What's happening at YTYT

It was the last rehearsal of our National Connections production of The Wardrobe yesterday before our final performance at Kendal.   In the last couple of weeks we have transformed it from a play performed in the round to one that fits into a conventional theatre.   This has taken a whole heap of creativity, problem solving and even more hard work.   The performance is demanding, a full hour on stage with no respite and made up of scenes that are established played and ended in less than a few minutes.   It’s a real actors challenge and by taking it on the cast have developed their skills immeasurably.   In addition those involved in support roles as crew have equally had to step up in order to make the production work. As their director I am immensely proud of all of them. Yesterday at the end of the run there was much to be pleased about. The performances are confident, eloquent and poised…the play works in it’s new format and in the adapt...

Grace - part of the crew of The Wardrobe is our guest blogger Well what an amazing couple of months working as stage crew in my first ever connections experience. The way this amazing cast have progressed is phenomenal and I'm glad to have been able to see how much they have become their character from day one to now. I have seen people loosen up and become more confident since the start of the rehearsals. All of the scenes have progressed so much as well as the actors in it; For example, Libby an Ellen two very well spoken members of the cast who had to work on a distinctive broad accent. For me this helped me along with the characters history such as how they were brought up and raised. Connections is good because It is one of the first opportunities many people have got to learn how to act in a more professional environment. This more serious approach has meant that the cast have been able to experience the real feel of how an actor has to be on point whether t...

The holidays are a mixed blessing – obviously I miss all of you, I miss the creative buzz that surrounds a YTYT week, I miss the general sense of play and I miss the progress of making things…however there are a number of things that make this absence in my life worthwhile… The first and most obvious one is that I get to spend a little more time with my lovely family and the beneficial effects of a break from what can sometimes be a hectic schedule.   However it also allows me to get a little input…when the term is in full swing Gemma and I are coming up with ideas all the time…inventing things, solving problems, making things happen.   It’s hard when everything is full on to make time to go and see theatre, to go and experience things as an audience or as a learner, a break in the routine allows this to happen. I took advantage of this in two major ways – on Thursday I went to London to see “Let the Right One In,” a relatively new piece of theatre nurtur...

This week we have three best and worsts for the guest blog... The first is from Shelbie from Gold Company I think in the last three months the best part without a doubt was and still is doing Connections, the actors are some of the most greatest people in the world and doing the play "The Wardrobe" has been a lovely experience, in my opinion Connections has brought me a lot closer to many people who go to Yew Tree also being able to see it progress since we started last year is incredible I'm just so proud of everyone involved. Another one of my best moments was devising for the physical theatre "Not Too Shoddy" I love every minute, not to mention watching Amy T trying to teach Tom all of it in the matter of minutes, I loved being able to give the people if Ossett something to watch and look forward to. It's always a pleasure being able to perform with Yew Tree Youth Theatre and work along side so many talented people, I have a feeling this year is goin...

This week I have faced possibly the most challenges in putting on a performance I’ve ever experienced.   If I was honest this particular production was already a challenging prospect when I thought it was going to go smoothly.   A cast of 28 students, 9 performances in four days, 2 versions of the show (one conventional and one promenade) and an expected audience of 900 audience.   However on top of those exacting demands during the course of the week I had actors not turn up on the morning of the first full day of performance and then make it just in time, I had actors with missing costumes, I had understudies to rehearse in an hour before the last 2 performances and I had audience members who were bullies.   However not at any point did I think that we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we had set out to do…all the time these challenges presented themselves I had a certainty that somehow we’d be able to sort it out.   Happily we did and the resu...

Jess who is on placement wrote the blog this week :) This week I got to see a different side to yew tree and had the opportunity to spend my alternate placement alongside Sarah, Charlotte & Hannah. It was literally one of the best teaching experiences, and although I only spent a week with the Thomas a Becket year 7-10's I already miss them. In 4 days they performed 9 times and made the Easter story into a really interesting and different performance. The short time I got to spend with them was exhausting, challenging but brilliant. The cast overcame some huge challenges and impressed me so much with their efforts and talent. Me, Charlotte and Hannah spent a good amount of time trying to convince them to join Yew Tree and I think we did a pretty good job. It's rare that I get teaching experiences with high school kids but this placement has made me realise that teaching GCSE's drama is something that I might be interested in at some point in my career

I’ve spent a lot of this week thinking about acting in terms of jackets and shoes.   It’s a great analogy when working with actors who are still developing their craft…who are making discoveries about what process works for them as they engage in the business of creating characters and telling stories through theatre.   The metaphorical usefulness of jackets and shoes was particularly prevalent at the first re-rehearsal of The Wardrobe.   The cast (who are simply brilliant people) once reunited put their characters back on like jackets, most of which fitted nice and snugly.   It was a pleasure to see how quickly and confidently they were back in the production.   We were back up and running as a company at record speed…however it was my job to tell them that wasn’t good enough.   The reason?   That for the production we take to Kendal via Crofton to be of the standard we expect, wearing the character as a jacket no matter how good ...

Sioban has blogged about Crimson's current project So Crimson company have decided to go down the route of a musical this term but instead of doing one already written, we've decided to craft our own. This year marks the centenary of World War 1 so we chose to theme our musical around the war and how it affected the families and loved ones of the men who fought for our country. We auditioned and within a few weeks the cast list was up. So far we've worked on a few scenes and I am really excited to see it all fit together. It's a beautiful piece and is well worth the extra work of adding musical and dance numbers.