Chloe's Leavers Blog - finally :)

Clair - YTYT champion and parent is our guest blogger this week!

This week our youngest son, Oliver (7), took part in a “Play in a Day” workshop at Yew Tree.

Oliver has been a member of Orange Company for three years, but he was apprehensive - what if he didn’t know anyone?  We dropped him off at ten o-clock, excited and maybe a bit nervous.

At half past two we returned to see what he had been doing.

In less than five hours (including lunch) the group had devised and rehearsed “Alice in Wonderland”. The story was condensed into fifteen minutes, but it was all there – the White Rabbit, the Tea Party, the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, Croquet and Off With Their Heads! 

Everyone had a big smile and had clearly had a great time, and were thoroughly enjoying showing their parents what they had achieved.  A special mention should go to the brilliant “Alice” who was full of feist, but everyone played their parts with energy and joyfulness.

Oliver whirled around the room; he was the spinning rabbit-hole, a croquet-player, a rose-painting playing card, a noisy court spectator. He threw himself into it, body and soul, and beamed with pride as we all applauded.

On the way home he chatted about the new friends he had made and the games they had played.  

I thought about all the other things he had done as well. He’s worked with a team of young people he has never met before. He has been part of a creative process, with them. He has learned about story-telling, and character, and performance. All this, and no pencils, or pens, or books, or screens.

Oliver loves performing. He is that child at the pantomime, joining in with all the actions and the songs and the “it’s behind you!”, jumping up and down when the dame asks for a volunteer. He has always had a great imagination, demonstrated by the sometimes downright bizarre questions he asks. He loves telling stories, but the whole business of pencils, paper and spelling get in the way when he tries to write them down.

That’s why he needs Yew Tree.

Our older son William is also a member of Orange Company. He didn’t take part in Play in a Day though after he’d watched the performance, and listened to Oliver enthuse, I think he wishes he had. 

At nearly ten years old, and about to move up to Middle School, William sometimes feels he is too grown-up for games, and making things up. Is it cool, he wonders?  

He still needs to play, of course. He plays all the time at home, when no one is watching.  We tell him it’s good to play, but obviously, being his parents, we know nothing.

It matters to William how people see him. He doesn’t want to look silly.  He wants to fit in.

Fortunately, William has some great role models to look to when he has these doubts. The older members of the youth theatre, and the young drama leaders at Orange Company, are most definitely cool, and they play games, don’t they?  

Reassured, he can throw himself into another session of Beans, and Ninja Warrior, and Golden Bridge, with renewed enthusiasm.  He can play, and make things up, with everyone at Youth Theatre, and he fits right in.

That’s why he needs Yew Tree.

And actually, I need Yew Tree too. In the middle of the weekly battle of spellings, times tables, and comprehensions versus Mario Kart, Mine Craft and everything else, Yew Tree is a space where our kids can go to imagine, and to create, and to play - and where we can all be reminded why that is so important.