What's happening at YTYT

Someone saw a preview of the performance of, “Blackout,” I’m directing at CAPA this week and commented on how engaging the voices of the actors were. She described them as haunting. She also wondered what it is I do that makes this a feature of the performances I direct as she noticed it in “I draw this circle,” and “Shooting Truth.” This made me contemplate if there is anything I do and this musing was compounded in our final rehearsals for the YTYT, “Blackout.” In our final run I noticed how so many of the voices really impressed the story upon the audience, they made me want to listen, they carried the importance of the story in the richness of their vocal quality, they made sure that I knew that it mattered, that it was important, that I needed to listen. So then back to the question of what it is that I do as a director that facilitates this richness. After some consideration I have decided all I do is point out that as an actor your voice needs to be a focus and it occurs ...

Michael with his take on the script writing day So another blog, my third or fourth I believe, anyway here goes... So script writing with Yew Tree, was in a word brilliant. I learnt soo much from developing characters to structuring scenes. Found it really interesting how much harder it is to write a script than I thought it was. One thing I enjoyed in particular was listening to the other writer's ideas and their plot lines and what not, listening to them also sparked inspiration at certain points for my own script which was brilliant... Before we started writing any dialogue, first we explored the characters, their likes, dislikes, loves, hates, even their facebook activity! Which REALLY helped when we started to write dialogue! Anyway, over all it was brilliant, and I look forward to working on the script further and hopefully turning it into something more! Thank you for reading my blog! :-)

Gemma Whelan with some insights into our script writing day I love my life, it's busy, relentless, full of creativity and has that much variety it makes a box of foxes family favourites look tame. But like lot of other people so much of what I do in my life is not done for me. Which is a crazy concept when you think about, so much of what we do is for other people, which although there is nothing wrong with that, unless you occasionally stop the world and get off and do something for yourself the world that you live in can become unbalanced. On Thursday of this week, I metaphysically stepped off the wonderful world of Whelan and took myself off to the script writing day...and what a day it was. At the beginning of the day all I had was a blank page, a collection of pencils and that excited nervousness you feel when your about to embark on something new. By the end of the day I had filled half my writers book with a fresh new idea for a play, complete with scene structures, stories ...

Jack Iredale kicks off this weeks guest blogging with a summary of his week at Yew Tree All right, YewTree Blog time. Here we go. Just a quick bit about Wednesday, then more Black Company stuffs… On Wednesday, various members of Yew Tree went to The Hepworth Gallery, to help teach Ice Breaking games to the team of artists at the gallery, so they could use them in sessions discussing art, artists etc when the gallery opens. It was interesting in a few ways, one being the way how people reacted to the games, it being pretty similar to how new Yew Tree Members react, another being finding out how games we’ve done for years, like “Anyone Who,” could be applied in totally new ways to find out about peoples creative choices and preferences. We got some really great feedback, so hopefully that means we get to do more at The Hepworth... Now, Black Company Shiz. “Blackout,” is awesome. It’s a different thing for us to do, and I think we’ve managed to pull it off really well. It’s dark, it’s th...

Huzzah for a blog from Rob... There’s something strange about University, because even before you’ve started it you’re thinking about the end...job prospects are drilled into you and you’re always questioned as to what direction you’re heading in. However whilst driving home I had an overwhelming thought, I don’t majorly care about my profession, I’m willing to let the tide of life take me in whatever direction it will...however what I do want is an institution, a society, a place where I feel I belong...I have this and its Yew Tree. I can disappear off the face of the earth, become engrossed within my work but the minute I step into Yew Tree everyone has time for you. Everyone wants to know what you’ve been up to and no one holds up any sort of barriers. You get the feeling that yes, Yew Tree has moved forward, developed and adapted but you’re allowed to jump on that bandwagon. It’s so incredibly accommodating and welcoming. The thing is, you could say it’s the individuals and to cert...

I got the rare pleasure of being able to go to a session this week as a participant…and just saying…you lot don’t know how lucky you are. As anyone who has seen me this week knows it hasn’t been my greatest week…I was proper poorly for most of it and in lots of pain…there was much complaining and unhappiness and not enough sleep. However in amongst this I got to be one of Gemma’s writers and it cheered me up so very much. By the end of the session I had a new poem – it’s on my Tumblr, the resolve to enter some poetry into a competition, the idea for a soliloquy which I’m going to write later today and what’s more I’d spent a precious 90 minutes not feeling quite so sorry for myself. Now even by Yew Tree’s standard that’s a pretty remarkable deal. Part of it was down to my genuine love of writing and thirst for inspiration. Part of it was the excellent company to be found at writers particularly on a week when we are blessed with students returning for their Easter break but a huge...

Morgan Crummack's blog from the holiday session for Crimson... On the 12th Of April, Crimson Company did a workshop, leading to our performance of “Whatever Happened To Grace Connor?” in May. Most of the cast had some problems getting there, leaving about 12/13 of us to make do with what we could! Nevertheless, it was extremely enjoyable! The main focus was to develop us as actors; we learnt new skills and perfected our old ones. We started off with a few games to get us thinking and awake, along with a personal favourite of mine, Ninja. We had a lot of laughs and learnt a lot of things about each other, but then it was time to start working on lines for the play… We did an exercise where we had to walk around the space, saying our lines and change direction whenever there was a punctuation mark, and then we repeated this although instead of changing direction on punctuation, we changed direction whenever our character had a new thought. This helped us to understand when to pause w...

Helena - who used to be a member of Gold Company came back to spend a couple of days with us so I asked her for a blog...very glad I did... Last week I shadowed Sarah as part of my university placement, it was lovely to return to something that still felt familiar even though it has grown so much since I was last involved. Familiar faces and new ones all made the time very enjoyable and a real pleasure rather than required placement. On Monday we spent time teaching at CAPA as they have hired Sarah to direct their AS drama piece. It was really interesting to see people’s different perceptions and interpretations of theatre and made me really appreciate what Yew Tree had done for me without me even realising. How it went on to influence me in my A Level drama devised pieces where I had rarely had the opportunity to create new theatre or develop ideas until I became involved with Yew Tree. The AS year at CAPA are doing Blackout and I really thinks it’s going to be good for them, you coul...

Yesterday’s Shooting Truth rehearsal was an absolute pleasure…I have to admit I went into it with a certain amount of dread…I’ve been burnt a couple of times with reprising the connection show for the…you just need to say the words Jonathan Hopwood, Shut Up and chairs and the resulting shiver of horridness is enough to make me consider giving up directing altogether. There’s a whole challenge when revisiting a production in not trying simply to re-find what was done last time but instead to continue the journey and the discoveries and makes performance that builds on the foundations of the first performances and becomes something even more wonderful… Anyway…yesterday proved to be not so much of a retracing of steps but a cornucopia of discoveries…a festival of findings and as a result I left the rehearsal utterly inspired and full of things I want to pursue in the final rehearsals for this surprisingly complex play…I say surprising as when I first picked it I thought it was limited an...

Helllllooo all, Emma Fretwell here. So following some brilliant performances of Yew Tree’s latest Connections play at Cathedral, we’ve had a few weeks off rehearsals and suddenly - happily - my Saturdays are packed again as we prepare for our regional showcase in Kendal Brewery Arts Centre. After a quick catch-up with the cast (and a few misplaced concerns about the transport to Kendal), we landed in the world of Shooting Truth.. Somewhere between Swumfold and Haleborough… and we got stuck back in. We recapped the entire ensemble ‘I draw this circle’, which is remarkable given the focus and commitment and absolute teamwork needed to pull it off even after we’ve had a month or so off, away from each other. We were a few actors down for the scripted piece, but with the amazing understudies that we have it wasn’t a problem and we covered over half of the play. Michael stood in for Jack as Liam in the present day cast and I absolutely take my hat off to him, he was great. J I hope we makes...

James Budenberg with his blog about yesterdays... Yew Tree games sesh Well this is ironic, the last blog I wrote was for the Christmas games session. Tehe. Well, Yew Tree, the brilliance starts from the entrance, you walk in and everybody says hello and well it’s generally lovely. So ha. Well ha is great because everyone has a different way of saying it and everyone does different things with their arms. A mention has to be given to Ash and Michael for their particularly amusing methods of playing the game. Also ha was the first ever Yew Tree game I played so that was cool too, don’t know why I remember but oh well. The other great game was foot stomp. We have all got so much better, so it got really competitive. Which was funny. Although today did teach me that forming alliances in that game just get you out and that’s not good because then you’re out and that’s much more boring. There is not much to say about king of the jungle really. But the addition of carp to the game made it mor...

Hurray for Tom blogging about the writers So then…spring has finally decided to show us its lovely face, and it couldn’t come any sooner either, especially with the summer closing in fast and everyone enjoying their holidays and summery plans… At Yew Tree however the fun and working hours, which are coincidently fun…never stop… Many exciting projects have been happening over the last couple of weeks and months which many of you have read about in various blogs and updates or have seen for yourselves…the successful/brilliant/amazing/tear jerking successions of regional Shooting Truth performances (going to Kendal in less then a months time, its going to be epic!), the greatly praised Raised Curtain performances by the Gold Company at the Wakefield Theatre Royal, the Pecha Kucha night at Leeds Met and also the Black Company continuing to work hard on Blackout for a series of performances this month at The Hop and Sarah Thomas Dance School (April 27th – 29th However for my blog this week,...

Helen made up for missing out on Saturday by writing us this... I thought I'd write a blog as I am currently facing the prospect of a non-Yew Tree weekend which goes against the natural order of my saturday! However I still had black company for my weekly fix of Yew Tree. I am always impressed with the versatility of Black Company, to be able to move from the balletic and graceful performances of Lost Happy Endings and Princess' Blanket, (although some people may argue that my part wasn't too strenuous!) to something more aggressive like Blackout. All the while losing old members, welcoming new ones and still maintaining Yew Tree's originality and integrity. Blackout is presenting us with new challenges as it requires us to be much sharper and give 100% focus while dealing with very real and serious social issues. Everyone should be booking their tickets immediately as it is going to be well worth a watch!

This week has seen a landmark event in the world of arts with the announcement from Arts Council England of who and what they are going to fund from 2012 onwards.* Since then I have had many heated debates with people about the nature of funding and the place it has in society…there is no doubt in my mind that the arts in all it’s guises not only enriches society but binds it together. It can repair communities damaged by conflict and deprivation, it can strengthen individuals holistically enabling them to play a positive role in their community. It does this only if it is rooted in true quality and integrity. The extent of good that can be done in the making, viewing, participation and reflecting of art is immeasurable figuratively and unfortunately often literally, and it is this difficulty in measuring the impact of art on individuals and communities that makes justifying what we do so very difficult. The bottom line is that the arts make any society and therefore this country ...

Alex, newly joined member of the black company, blogs about his experience this far Having watched many Yew Tree Youth Theatre performances from last year’s connections play ‘Sparkleshark’ to the recent productions of ‘Lost Happy Endings’ and ‘Princess Blankets’ I have always been a fan of the work Yew Tree produces. To my delight I was recently accepted as a new member of Black Company in the latest auditions. (For those who don’t know Black Company will be performing Blackout on the 27th, 28th and 29th April.) As expected, the group are warm, friendly and fun-loving whilst also being incredibly diligent, hardworking and very very creative!!! Coming into such a tight-knit ensemble was daunting for me as a new-comer. I, like the others who have joined, have only good things to say about how well we’ve been welcomed into the company. We’ve only had a few sessions and I already feel like a fully fledged member of Black Company – which is a great feeling. The play Blackout is a gritty dra...