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Bailey with the first of our farewell blogs of this year before he moves to Liverpool to study at University

It’s interesting being part of the ever-growing, and increasingly exciting tapestry of YTYT alumni. Departing after a brief but brilliant sixteen month stint, means I’ve had a fair range of experiences and memories with both Gold Company, and even my handful of sessions at Black, and that I now get to watch on as a follower and supporter of the youth theatre.
Man oh man. Where to start. The first few sessions at Gold were fun. I started with two fellow newcomers, for the sake of discretion let’s call them ‘Don’ and ’Pam’. We decided to join Yew Tree as a means of keeping up with each other, having been split by the cruel mistress of sixth form education. Games were played, fun was had, and bonds were formed, and as 2015 slipped through our grasp, Don and Pam and I became divided across Gold and Black Company. By the time the new year dawned I remained a loyal member of Gold, whereas Don and Pam had graduated to Black.
I’ve learnt a lot from my time at Yew Tree. Sarah’s offered me chance to work as a videographer on numerous things and, in my clumsy-but-not-in-a-charming-way nature, I’ve botched a fair few of them. Embarrassing though they were, I’ve learnt from these mistakes, and I’m so grateful for Sarah’s willingness to give me opportunity after opportunity to prove myself. The greatest of these opportunities, I think, was the chance to direct my first short film: The Detective Collective. In my brief and questionable experience as a ‘filmmaker’, one thing has always remained true: I really, really, really love it. And this experience was no different. It was unique, collaborative, and FUN. Man, was it fun. And I could stand here and tear it to pieces, picking out every mistake I made and every rule I broke. But I’d rather talk about how insanely fun it was to shoot a lightsaber fight. Or how challenging it was to figure out how to cover my own plot holes in a single shot. The act of making something, for me, is more important than the product. The three months we spent shooting the short were impossibly more valuable than the resulting sixteen minutes. The sixteen months I spent at YTYT are more valuable than any one show, or performance.
My only regret is that we didn’t spend more time doing all this cool stuff.
Thanks YTYT, I’ll be back in a bit.

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