Breakthroughs

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This week has been a good week…we’ve been successful with some funding bids which means in the next month or so YTYT will expand to encompass not just one new group but two…one in Normanton and one in Portabello.  It’s also been a good week artistically as we have had real breakthroughs in the rehearsal room.

Firstly our Connections production, “Journey to X,” jumped into a whole new phase yesterday…scenes and aspects of the play that had been evading us were vanquished and discoveries were made that will in turn shape the rest of the play.  It’s at times like this you glimpse sight of the quality of performance that might be possible and also become aware of just how much effort you’re going to need to achieve it.  However when you catch that glimpse it gives you the motivation you need to get there, or at least it should.  I know that when I saw scene 1 speeding along at a place that was both breathtaking and necessary it inspired me to want to help the actors make everything that good.

It feels like I can’t not mention Encounters this week…this Thursday sees the VIP launch and Sunday, the public premier of possibly my most high profile production to date.  To get the chance to write and direct something like this is at once a privilege and a responsibility…I’m so very excited and equally pretty terrified.  However there were breakthroughs in the rehearsal room for that this week too…we made a discovery that in addition to the actors needing to know their characters and present them with integrity they also needed to focus on the interaction that lies between them…the resulting development in the open rehearsal performance was significant…suddenly there was something that the audience could really engage with, respond to, relate to.  I so hope all of you will support is and come and see it one Sunday at the Hepworth in February.

Is there a wider point here…I think so and I think that it is this…no matter how much experience you have and how many performances you’ve been involved with and indeed what level of production you’re working on the key to success will never just show itself.  You have to search and experiment and reflect and discover and in tat process you’ll find the key to the breakthrough you need…as I said so very exciting and pretty terrifying…

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