What's happening at YTYT

You know when you have a chain of thoughts that move constantly through your head, they’re about everyday things but actually complicated enough to make it difficult to find any real conclusions in them.   That sense of mulling things over and trying to make sense of things has occupied a great deal of my thoughts throughout a very busy week. I’ve been thinking about the intent and impact of our words and actions on others. More specifically how we manage our own words and actions and therefore the impact we make on those around us and also how we react to the words and actions of others.   It’s a minefield of thoughts but very much at the centre of what goes on at Yew Tree every day, week, month term, year.... This weeks focus on the issue was first triggered at “Yearbook,” rehearsals, a Yew Tree Arts theatre in education tour that goes out after half term for three weeks.   The play is about positive decision-making and written for year 7’s.   ...

Shelbie is our guest blogger Well, the day started off with the great Mikey taking charge of best and worst, which was full of sympathy, until the glorious Sarah walked through the door. We played some games that included Amy. T being the last mafia in the game and winning it over all. We did our weekly vocal warm up to be ready to start rehearsing Christmas Carol, as ever the 3 present ghosts were fab with they charm and happiness. I guarantee you will always laugh when they are about. To finish Gold Company off we had a quick rehearsal of our Halloween physical theatre piece, which didn't feel right not having the lovely dancers there with us. In only 1 hour the members of Gold who were doing the physical piece had to be in Osset ready to perform, it started off with a dance from the Sarah Thomas girls who did incredibly well. We followed with our piece only to get complement after complement, not to mention the fact that a lady chose to watch us over drinking her daily coffee....

This week I had the privilege of spending a day at Arts Ed, one of the set of elite drama schools in London.   I went as the guest of the very lovely head of music there who I often work with during the summer and I was welcomed wonderfully by every member of staff and every student I met. My life with Yew Tree and my family is so very full and rich but I never want to get to the point where I don’t spend some time looking out of Wakefield to what else is going on.   Equally it’s important to spend some time out of Yew Tree to see the practice of others, the last thing I want is for us to become insular.   My trip to London this week was part of this desire to keep developing new ideas and seek new inspiration. There were definitely both ideas and inspiration at Arts Ed in abundance.   During my day there I watched acting classes, song and dance classes, rehearsals for final productions, acting for TV classes and voice classes.   I saw students willing…...

  Amy T shares her Saturday of Yew Tree with us... A jam packed day of Yew Tree loveliness is what I needed and my wish was granted by a glorious Gold company, physical theatre organisation and a group meeting about spooky events coming to Nostell very soon. With recovered feet from some Gold members, it was absolutely necessary to indulge in a game of foot stomp. Recently, I've seemed to notice some team alliances built and I'm not sure what the rule is for that, but I quite like it. It's always tense when half the team turns on the other and doesn't think of the consequences, which are usually an argument in the human wall, closing in on the competitors (and Wilby, I won that one). But now now, professional at all times, as a ghost of christmas present once reminded me! I also am really impressed with the improvement not only in my voice, but in the whole cast's ever improving vocal chords after a few weeks of exercises. I feel like voice warm ups ...

Sam wrote about our performance last week Miners memorial. I have to say, it was not a project that I originally intended to be involved in. I spend an awful lot of time worrying about these sorts of things and also I was terribly unnerved by the fact that my old English teacher – renowned as the scariest in the school no less -   would most probably be in the audience.   In the end I saw sense, with a little gentle persuasion, and decided that I would like to be part of it. Now, I don’t mean to say the obvious and predictable things that you will have no doubt heard about this sort of project countless times before, but I am beyond glad that I ended up getting involved. It was very different to they types of performance I have grown accustomed to, both in style, purpose and tone. Sitting in the audience just before we went up showed me just how much it would mean to some of the people. We heard speakers from the NUM and from the Mayor of Barnsley, highlighting ...

I’ve been thinking a lot about role models this week…those people you come across in your life that give you a signpost of where to direct yourself and inspiration to keep developing to reach your full potential.   I’m aware that my life is richer because it contains so many people I admire…not in a comparative way but in an aspirational way.   On the flip side I work with lots of people who haven’t identified people they can model themselves on and see how hard it is for them to imagine improving their lot in life without a picture of what that might look like…I spent an afternoon of working with primary children this week trying to redress just such an imbalance… Identifying role models is an interesting business – as I said I have a number…all of whom have something about them that I aspire to be better at…they include practitioners in my field such as writers, directors, facilitators but also leaders, teachers, young people, parents, friends…lots of br...

Jess has blogged about the Miners Memorial Service piece we will be performing tomorrow  As much as I love being in Yew Tree shows, and commit to as many as possible being at university makes it harder than I would like. However, I always make time for the Miners Memorial S ervice performance. It's a really different type of performance and it feels good to perform something that genuinely touches the people that can relate to/ have been affected by it. I knew very little about mining before taking part in the services and have learnt a lot about both its positives and negatives in the 3 years I've been a part of it. Its really nice to see people come together to remember the mining past, and I hope it's something that continues at Yew Tree so that lots of people get the opportunity to be involved. I've done loads of performances both with and without yew tree and I highly value the Miners Memorial Service. It's emotionally draining but worth taking part!

Last week there were over 400 hits on the blogs…that’s an awful lot of people having the curiosity and making the time to read about the thoughts, experiences and reflections of a youth theatre director and the actors she directs.   They were a particular good crop of blogs I thought…indeed I am often impressed by the standard of guest blogs and the range of people who offer them.   I like the fact that new members share their thoughts along side very much established members and that sometimes their parents get involved too! Including those posted this week there have been 652 blogs posted in the four and a half years since we launched the “This Week at Yew Tree” blog on the 27 th of March 2009.   That’s over 230 blogs written by me (the most popular one being this ) and a staggering 420 guest blogs (the one with the most hits being this one .)   I don’t have the stats on how many people have contributed but it’s a lot and I’m so very grateful to all of them...

Emma blogs about Black Company's rehearsals for their Christmas show... All I Want For Christmas is Yew, For Christmas, Black company will be performing All I Want For Christmas Is You. When Sarah presented it as 'a little bit like Love Actually' and all the girls oooooohed and the boys raised their eyebrows (and probably oooooohed internally), I think we were all wondering how this would ever be something we could perform on stage. Invariably we manage to pull off cracking shows every Christmas, but the journey isn't always clear until you've started it. And started it we did! After a thorough read through, we got the first few pages on their feet on Thursday. It's not going to be easy - it could be a film in a heartbeat, but putting something so naturalistic and complex as All I Want For Christmas onto the stage is going to be a challenge.... But we're rising to it of course. Yew Tree is the perfect excuse to listen to Christmas songs tw...