There is, as always, such a sense of achievement…almost all of this terms performances have been successfully staged with the exception of Sapphire’s creativity piece which is happening next Saturday at Ossett Gala.   More than that we've welcomed new members, celebrated individual members successes, been brave enough to accept challenges and said some fond farewells...ooh and we've pretty much finished the recording for a full length radio play of Rivers of London :) Despite this winding down of the regular sessions YTYT are going to be far from sleepy in the summer months – first off we have to write, rehearse and perform a play in less than a month.   On the 31 st of July, the world premiere of Brin and his Everyday Heroes will be performed at the playground of The Hepworth, Wakefield by 24 Yew Tree members.   The concept be

Ellen is our guest blogger... So this week has been kinda crazy. I've been on work experience with Sarah, and I've had a real look into the way Yew Tree works. I normally only get a look at the youth theatre side of Yew Tree, but it's so much more than that. For example throughout the week I've been to two schools, helped at two companies and done a lot of scrap booking. I've been able to see how Sarah works with schools to help improve literacy, confidence and decision making. The children I have worked with were wonderful, full of imagination. It reminds you how creative and free children are and how drama can help unlock that. Scrap booking was really fun, Monday and Friday, with Toni and Hollie. We managed to get a lot done but there's a lot more to be done. It was so nice looking back at all the has happened in the past years. Projects like The Sea and the Arts Party popped up that were really nostalgic. There was lots more done this week, too much to