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Our next blogger is Chloe!!

I describe Yew Tree as the one constant in my life. I’ve been coming to sessions since I was 14, and suddenly I’m closer to my 20th birthday than I’d like to admit, and during that time, when so so much is fluid and changing, I’ve always known that YTYT will keep pushing me, keep welcoming me, keep being THAT place where you can just breathe. 

 

NT Connections is the festival that has truly pushed me; it was during the connections week for Look Up that I decided, properly, that I wanted to be an actor. This year, armed with a genuinely good play, an incredible cast and a fantastic production team, the choice that 17 year old Chloe made, stands firm. This whole experience, playing Jo, has once again, shaped me further as an actor, and I can’t think Sarah and John enough. 

 

We’ve had our wobbly bits; I’m the proud owner of a rather weak immune system and I’m also the recent departee of a job that required a 4am start on a Saturday, so the rehearsal process was incredibly challenging for me; which is why, on a cheeky selfish note, I’m proud of myself for pushing through the sleepy haze. 

 

Jo is a complex character (good use of that vocabulary there Loey), and playing her was a challenge (once again, vocab is on point), but the end result, I was super proud of. It hit me, as I stood at the front of the stage, shedding Jo’s shameful tears, on the 4pm performance at Becketts, that this was my last connections show (Go Off Old!!). Usually we’d have regionals, but due to a recall at Guildford School of Acting, I couldn’t make the Sheffield performance - I handed Jo’s, somewhat soggy, gloves over to the incredible Arwen for that show - the speed at which Arwen and Connor covered Jo and Jamie; amazed 🙂. 

 

This is the lame bit where it seems like half the cast have slipped me a fiver in exchange for a compliment (if anyone fancies paypal-ing me, on a real one, drop me a message), but alas, it’s here. I performed alongside two of my best mates, who joined Yew Tree in the past year. Nat, playing the Jamie to my Jo, and Brooke, playing Carly. I was so so proud of my mates and how fantastically they created such intricate characters. Becca, you performed the role of Fra beautifully, and Emma, you are incredible!! It was also amazing to see a new tribe of Yewtree-er’s do connections, as I’ve seen a few ‘generations’ pass through each year!! Everyone just did so well ahhhhh!! 

 

Once again, the show wouldn’t have a foot to stand on without the amazing production team of Sarah, John and Sam - thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all the work, time and effort put into making Hunt the show it was.

 

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