Chloe's Leavers Blog - finally :)

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 devising our Summer Celebrations piece, which was a play about Identity, called Am I? It was during this devising process that i stopped being nervous, and started to talk to more people, which in turn had allowed me to become a more versatile actor. The process was funny, eye opening and lead to the play being witty and engaging. I took the part of Linzi, who I imagine, still can’t make pasta, and to go from playing a miner, to a confused and nervous comedic character was difficult but not unwelcome. The show day was as warm as ever, which I blame completely on the fact we performed one of the songs from Miners (that show brought the warmest weather!!) but overall was an interesting day, as I got to watch all the other companies work. Then we began work on out christmas piece. When Sarah first announced that we were doing work around the Three Musketeers, I was initially rather worried, as I knew nothing about it!! But I need not have panicked as we were researching, being educated and doing useful devising work, which then lead to us having a solid and in-depth understanding, and appreciation of the text. For the Christmas Shows, I took the roles of The Queen and The Cardinal, which I shared with the incredible Ellie. These roles were so different, and challenged me as an actor, to create two separate characters, who were different but also shared a heart of steel. And it took until the last rehearsal to get them correct. So after a few months of heavy rehearsals and line learning, we were ready. And Boy, did everyone do well!! We not only performed our piece incredibly (well done!!), but we got to watch all the other companies bring their spins on Christmas! It was a joyous experience. I would describe my year at Yew Tree as incredible. I have made new friends, found confidence within myself that I am applying in the real world (heads up to all the retail workers who I’ve interacted with this festive season), and found connections in theatre styles that I would never have understood before, never mind loved. In 2019, I will take my GCSE exams, perform the Connections play, and start a new school, in which I will take courage in voice, body and friendship, to help me succeed. And of course, I am looking forward to all the work we’ll do in Gold company!