Sam's 2023 National Connections Blog

-

I took part in connections this year as stage manager. I had very little knowledge about the role so there was a lot of learning as I went.  

The local performances were very strange to me. I would ensure all props and set were ready before a performance however throughout the performance I had very little to do. I’m so used to being on stage and actively thinking about what’s next or my next line. Even when I have done sound for a performance, there’s always something to be thinking about. 

 

Sheffield was, however, different to the local performances. I was able to watch their stage manager run the tech rehearsal and then calling a dress rehearsal. It was then my turn to call the second dress rehearsal. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was ultimately determining when the sound would start and stop and the lights would change. This is something I have never tried before but I knew that if I didn’t I would regret it. 

 

The dress went ok. I fumbled quite a bit but I was able to learn when to say a full cue or when to shorten it and knowing the actors well helped me know when they would start to speak or ready to start the scene. 

 

I was then able to call both performances; which was amazing. The more I did the more confident I felt. After the first successful performance I felt on cloud nine. Everything ran smoothly and I couldn’t wait to do it again. The end of the second performance was bittersweet, I was so happy that I had done it but it was ultimately over. 

 

Despite spending most of the process a little unsure, ultimately I learned so much and enjoyed every moment of this new experience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chloe's Leavers Blog - finally :)

-
  Please excuse how this was written, I do a very silly drama school course, and I haven’t had to write more than my name in 9 months. I’m sat in my silly dorm bed writing me this on my DSA laptop (a win for the mentally ill girlies), realising how utterly bad my ability to Words has become. Anyway.. Leaving YTYT was one of the oddest experiences of my life, and yet, I don’t remember it at all. I’d spent the last few years, waving off some of my closest friends as they went on to conquer their dreams, in a tearful circle, yet all I have is a fuzzy memory and a video saved in an instagram highlight. I’d sell a kidney to try and bring back that experience, to do my final show unclouded by new medication and intrusive thoughts, but as that isn’t possible, I thought I’d finally write my leavers blog, even if it is a year late. I started Yew Tree in 2017, as a way to explore drama outside of the agonising GCSE setting, and across the years, it became a lifeline for me, providing confidence,
Read more

Arwen's Leavers blog

-
I made a start writing this leaver’s blog when I was on a bloody needed holiday over a month ago, on the glorious Isle of Islay in Scotland. I’m re-writing it now, because I think it was naff to be honest. And I’m not in the same mindset as I was then. Also I might have had a few too many drams of whisky whilst writing it there, so there’s that. A line I’ll keep from it however is: “How am I meant to do justice and summarise in my writing the enormity of an impact that Yewtree has had on me these last 5-ish years?” How can I articulate all the skills that I've learnt and developed? The experiences I’ve had? There’s so much, where and what do I start on? So I’ll do just that, and put some of the skills I’ve learnt into use: “You can’t be a creative, a critic, and an editor at the same time” But in fairness - I don’t think I could share and articulate all those things. And I’m not sure that I want to, they’re for me. I can’t put that expectation on myself. The past year I’ve felt as
Read more

Celebrating the past in the present...

-
  Next year Yew Tree Youth Theatre will be 30 years old.   We haven’t quite decided how we will celebrate - any suggestions would be gratefully received. No doubt there will be some nostalgic perambulating down memory lane and some haphazard but joyous celebrating of three decades of creativity we have shared.   Some variation of those two themes would feel fitting. This blog however is something different. This blog is a celebration of the present of those who attended YTYT in the past. Alumni, graduates, previous members – I can never seem to find the right term – but whatever word is chosen I know for sure they are part of the fabric of the youth theatre and I’m grateful to have known all of them, mainly because I have learnt so much from them.   I also can’t put a number on how many people have spent significant time with YTYT over the last 29 years.   I know we started with a group of 8 and now have about 80 members, I know at our peak just before COVID we had about 130 young pe
Read more