What's happening at YTYT

I genuinely am not sure where to start in trying to reflec t on this week…we have achieved so much!   Straight after the exceptionally successful, “Reprise,” last Saturday in less than a week we have staged an original musical, hosted an international event and performed a piece of theatre that encouraged 19 year olds to think about the kind of culture and community they want to create for themselves.   All of that in just 6 days. To achieve something like that takes an exceptional amount of thought, organisation, talent, commitment and above all graft and I definitely had times when I wondered if the demands of this week were possible to achieve…turned out we were more than up to the task, each of the events was of the standard we expect at YTYT and beyond.   It’s a shame that it’s so difficult sometimes to visualise the rewards to come when you’re in the middle of the struggle.   It would make the motivation to get to the point of performance so much easie...

Followed by Harry   Wednesday.. Wednesday was just simply fantastic. meeting and performing along side norways very own Lærlingan was an Absolute honour. 'Inspired by Music' was truly a pleasure to take part in! the day began with a familiar set up of meeting at West a yorkshire dance school to set up the venue and slotting in a few last minute rehearsals of our short group pieces inspired by music. a short while after Lærlingan arrived. they were all unbelievably friendly and charming, delightfully introducing themselves to everybody as soon as they arrived! after the introductions were over both Yew Tree and Lærlingan started to rehearse once more, and I was blown away by the amount of talent they possessed, even in rehearsal, Lærlingan were effortless in performance and spectacular in spirit. however Rolf stated that Rehearsal was very minimal in performance, a spectacle that us actors may not be very used to, but the laid back Norwegian way of life could inde...

  Amy Winder is our first guest blogger... Oh, the joys of a Gold company games session. With, "Reprise," done and dusted, it was great to have a Saturday morning of Yew Tree oddness. We played an array of our favourite games including Ha (is it just me who feels feels like everyone's laughing at me when I get out?) and cowboys and Indians. Michael, thankfully, got caught out in wink murder before I could become the bottom of a pile of dead bodies; not fun, I've been there before. To add to the chaos, we played Golden Egg, a bizarre game involving everyone crawling around with their eyes shut. The highlight, of course, had to be theatre by chance, a version of Yew Tree roulette in which the other groups got to create the genre and etc. I bet you can't guess how many musicals there were! I think my group's performance of a musical about an eye operation by a doctor with a flying pet pig, set under the sea, with an opening line of "Are you...

Georgia Petts with her views on, "Reprise" The "Reprise," performance was amazing! It was brilliant to be back on Wakefield Theatre's stage performing. Orange Company's take on the book, "Giraffes Can't Dance," was fabulous they are such talented little people, Crimson's performance was very different and extremely entertaining, Gold Company's, "A to Z of Shakespeare," brought back old memories from the, "One Night Only," performance, and the dances themselves were fabulous. All the little, little people were very well behaved when we had to take them to a from the theatre and hotel. All I can say is I hope there is a"Reprise 2," because the first two performances were such fun that to do a third would be a treat.

The first of my significant challenges of what promises to be a landmark week happened yesterday when we put the finishing touches to the performances for "Reprise" at the Theatre Royal.   There have been times over the last few weeks when I was sceptical as to whether it was possible to pull it all together and I was prepared for this show to be more fraught than usual however turns out I should have had faith in my youth theatre as their performances were, as I said on facebook, nothing short of wonderful. Lets look at them in age order…first we had my very excellent Orange Company, a set of enormously talented 7 – 11 year olds who performed, “Giraffe’s Can’t Dance.”   Their pluck as they performed to almost 400 people was a joy to watch as they retold the story with talent and also with humour.   I held my breath almost all the way through, willing them to be as good as I know they are and they didn’t disappoint, they were a pleasure to behold. Then we had...

Gemma who directed "These Feet of Mine" and some of the cast share their thoughts on the piece they created for "Reprise" As a practitioner it's a one of the greatest joys working with young people. They have a freedom that is not yet jaded by the world. Occasionally we get asked to be part of something bigger than ourselves and when this happens it brings needs, fear and rewards of its own. We were given the constraints of creating a piece of theatre that was between 8-10mins long, had to be of a standard that people had come to expect of the youth theatre, and it had to be relevant. So we spent a week or two playing around with thoughts and ideas and struggled to meet all the needs, without amplifying the fears. Until we came up with the idea of 'them'. The idea that they would conjure a piece that looked at them, their wants, hopes, fears. I couldn't think of a better stimulus to meet the ask. They talked for an age and a day a...

It’s been a week of lovely surprises this week…the first came at Open Mic Night 10 on Sunday…in fact this event sparked a number of the lovely surprises.   Firstly there was the turn out, so many of you came to support your friends and fellow youth theatre members as they sang and spoke and performed.   It was a wonderful night, made especially wonderful by the first time performers…Hollie despite her resistance about singing was a joy to listen to and Ellen put on an absolute “Show,” Tom played and sang for the first time and also for the first time we had a flash mob at an Open Mic Night.   All these things made it a night to remember, and the remembering of it has been made easier by the excellent photo’s by Melissa which capture the evening beautifully. However the surprises didn’t stop there…the ease at which Sapphire devised the opening scene of their Christmas play was a joy to behold, though not entirely a surprise as they are usually superb.   The e...

  Yana, Mum to Beth and Sara and staunch YTYT supporter is our guest blogger this week! I've always wondered what happens at an Open Mic Night, I have been involved with Yew Tree over 4 years now and never had the opportunity to go, OMN 10 was my lucky night, my children and I attended, we were all eager with anticipation. All I can say is that the talent of Yew Tree members was astounding, from members who had been there many years and were pro's at it, to members who had never done it before (and were given an amazing amount of encouragement ) it truly was a talent show. So inspired were my children that they both came away wanting to stand up at the next open mic night and perform. I felt very proud and privileged to see all this wonderful talent that develops from the Youth of Yew Tree. I would just like to mention all the group leaders and helpers behind Yew Tree as if it wasn't for them this amazing talent and courage would not be seen by the public and ...

A blog from the very excellent Emma Prime! At Gold Company this week everyone was picking their costume for "The A to Z of Shakespeare." I am not doing the performance but I am watching and seeing how it is all coming together. When everyone was trying on the costumes and seeing which fitted best it was like an explosion of Shakespearean clothes. There were clothes everywhere. Everyone looks amazing in their costumes. Then they went over the last few letters of the alphabet so everyone knew what they were doing. They then did a run through from start to finish. I thought it was good already but it was even better with costumes. Watching it has given me ideas and things I can use for other performances that I wouldn’t have thought of. It is nice just watching and seeing how it has come alive and how people’s ideas have gone into it. Also if one idea doesn’t quite work change 1 or a couple of things and it works. I like it how it changes for something like Murder to Nonny Non...

Tonight we hold our tenth Open Mic Night, the very first one was held almost 6 years ago in October 2007.   The brainchild of Gemma and Sam, it was held to celebrate all things YTYT in a different way to our traditional performances.   It was also created as an opportunity for youth theatre members and their friends and families to spend time together as a community and share in conversation, music, spoken word and the general creativity that surrounds what we do.   What’s lovely is that although things have altered and shifted a little it still is all about that.   I was delighted at how many of Gold Company said that the imminent OMN was their best of the week.   It’s been great to hear snippets of people practicing and preparing their performances.   It’s also been lovely that so many of you have offered to help get the building ready and make the event run smoothly.   As a result of all of that enthusiasm and effort tonight we’...

The lovely Brittany from Sapphire! Hello there ladies and gentlemen alike, I am Brittany, here to impart wisdom on Sapphire’s frolic into their Christmas play…drumroll please…RUMPLESTILKSKIN *round of applause*. Now we began with obligatory games, such as out of the pond and sun &moon, the first being what I assume a bit of fun and the second being a tool with which to begin to explore our imagination, opening our minds up for the task ahead: devising.   Finishing with a group sun and moon all rooting from a pot of gold (which saw me try to intimidate a cloud but left me looking more like an apple to be honest) we all sat on the floor in anticipation of the joy which is STORY TIME!   Now, if any of you have read Rumpelstiltskin then you will appreciate how little there is to the story…like there is probably 10 minutes of story and, to top it off, about 5 characters.   I shall admit here and now, I was apprehensive.   I had read the story ov...

There has been a lot going on at Yew Tree Youth Theatre despite the week having holiday status.   It’s hectic and a little overwhelming but it’s also brilliant.   There are many plans afoot for, “ Reprise ,” our show with West Yorkshire Dance Theatre and this week much progress was made.   For a start we finished staging, “Giselle.”   I’m really excited about this piece as the performers, all dancers at the WYTDC, are putting there all into it.   It has a beautiful gothic feel and we’re being able to push the physical aspect of theatre to tell this classic ballet story in a very different way to how it’s usually done…it also has a great soundtrack.   We also finished staging, “The A to Z of Shakespeare,” in Gold Company…another performance that will be part of “Reprise.”   I’m enjoying watching the actors develop confidence in the very direct style of performance this script demands, it needs them to be bold and brave and they are showing mor...

Merv writes about Giselle rehearsals Joining this cast I was able to be part of one of the most powerful performances I have ever been in. I am so grateful for the opportunity to join this intense and dark performance and because it is different from other performances that I usually do, it made me more determined to go ahead and be a part of this. When it comes to dancing I am not that experienced, however I feel that I will benefit a lot from this performance, because it is not entirely dancing, rather a mix with physical theatre. The rehearsals were exciting, and what really challenged me was creating a duet with Amy from scratch. I found this such a good involvement because I was able to show what I could ‘bring to the table’ and being able to create a dance sequence that I am really proud of with a dancer, really made me think that dancing is something that I would love to carry on in the future, as I was unsure whether I would have the skills needed, however joining this perfor...