Remembering The Oaks

-
I guess you’d be expecting another connections blog but I thought I’d mix it up a bit this week.  On Friday I got to experience something really special…I decided to use this opportunity to tell you about it.  It’s no secret that YTYT has an absolute respect and a privileged connection with the NUM in Yorkshire…we’ve performed annually at their memorial service across the length and breadth of North, South, East and West Yorkshire for pretty much the last decade.  However up until now I haven’t had the privilege of standing in the NUM hall in Barnsley amongst the colliery banners and standards, the legacy and the artifacts…I felt like the luckiest person.

I had such an inspiring afternoon talking to two men who were entirely invested in the history and heritage of their industry.  They were also utterly generous with their time, views and sincerely practical in their outlook.  It is their ambition to install a beautiful and crafted national memorial to remember the 361 victims of the worst mining disaster in England, which happened at The Oaks Colliery in Barnsley in 1856.  The statue is beautiful – or will be – I got to see a miniature of it – a figure of a woman, her baby in her arms running to the pit after the explosion.  The way the design was talked about, the artistic decisions made had be entirely captivated.   Not only that but I held a bible that had been given to one of the 361 victims family over a hundred years ago.  The whole experience was humbling and restorative all at the same time.


So what was the result of this inspirational afternoon?  In July, Black Company will perform a brand new piece of theatre inspired by The Oaks mining disaster and the ambition to remember it through art.  The play we create will be inspired by those who lost their lives in the disaster and the families that had to keep the community going despite their devastating loss.  It will also be inspired by the men who are determined to make sure they are remembered by every generation and by the sculptor that has created the most beautiful piece of public art to commemorate it…

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