Yesterday at Yew Tree

Never mind This Week at Yew Tree, yesterday at Yew Tree was a feast rich enough to satisfy anyone’s appetite.  I’ll be honest it was exhausting but it was great…really great…I’m going to tell you why!

It started with cake – apple and cinnamon cake to be precise - which can only be a good thing…I have a little ritual where I call into Eller Coffee on the way to Gold Company each week to pick up a cappuccino and occasionally a breakfast treat…when I saw apple and cinnamon cake was on the menu I was made up and when Mark gave me two pieces for the price of one I knew it was going to be a good day!

Then it was off to Gold for three hours – three hours of putting finishing touches to our Christmas production of A Christmas Carol.  It was an excellent rehearsal – we’re so nearly there…however it was there I met my first hitch of the day and my first hero.  The hitch was I’d forgotten my IPod and therefore had no music as for my hero I’ll tell you about later.  My cast however rose to the challenge…before we started the run we talked about how the music created atmosphere and without it that atmosphere would have to come from them and their performances.  I felt having to rise to this unplanned challenge definitely made the whole cast raise their game exactly when they needed to.

Meanwhile at Eastmoor Community Gardens Gemma was making something magical happen with Purple Company.  Grandmas and Grandads, Mums and Dads and a variety of other fans and followers braved the cold to watch Robin Hood…I obviously couldn’t be there but the compliments and praise have been rolling in…I’m really sad I couldn’t see it.

Still there was no time for regrets as the minute Gold Company was over I hot footed it to St Austin’s Community Centre for YTYT’s contribution to Plays and Pints entitled, “It’s Your Round.”  Now…the journey for this piece hasn’t been straight forward mainly due to the massive amount of commitments writers, directors and actors have had recently and so I approached the theatre with a certain amount of trepidation.  I needn’t have worried however…the actors were on top form, the scripts were pitched just right and the audience were generously responsive…to be honest it was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of it.  Credit needs to be given to Paul Bateson for the vision to create and make happen something so vibrant and classy!

You would think that would be enough for a Saturday but oh no….while I was at Plays and Pints Gemma, my fellow writer and director, was knee deep in Crimson Company rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast equally as soon as I was done off I went to my last YTYT stop for the day.  After a frenetic day the reflective nature of our National Connections was just the ticket. We focused on text and made multiple discoveries about the characters in the initial scenes and the situations they found themselves in.  We spoke about masks, stakes, sibling rivalry and all manner of human complexities and I left feeling like we’d made the first steps in something that will be inspiring

Not bad for a days work eh?  I ended the day thinking about all the people that had been heroes to me over the course of the day.  From Sandy who when I was beating myself up for not bringing the IPod reassured me with such certainty that it was all fine and made me not worry about it anymore to the entire cast of “It’s Your Round,” who stepped up brilliantly just when they needed to and not forgetting Gemma for in addition to writing a beautiful scene for “It’s Your Round,” creating something wonderful on a cold November morning…

I’ve said it before and I won’t ever get tired of saying it…I have the best job!