What's happening at YTYT

The second blog of today is from Connor 365 Days-A retrospective of 2018 1 NODA Mini Bubble 1 Connection Week 5 Ceasefire Babies Performances 2 Remember Where You Came From Performances 1 Open-Mic Night Rehearsals 3 Companies I’ve Worked For 1 Comet Performance 2 Miners Memorial Performances 1 Theatre Trip 2 The Three Musketeers Performances 4 Are We Going For A Spin Performances 8544+ Hours Spent as a Yew Tree Member These are just the statistics I can remember from this year, without spending hours researching them, and it’s even more impressive when you remember that a lot of people have had an even busier year at Yew Tree. So, my forth blog as a Yew Tree member is going to be a look back on the incredible that was 2018. I’ll start the remembrance train by writing about my first experience with mining, with a little play called “Remember Where You Came From” written by the talented, Alan Wood. As a boy who was born and raised in Scarborough, I’ve never

First in the double bill for today's 12 days of Christmas blog is Dec! Another year and yet another Christmas blog... 2018 you have been a treat! Once again Yew Tree has given us even more opportunities and allowed some of us to undertake an unforgettable experience. And once again within the year new people have joined the Yew Tree family whilst others have flown from the nest. So here’s a snippet of my year at Yew Tree 2018. Yew Tree taking on the National - Connections 2018 Many people throughout Yew Tree past and present know what an amazing experience national theatre connections is. But imagine that experience being heightened by saying your going to be performing at the National Theatre in London... Well that happened this year. We started our connections journey in November 2017 with a newly written play, ‘Ceasefire Babies’ by Fiona Doyle. The cast ranged from members from black, gold and sapphire, some people who had never done connections and some who had done so man

10 year old Joe is our blogger today who walked into YTYT at the start of November and bravely on stage at the start of December! On my first evening at Yew Tree everyone was really friendly and I felt able to join straight in. I was given a part as soon as I said that I wanted to go back and immediately felt a part of the group. I was excited for the next week as I enjoyed it so much. Playing the warm up games made it so much fun and I really enjoyed joining in with rehearsals for the performance. Sarah was very kind and welcoming.  We rehearsed for our Christmas performance every week after that and had a dress rehearsal on the stage which was quite exciting. I was a fox. Then it was time for the real performance and it was even more exciting. I was a bit nervous at first but it was really fun to show everybody what we had learnt. I felt proud of our performance. The older members who help are very helpful and kind. Seeing their performances too was fun as we got to see what ot

We are half way through our Christmas blogs with still many delights to share...today's blog is from Maddie who casts her mind back to our wonderful fortune in being invited to perform at the National Theatre in London! This year has brought me so many opportunities and thanks to Yew Tree, has been one of the best years of my life. The Yew Tree team are absolutely incredible human beings and i am blessed to be part of such a wonderful company! One of my highlights from this year would have to be NT Connections. Performing Ceasefire Babies has really helped me stretch as an actor performing the home performances first and then the regional and we all thought that was the end to an amazing journey, but it didn’t stop there. We got the amazing news that we had picked to go to the National Theatre in London and perform our version of Ceasefire Babies! How amazing!!! When the day had come we all got the train down to London, had a lovely picnic, watched the Connections show that ni

Today's Christmas blog shows a parents perspective on YTYT which is always a joy! Thank you Gillian! I'm a parent of a Yew Tree member who started off with Sapphire company. She's now in Gold company and loves it so much she has started volunteering for a lot of the extra projects like the Miner’s Memorial Service which this year was in Pontefract. Everyone in this was good from the youngest to the oldest and they did it again at the National miner’s museum this month. I've noticed a big difference over the years in that she has gained confidence and can learn her lines well and loves to perform in front of an audience without getting stage fright. I enjoy all the shows that Yew tree perform especially the most recent ones which were the Xmas shows at the Phoenix Theatre where all the companies get to perform. Lauren has volunteered for next year’s Connections show for the first time so I’m looking forward to seeing my first connections show. Lauren enjoys dance and

Our 4th Christmas blog is from Tom - obviously he left YTYT in September to pursue his training as an actor at Manchester School of Theatre -  but on account of the fact he lives with the director he can't really escape it altogether...as you can see from this blog thankfully he doesn't see that as a bad thing... There’s a number of ways I could’ve taken this blog. A look back at 2018 in a personal sense, or a list of Yew Tree's achievements (of which there have been several) but instead I’d like to incorporate both of those things into a collection of 5 things that made 2018 a brilliant year. So here goes… 1.      The National: now this was always going to make the list, its something that has played on the mind of everybody who has taken part in any Connection’s festival. And it was everything I could have hoped my experience of performing at one of the coolest theatres in the world could be. But the main thing I took away from it was the cast. It was stacked to th

On the third day of Christmas Yew Tree gave to me - a blog by the lovely Chloe... (try it - it goes with the melody of the song!) 2018, my second year at Yew Tree, and my first in Gold company. Moving up from Sapphire was terrifying, despite moving up with many people I already knew from Sapphire company, so I spent the first couple of months settling in (to this day, I don’t know why I was so scared, Gold company are so warm and welcoming). We opened with Remember Where You Came From, which was a music and drama fusion, where we worked with the wonderful Alan Wood to create a piece of theatre, which we performed firstly as a whole show at the NUM in Barnsley, then as a shorter version at the With Banners Held High march in Wakefield. Despite both days being cruelly hot (black boiler suits aren’t the most fun in hot weather), both performances had an air of respect and companionship, which I haven’t ever felt in a performance before. After we finished Miners, we moved onto devisin

YTYT Alumni Amy Winder is our 2nd 12 blogs of Christmas author... Although Christmas blogs at Yew Tree Youth theatre would usually be a chance to look back at the year and reflect on what has passed, and what has been achieved, I haven't actually been at Yew Tree this year so first I'm going to throw the net back a little further. For those of you who don't know I'm Amy (Winder, and yes it is necessary to specify: I was at Sapphire company for the legendary time of five Amys) and I left Yew Tree a few years ago. I'm currently a mathematics student at Heriot Watt in Edinburgh, but let's for a moment throw back to me aged eleven. I was tall for my age and an academically successful kid, with lots to say but not enough chances to say it. I decided it was time to give up dancing, and I was looking for a new extracurricular activity. And I ended up at Sapphire company on Monday nights. Over the next few years I made short walk to Sapphire - feeling vaguely grown

Our first of the 12 days of Christmas YTYT blogs is from  Lewis Giemza aged 11. I joined Sapphire about 4 months ago and this was the best decision I've ever made. The group and leader were so welcoming and I now feel part of a very special bunch of people.  Yew Tree Youth Theatre is different to any drama group I've been to before.  I love how we are encouraged to be involved in script writing, our ideas are listened to and we help develop the drama piece.  Sarah gives good tips and advice on how to improve and develop in a patient and fun way. I love the way our group shares feedback with each other at the end of every rehearsal. I always leave every session feeling positive and that I belong. Being part of the recent Christmas show was amazing. Being able to share my experiences with my family made me feel so proud.  I was pleased that the parts were shared out fairly and that I got to show my skills as Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio.  I'm looking forwa