What's happening at YTYT

I’m just going to put it out there…you lot…you youth theatre members, you take things for granted…not all the time…but sometimes, it’s the truth, you do, and in this blog I’ll be up front, I’ll tell you why... First of all you take for granted the opportunities you get…for example in this one week Black Company have performed on the stage of Wakefield Theatre Royal and followed it up with three performances in the auditorium of The Hepworth Gallery…Gold and Crimson can also boast a performance at the Theatre…Sapphire, Purple, Orange, Ruby, Ivory, Jade and Amber all have finished a full term of exciting creative opportunities…from exploring story, to stage fighting, from acting truth to play for the sake of playfulness and every other thing in between.   You all just accept that as part of being in a youth theatre you have access to these opportunities…So I’m just saying it’s perhaps worth recognising that to most people these chances are way out of the bounds o...

And the third guest blogger is Maddy from Sapphire Yew Tree, a highlight of my week. This week at Sapphire we were still covering more serious drama, and not Sapphire's usual genre. This week we added dialogue to our scenes and all of a sudden our pieces came alive! Only allowed to say 10 words, it was a difficult task and most groups struggled at first but after some time Sapphire got the grasp of more serious pieces! Some of the pieces were quite touching and made your heart melt, others stood out and definitely made a statement! This type of drama Sapphire took to like a duck to water and we were pleading to cover more pieces like this! Yew Tree a highlight of my week, this session I will never forget!

Beth is the second... I think it is quite difficult to find words which describe how exciting, scary and brilliant it was to perform with Yew Tree at Wakefield Theatre yesterday. As those who read my other blog would know, I was performing with Crimson a piece of writing which was written partly by Gemma and partly by Tiff (and if any of you have had the privilege to read their writing, you will know how great It felt to be able to perform it). The long day started at 10 am. Costume: check. Food supplies: check. Full functioning voice: check. I have to say Wakefield Theatre was a bit bigger than I had anticipated, but I wasn't going to let it scare me...too much anyway. I loved being able to watch black company perform their technical rehearsal, first.They work as a unit and perform with so much conviction, it's hard to take your eye off their performance. I have to say I particularly like the opening physical theatre sequence. It was our turn next and...

Tiff is our first blogger about One Night O nly There were tears, laughter and a few tuckered out kids at the Theatre Royale on Sunday and no, I’m not talking about the adorable little ballet dancers that stole the show (and a few hearts too!). Indeed, I’m talking about the marvellous members of Gold, Black and Crimson Company that gathered yesterday at the theatre to perform in One Night Only along with West Yorkshire Dance Centre . The day kicked off for me with an icy journey to the theatre, Facebook a-buzzing with excited messages about the day ahead. The Yew-tree-ers kicked off, performing pieces ranging from Gold’s hilarious History of Theatre in 15 Minutes (reduced to just 40 seconds at the end of the piece – a real feat!), Black Company’s powerful fairy-tale of Anna Rose (the final song of which I will never stop searching for) and the on-stage anthology/physical theatre piece that Crimson company lovingly laid on. The three performances were wildly dif...

T’was the night before the show and all through the district Performers were preparing, they’d decided to risk it. Crimson had written on their costumes with care, And Tiff had recovered from being told not to swear. Gold were all nestled back home in their beds, And visions of their play danced in their heads. Both companies had rehearsed and made their work great, Their plays were now happily in a perfect state. Black company had rested, they’d done theirs on Thursday, Some had made igloos on their surprise snow day. But all now looked forward to the tech, dress and show Where talent and artistry would surely flow. The show must go on they had all decided, Valour over pessimism had thankfully presided. The snow in spring could not scupper their chances Of performing at the theatre with talented dancers. So their costumes were ready, their lines were primed Their alarm clocks set and their journeys timed. Their director’s words rang still loud ...

Why so serious? Because we're taking a break from comedy, that's why. This week at Sapphire, after a much loved game of Captain Beaky, we dropped our jokers and became more serious as we tackled a challenge like no other. With a well led warm-up to get us all in the right mind-set, we quickly got to work creating pieces more about the atmosphere than story-line that had no dialogue at all. At first the task seemed challenging but once we thought things through I found the ideas came more naturally and we were soon working well in our groups. The fact that no speech was involved made the room seem a lot quieter during rehearsing our ideas (it all seemed very weird to someone who's been used to all the hulabaloo). All the presenting (rather than performing as it was more about showing the audience) I watched were fantastic. The shopping queue extract was one of my favourites. The naturalistic tone of the scene was perfect and the glances shared between each of them ...

Beth, one of the youngest performers of our Clarke Hall piece has a few words to say about the experience... Today my younger sister and I performed at Wrenthorpe Village Hall for the members of Clarke Hall. It was to share our own experiences about what we remembered of Clarke Hall.   Today was a once in a life time opportunity, I would like to say a big well done to every one who performed today. I also want to say a big thank you to Sarah for directing us.   We spoke to our audience afterwards and they said they could tell we had practiced it and that they really enjoyed it.

Today 11 members of YTYT performed at the closing meeting of The Friends of Clarke Hall.   It was a sad occasion, such a wonderful resource gone…but it was an honour to be asked to be part of it and a privilege to be given the chance to reflect on all that Clarke Hall had offered Wakefield during it’s rich history as a place where children and families could engage in history in an entirely unique way.   What the next chapter is for the building of Clarke Hall remains to be seen but at least we feel like we had a part in celebrating it’s legacy…and the tireless work of those people who helped to bring it to life… As it was a private performance I thought you might like to read an extract of the words in the performance.   It includes a sonnet I wrote for the occasion, because as everyone who was in or saw our performance of “Vision,” or has listened to Stephen Fry’s opinion on the matter, knows, “When other writing is too long, or too short, or too heavy, or too ...

Situation Wink Murder And a Little of the Laughing Game, just for Good Measure... Greetings everybody, it’s me... Sam, just so you know. For the past two weeks, Sapphire has been frantically trying to both survive and track down a heinous villain in the rather delightful thing that is Situation Wink Murder – which I am perfectly willing to assure anyone who may ask is much more delightful than its name suggests. As you may have guessed, I am a fan of this particular game, I see it as an opportunity to just be someone that you wouldn’t usually have a chance to be; you have the chance to improvise freely, with barely any constraints and without the pressure of an audience watching. It is a time for extemporaneous larking. The other thing that I love about this game is the way that anything can happen, and how each and every person has just as much an effect on it as anyone else. Each character within the situation has its own relationships and back story that allows you to ...