What's happening at YTYT

Last night saw the rollercoaster ride that was Nostell 2k11 draw to a close…it was magnificent…a word I rarely use…a record 27 actors took part and proved again that Black Company and it’s associates are something very special indeed…my evidence for using a word as overblown and excessive as magnificent are as follows… Two months ago the Duel was simply an idea in my head, one month ago it was still just that plus a list of characters and a cast list…in the space of just 4 weeks it was transformed from that abstract set of things into a joyful theatrical event where an audience of 100 supporters of Yew Tree were treated to an evening of Youth Theatre at it’s best… The ingredients for making it such a brilliant event are complex and not easily summed up however I shall attempt to…firstly it’s about getting together a group of people who are committed to a common goal and prepared to put aside their own needs, as far as they possibly can, to strive towards those that are shared…secondly ...

Ellie is the next... This week has been as good as it was always going to be. Yew tree for a whole week.. I mean come on what's better? By the time it came to Friday I was absolutely shattered but so worth it. The juggling game was my absolute favorite, the concentration and the atmosphere from the whole was an eye opener, by the end of the week it felt like I shouldn't be going home because my family was there at nostell priory. it's coming to the time where I am flying off to university and after 11 years of yew tree the thought of it breaks my heart. (another blog will be written about that section of my life with yew tree anyway) one of my favorite moments was when we did a warm up with our eyes closed and when I opened my eyes there in front of me was the beautiful nostell priory what's better to open your eyes to?! My other fav moment was the belief of a couple sat on the bench next to our rehearsal space and the moment she said to her husband "oh it's a ...

First guest blog is from Mr Danny Southern... “You’ve got THE best week for work experience”. That seemed to follow me everywhere on Monday. Being an ex-Sapphire-ite, being on Nostell Week was gonna be my first step towards being in Black Company. Surprisingly (well to me anyway) I knew quite a few people like Callum, Danny, Jack and Ashleigh (who somehow managed to get renamed Bianca cos I got bored of her name beginning with A). - Inside note, yes Ashleigh, I will do a rhyming bit later on….. So anyway, there I was, feeling kinda vulnerable, not knowing what to expect, thinking if Sarah was one of those people-eating-fire-breathing-work-experience-bosses that’re really well… annoying. But no. I proper enjoyed it. I mean yeah, I enjoy Yew Tree (digging a hole here)… what I mean is it was really different to see a whole play develop from start to finish in a week; and what’s more, seeing it from an outside view. Not having read the script beforehand, I had no idea whatsoever what was g...

Yesterday saw the last sessions of regular youth theatre before we broke for the holiday…at one point this would have meant that I wouldn’t see the majority of you for six weeks and this was seen as the appropriate routine…but now all this has changed…not only have we got Nostell with a record 27 people participating and of course Danny Southern on work experience but we also have 9 day courses and Black and Ivory won’t be stopping at all through the holidays… I like the fact that the Youth Theatre is more continual now and that with your enthusiasm and our vision we have more and more opportunities to try different things…think about the new things we’ve done just this term…I moves, Young Theatre Makers, Crimsons major performance at Cathedral and that’s in addition to making some of the more regular aspects of our work like the Classics festival and Connections at Kendal bigger and better... What I particularly enjoyed about yesterday’s session at Gold was the evidence that some of t...

Guess who? Blogbloggg:) x IYA :) Sooo I havnt wrote a blog for tiiime so thought I'd pipe up :) Buzzing for Nostell so much I've even got so into it that last time I was in topshop I saw a beaut of an outfit and was like I have to have that for my character!... Bought it dint I. Tehe Sgonna be a taste sensation of a week! Probs without the taste.. Coulda just said sensation.. Haa shutup dee But yeah all the characters are brilliant and I am Lovinggg life for catching some rays, picniccing and having a cheeky game of that's out.. Oh and obvs rehearsing with my favourite homosapians. Haa homosapians.. Funny word.. You can tell I'm writing this at the crack of dawn on my way to whitby can't you ha .. Helll Anyhoooo non black company members get yourself involved and down to Nostell Priory at 7pm on friday you beauts! Lalalala :) Sgonna be a joyous occassion of 2k11 init? brap. Haaa stunner! Lotsa loveeee ha Seeeyaaa ♥ (in a nice voice:))xxx ps. Were doing Sleeping beau...

Sorry the blog is so late…I haven’t really stopped writing all day apart from a brief trip to Leeds to see my brilliant son, Tom, dance at the Royal Academy of Dance Northern Boys Only event…the result is now there is a Nostell script with a start a middle and an end, 27 characters and 14139 words…some of which are good…and now I just need to fine tune it with the help of my brilliant cast…which is all good as in less than a fortnight it will all be over…rehearsed and performed and done…terrifying…so yeah…that’s my excuse for late blogness… I’ve been trying to decide what to pick out of this week…and what I have isn’t fully formed but I’m going to run it past you anyway…I’ve been thinking about identity a lot…how we choose to identify ourselves and others…how that in turn makes us behave and how it can work for us or against us…I think it’s been in my mind partly because I have so many characters in my head and partly because I watch so many people defining themselves in terms that eit...

Hannah is our guest blogger today... Hellooooo. Since finishing my A levels I don’t really do anything with my life, cos I don’t have a job etc… sooo I’ve got a lot of free time, which was fun for a while but is now really boring. So I thought I’d man up and do a blog cos that’s more productive than re-reading Harry Potter for the millionth time. Anyway… despite the lovely sunshiney weather we’re having at the moment (haha) Gold company are busily devising for the Christmas show. This year it’s Sleeping Beauty, so after a large proportion of Best and Worst being devoted to Harry Potter and couple of games, in which Henry the Tortoise made another appearance at a teddy bears picnic, it was straight to work. The first round of performances were all hilarious and ridiculous and brilliant and very Harry Pottery, and everyone was in fits of giggles. Problem was, we’re trying to make Sleeping Beauty dark and sinister. After a chat, we set to work on another set of scenes, and they were so d...

James blogged about Young Theatre Makers... I actually went thinking it was just a yew tree thing. Cheeky little trip on the 110 down to the playhouse was never going to do any harm. If you missed it, you lost out. I hadn’t heard much about it really, till yesterday, where on looking at the pictures I was clueless on how they could possibly fit together. In fact the general idea was that each of the cast had written a letter to their 40 year old selves. I have to say though; the way they transferred the idea of the letter into a performance using a large cast amazed me. But then again that’s black company for you. Anyway, from zombie apocalypses and Las Vegas, to keeping in touch with old friends. The recurring theme seemed to be either not changing from who you are, or not becoming fat and lazy. Also, who knew Danny was number one in the world for angry birds, jealous much. But having said all that, I’ve sat here for about half an hour trying to pick my favourite, but I honestly can’t...

It occurs to me that as Yew Tree Youth Theatre gathers momentum and increases in its excellent reputation, one of the knock on effects is that my job gets more and more complicated. I won’t lie the last few days have been ridiculous…rewarding, absorbing, creative yes…but ridiculous…From 6pm Thursday it’s been all about the Youth Theatre…and the thing is most my life is a lot about the youth theatre, but we definitely reached a new saturation point this week… Thursday saw us finally knock our Young Theatre Makers piece into shape with the artistic direction of Richard from Invisible Flock…which was good timing as the next day we were scheduled to tech it at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Now we have quite the reputation there for being professional and all round brilliant youth theatreness after our performance of The Heights so I wanted to make sure we upheld that. I needn’t have worried…despite the relative technical complexity of the show and the finite nature of the time we had ...

Next is Phil's blog (Mel's Dad)who not only helped us out by taking photographs of the Tech of Young Theatre Makers but also was kind enough to write a blog too... On Friday I diverted from being the pure interested parent and was able to go behind the scenes and obtain some real insight, albeit for just a brief couple hours, into how a theatre production is put together. And it was a real eye opener for me, just showing what an incredible amount of effort is required from all those involved. The Young Theatre Makers performance at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, by Black Company, was something different for Yew Tree members, with the creation being directed from outside of the group – I guess a real challenge in itself and one where our young people had to adapt to a different directing style. I understand that Black Company had been working tirelessly over the last few weeks on the scripts, and the challenge for Friday was to make it through each part of the performance and m...

First guest blog is by Holly inspred by her works experience blog... So, my Yew Tree work experience was this week and it was suchhhhhh a lovely week. On Monday I went back to Sapphire in my blacks, which was weird ha, but lovely :) We did a bit’a Jack and the Beanstalk devising which is always a pleasure. Playing a dumb fairy’s an easy thing for me to do which is worrying maybe, but it’s not an issue. On Tuesday I watched the More Like Me performance, which was brilliant, enjoyed that lots :) Theeen I went to a primary school and watched the performance of Alice in Wonderland unfold..aand spent my night at Ruby :) Enjoyed playing squeeze way too much ha. AND I WON funky seaweed. First time ever. YES. Thursday was another primary school morning which was beaut. Games games games… Year 6’s were still better at the bean game than me ha :/ Anywayy, another primary school in the afternoon and orange company later, Micky mouse was locked in a cupboard and impersonated by someone else, who w...

James with a loverly blog... The day gold company took over gold company I know blogs are normally done in chronological order and this will keep to the same format, but first a special mention must be given to the new word which has swept the session “ama-jim-away” possibly the funniest thing I have seen at yew since joining last August. Also. Happy birthday Sarah. Thank you for the haribo. So first were the games. Most memorable of which is of course king of the jungle, completely re-made by Ash and Dee to the point of Sarah leaving the room at new creations such as “I have no nose.” And “Unicorns, I love them,” I think it possibly took longer to invent the jungle of Thrones Park than to play out the game. Captain Beaky was a delight as always, but I still wonder if at some point during that game. We will actually find hissing Sid. Also, I was gutted no-body ran foot stomp or ninja warrior. But I am a massive fan of king of the jungle so it was compensated. Moving on. The creative ta...

I’ve just got back from a Young Theatre Makers rehearsal and I’m suffering from a sense of time moving too quickly…the performance is in less than a week, which means that the performance at St George’s is less than a week away and it means that the play I’ve directed for the West Yorkshire Playhouse is just around the corner and Nostell is just around the corner after that and…and…and…arghhhhhhhh!!!! Maybe I’m just bitter as it seemed like my lovely birthday was over far too quickly…or maybe it’s that the accomplishments of a productive rehearsal are immediately overshadowed by the reality of all the other things I need to do as soon as I step into the house/office but whatever is the catalyst things seem to be racing away from me and although I know that really they’re mostly under control its easy to feel like I’m being assaulted by the velocity of time speeding past me… Because of all of that this week’s youth theatre sessions have been a delight because they’ve been predominantly...

A vist from Danni inspired her to write this blog... Right this is my first ever blog guys so bare with me :) I haven't really been part of Yew Tree for a few month due to work... :( but finally after so long I got to be involved with probably one of the best sessions I have ever been in! It was sensational tbh :) All week I was getting excited as I texted Miss Moore telling her I could finally be there. Waiting from Monday just seemed so long. Then sat morning arrived and I was up and ready waiting my half 8. When I arrived at the session it felt like I had never been away, everyone is so lovely! So we started with best and worst, mine were about the old car show and a lovely old fashioned car I wanted, my worst was my boyfriend having to go up to Edinburgh for the weekend! Half way through I was interupted and had to leave as Jessica Moore needs socks so luckily I had a spare pair in my car so I went to fetch the so missed half of everybody elses. The first game was mafia and I g...