-
Yasmin is our second guest blogger...

So Sarah asked me to write a blog about my first term at RADA and sitting on the train back to London ready to start term two tomorrow feels like pretty good timing to reflect! Its a funny one because I spent so long trying to get a place and imagining what it would be like when I did and constantly saying ‘yes I know its going to be hard work but I’m ready’ but it turns out there’s a big difference between being aware something is going to be difficult and actually experiencing it.
I really have loved my time so far and even on days when I’ve really struggled, I still absolutely wanted to be there struggling. For me, two of the most difficult things about my first term have been letting go of any expectations I had about drama school and just going with whatever is asked of us without questioning it and secondly, dealing with how personal the course is. You have to focus so much on yourself which is a surprisingly hard thing to do. I learnt more about myself in those first twelve weeks than I have in years and I would never have believed that I would have done before I set off in September.
Something that’s been amazing is meeting so many new people and getting to know them so well; my year have been so supportive and lovely and I can’t imagine doing drama school without them.
Its quite hard to reflect too much on the term because its been a bit of a blur! There’s been a lot of lying on the floor, breathing, confusion and homelessness which is a ridiculous yet accurate description. But if anyone applying to drama school is reading this then the best advice I can give after term one is prepare yourself to be open and honest and know that so much of who you are and what you’ve experienced will come into your training (both acting and life related) and so experience what you can while you can!
I’ve had a lovely and relaxing break but I’m ready and raring for a new term (this time with an actual house to live in)!

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