What's happening at YTYT

There are a myriad of things I could write about after this week…but I’ve chosen this one… Today I listened to a vast number of people tell me how good you are…and they didn’t just tell me in throw away or polite terms…they told me it in such excited tones of voice and earnest expressions, it was like they really needed me to hear it and what’s more believe it… I listened partly feeling proud and partly feeling amused at their incredulity as words such as,” Professional,” and phrases such as, “The most disciplined and enthusiastic young people I’ve ever seen,” were used because my first reaction to that is of course you are…why would they think you wouldn’t be. So this made me think about the fact that my expectations of you are consistently high and I know sometimes that means that things can feel tough but today there was a clear example of the rewards that are reaped because regardless of the words of others you all have so much to be proud of…you’ve achieved so much and can justifi...

Guest blogger is Jess Hopwood...thank you for managing to do it on such a busy weekend... Yew Tree is aaaabsolutely brilliant. I knew this already, but the past week I’ve spent doing work experience with the company has fully made me appreciate the effort, energy and massive amount of thought that goes into running the youth theatre. 2 things really stand out to me when reflecting back on the week: energy and inspiration. Let’s elaborate... Energy. It was everywhere! And I’m not just talking about the canned form of it Danny is rarely seen without. I was sometimes shadowing the same youth theatre leader from 10am until 7.30pm; it was crazy seeing how they coped, and coped brilliantly, with their schedule. I’m not gonna lie, I was completely shattered by the end of one day, so the youth theatre leaders must be superhuman. No, I joke. I’ll let you into a cheeky secret, they’re just human. But on a serious note, to consistently run several companies in a week, often several companies in o...

It is… I love lots and lots of things about my job…but directing is definitely up there as one of favourites and this week I’ve been able to do loads of it… What is even better than directing, is directing people who are really responsive to direction… For example… You have 8 people in a room, 3 hours…ish and you need the result of this combination to be a piece of physical theatre worthy of performance at a major artistic event…at the end of the three hours that’s just what you have…and it’s due to the ability of the actors to trust in the ideas, challenges and suggestions they’re given… Example 2… A different set of 8 people in a different room and 8 hours…ish, this time the result of the combination needs to be some material that will end up performed at a National Conference…and this time we have the added challenge that some of the people have never done drama before… They are however willing to take a risk and respond to what I as the director ask them to do…as a consequence we l...

Callum Trout with a brilliant overview of the week So here I am to do another blog. This week at Yew Tree is yet again the perfect title for the blog because it’s been a pretty busy week. Well it has for me anyway. I’ll start the week with Monday as is customary when you’re starting a week. This week the Sapphire Company started working on the devising for their Christmas show “The Princess and the Pea”. I was eager to see what comic genius they’d come up with and I wasn’t disappointed. Sapphire never fail to astound me on their talent, comic timing and wit and had me rolling on the floor laughing in no time. Then we’ll skip a day because Tuesday is my day of none Yew Tree related activities and move on to Wednesday. And we find ourselves at the writer’s forum. The writer’s have spent the last few weeks working on sketch comedy, something I might add they aren’t all overly keen on. It never stops them from giving it a go and after “sorry bows” reading out some amazing pieces of work. O...

One of the lovely added bonuses of the work I do is that I get paid to research things…sometimes they can be things I have no real interest in but not often as I’m a firm believer that it’s possible to find something interesting in just about everything with a little effort and the right kind of presentation…sometimes in some of the more marginalised work I do they can be things that you’d rather not know for and sometimes…well sometimes you start the process and you realise you’ve been given a gift of an opportunity… The Hepworth project is just such a process…as a firm fan of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park I have been exposed to Barbara Hepworth’s work for most of my adult life…but it’s been a casual relationship…involving very little commitment…since starting work on the devising process that relationship is becoming significantly more serious… To be honest it’s as much to do with the woman herself as the art she produced.…she’s fascinating for numerous reasons…her great strides as a ...

Nathan Trout checks in with his experiences of the Shakespeare Festival preparation so far... So I suppose I should probably confess I've never really been into Shakespeare. Probably because I associate it with English Literature lessons and I've no had real experiences of it being performed, apart from an awful attempt at Macbeth by a four member company who came into school and Macbeth definitely needs more than 4 actors. With Elizabethan English being nearly as foreign to me as German I was slightly wary about having to learn and perform for three scenes. That said having actually acted out the scenes, it's actually been a lot easier to get to grips with than I imagined. I also think it helps that I genuinely like the scenes I'm in and the freedom that we've got from being allowed quite a lot of self direction has meant we could really have fun putting together the scenes. In the scene from As You Like It, I play Jacques whose sole purpose is to antagonise Danny ...

Yew Tree Youth Theatre is probably at it’s busiest yet…In 3 weeks time in excess of 80 performers will engage family, friends and anyone else we can get there in their various Shakespearean productions…In less then 5 weeks The Gold Company will perform for a variety of cultural, “dignitaries and luminaries” at the Hepworth Gallery shortly after that there will be performances of “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “Fragments” at The Orangery…and before we close for the summer two original productions at Nostell Priory. Intertwined with all of this we’re making 6 podcasts, writing blogs every week and starting the writing process for our Christmas shows…It feels a little like madness but good creative, hectic madness… So in respect of the fact that you’re having a week off (well unless you’re in the Black or Ivory Company) I am giving you nothing to think about this week…I’m simply going to say thank you to all of you. Thank you for your dedication, your time, your commitment and your inspira...

A few of you may have already heard me say this quite a number of times, but he’s such a brilliant person, well he ‘was’ such a brilliant person. Unhandleable that he lived in like the 1500’s and his work is still pottering about. I have actual files dedicated to him and everything and like a big mahoosive book with gold pages which has like every single play he’s ever wrote in it, but I don’t like to use it cause I don’t want to crease the pages… Why am I admitting this? :| haaa Riiiiight I’m going to apologise if I get a bit too passionate in this blog as the Literature Nerd is probably going to come out… But with our William I can read or watch any play, any kind of performance even if it’s just a bit of Iambic Pentameter and it just captures me, his words and the poeticness of them and the metaphorical meanings and symbolism behind them, well Its just mentalll that he could write such beautiful things, definately the greatest ever playwright, although Sarah you come pretty close be...