olli's 2022 blog

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2022 has certainly been another interesting year at Yew Tree.

 

In Black Company, we started the year auditioning plays to do in summer, and, much to some people's chagrin (not mine, I was delighted!), settled on 'Much Ado About Nothing.' I dont think anyone would be surprised to learn that this is my favourite Shakespeare play- it's just perfect. Despite initially auditioning for the role of Benedick, I was very happy to get the part of Leonato. I was able to lean into the role of an older gentleman who thinks himself wise, but in actuality is just as foolish as everyone else, rather well I think. I really enjoyed being able to work pretty closely with Jeevan and Kenzie during this play as we had quite a few scenes together. Despite struggling to ever get a full cast together for rehearsals, and a few line hiccups on the night, I think it came together really well and I left feeling proud of what we had achieved as a company. Sadly, this was the last Yew Tree show for a few of our members before they went away to uni, and I can honestly say Black Company misses them a lot- but alas, change happens and the world moves on.

 

Concurrently with Much Ado, I was also part of the cast for 'Brexit: What a Song and Dance,' which was certainly a change for Yew Tree in that it was a musical. It was a true ensemble effort, with everyone multi-roleing. I played the parts of David Cameron, Philip May, and Vladimir Putin, amongst others, and it was just such a joy to be a part of this production. It was a marked change to Much Ado, and it was great to work with actors from some younger companies who I'd not had the privilege of working with before. Again, I was really proud of what we accomplished together despite people dropping out along the way and various other obstacles.

 

I sincerely thought that Brexit would be my last Yew Tree show when I first signed up for it, but well... here I am still.

 

So after summer, we started on our Christmas shows. I'll be honest, I was less than enthusiastic about doing 'Red,' but as time went on it did grow on me a little. I was happy to be doing 'Radio' to perform at Ossett's 1940s day, as this was a piece I enjoyed right from the off. It was a privilege to be able to perform this piece.

 

I also, rather unexpectedly, found myself signing up to do Connections after having done Brexit. I'm really happy I did- we have a fabulous script, and I actually got the role I auditioned for for once. I won't give too much away, but I'm really excited to take a deep delve into this character and play, and I can't wait to show it to you all once it's perfected in February.

 

I'm heading into 2023 at Yew Tree with a certain amount of trepidation, largely because I know that once summer rolls around that'll be it for my time at Yew Tree. Yew Tree has given me so much and I'm not sure what I'll do without it! But I'll save that for the leaver's blog. There's so much to look forward to at Yew Tree next year, so please do stick around and check out what we get up to!

 

olli

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