What's happening at YTYT

This year at yew tree has been one of the best years for not only developing my skills as an actor but also for creating great memories with both new and old friends.  Experiences such as my second connections play in which we performed Kiss/Marry/push off a cliff which was just as good as I expected it to be providing me with many opportunities to experiment with new techniques to develop my characters and acting skills.  These skill were greatly beneficial to me when I performed in Chaos the same year, which is still one of my favourite plays to this day thanks to the ways it explored theories such as the butterfly effect and the human condition peaking my interest on a personal level as well as on the level as a performer.  This year was also the year in which I tackled my grade 7 acting LAMDA exam which, was easily the hardest exam I have taken so far with not only its complexity as an exam but also in the knowledge about the plays I was performing excerpts from, expe...

  2024. A year, for me, represented by change and new beginnings. A year that I used to think i’d never even live to see but now i’m here on the lead up to Christmas and I couldn’t be happier about the future. Although 2024 was plagued with change and uncertainty, YTYT has been the consistent rock throughout that I could always rely on. It was there at my lowest of lows and still there at my highest of highs. This year especially, this source of stability has been unimaginably helpful both in helping me recover, rebuilding my confidence and maintaining friendships in an otherwise rocky and unstable environment.   The Chaos Arc (Literally) : The start of my 2024 year in Yew Tree was defined by the ending of connections (which I won’t go into detail on as i’ve written a whole other blog about that experience) and Gold company’s version of Chaos. This was a connections play Sarah had previously done and I was overjoyed to be given the opportunity to revive it. On the first read t...

Overall, my 2024 YewTree run has been fabulous (as always), of course there has been the typical ups and downs but then life is as such. As usual for me, this is a longer piece, exactly 2656 words compared to my 2522 last year, (I must like talking quite a bit) so buckle in and prepare to listen to me witter about my 2024 with YewTree. If you want a quick summary without having to read the details, TLDR; I was a part of Connections 24, NCMM Festival, Miners Memorial 24, Christmas Show, I also took my grade 7 acting LAMDA exam, I started helping out with Yellow Company and I owe a huge thanks to Sarah as she’s the main reason I am now in college.   The year started off with Connections 2024 rehearsals and the performance. The play this year was ‘Kiss, Marry, Push Off a Cliff’ By Josh Azouz. I realise now that last Christmas blog I had promised a Connections blog which never came - apologies for that, and I shall make up for it now! It was certainly an interesting script to work with...

What a year (That's a good thing, by the way). My favourite shows, my favourite rehearsals, my favourite year; so you can hopefully gather that I've enjoyed it all.  But in all reality, my blog should start in 2023, as National Theatre Connections began then.  I had been cast, along with Izzy, in the role of Noush, which quickly I became attached to. As the rehearsal process continued into the year of 2024, I only grew to like the role even more. Kiss/Marry/PushOffCliff - as the play was called - soon shaped up to be a fantastic show. The year before (I know, this is meant to be 2024, but everything, after all, is interconnected) I'd shown interest in NT Connections but had shied away, thinking I was not capable enough for such a task. This time, however, I was prepared - or brave, or optimistic, or however you could describe it - and chose to take part. It was indeed the right decision. Never before from a show had I received such enjoyment, even from rehearsals. Every tim...

On the 6 th   of July a special thing happened at the National Coal Mining Museum – The “Rock Hard Festival” – a celebration of young people’s artistic response to the miner’s strikes of 1984. Young people played, sang, acted, created visual art all inspired by the events of a year that sealed the fate of such an important industry to Yorkshire and the UK.     YTYT were one of the performers – they performed a brand-new piece that documented the input of the strike on the community, “Have You Heard the News.” The script was created out of the ideas and inspiration of the young people in the cast in response to the National Coal Mining Museum’s exhibition about the 1984 strikes.    Here are some responses of some of the young people who performed:   Throughout this performance I learned a lot about how life was back then and how if affected different people Amelia   As a member of the cast, I found that transferring the performance to a smaller space an...

 Kiss / Marry / Push off a cliff was my second connections play that I have done with YTYT. As soon as I read it, I fell in love with the script. Although it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it drew me in with its pure weirdness and mystery. I was so intrigued as to how we would tackle many of the problems that were initially presented to us. After all, showing someone getting pushed off a cliff while inside of a sleeping bag in a youth theatre production isn’t a simple task. However, with the combined effort of an equally talented crew and cast, I believe we were able to do a pretty good job. I could ramble all day about how much I love characters as a whole. In truth, they are what drew me to connections in the first place. I love being able to delve into their motivations and fears in detail and develop a whole other being rather than myself. I remember there was one character that stood out to me in my first reading. I knew from the start that Marco would be a tricky character. B...