What's happening at YTYT

I have had a wonderful week.   Yes it was hot, really, really hot…yes it was hard work – turning a script into a play in a week is always going to be…yes I’m covered in insect bites and have slightly peeling shoulders and yes my house is a tip…but still I have had a wonderful week… It was wonderful because I got to spend it in the beauty of Nostell Priory…every morning as I walked to our rehearsal room (the front of the house) I took a moment to breathe in the beauty…I think I could work there everyday and the sheer beauty of the place would never get old…it was also wonderful because of the brilliant 22 actors that made Party at the End of theWorld an unforgettable production for all of those that were involved in it. I also think the opportunity to tell that story – those real life events that were part of the moment when a nation changed…when life quite literally would never be the same again.     Of course That’s Out and playing games on the lawn and the gen...

Beth is our Summer at Nostell guest blogger Beautiful scenery, intense line-learning, doughnuts for breakfast, patchy sun burn and a whole lot of That's Out. It can only mean one thing - Summer at Nostell! One of the busiest weeks of the yew tree calendar, summer at Nostell is back and this year we see the return of last year's play - Party at the End of the World. This time round however the story holds even more historical significance as 2014 marks the one hundred year anniversary of the start of World War One. This meant being part of Nostell Priory's celebratory weekend and even a slot on Radio Leeds to promote the show. And so updated script in hand and cast old and new in tow, we embarked once again on our journey through the life and times of the Winn family. It has been lovely to see people developing, improving and adding new dimensions to the characters they played last year, people taking on new roles and giving them their own personal touch, a...

Yesterday Gold Company and I had the nicest time at The Hepworth.   We were invited to go and play with the sculptures there specifically those in the Franz West exhibition and it was the perfect way to end what has been a very hectic summer term at YTYT. Over the course of the morning we played a glorious version of park bench in amongst the sofas of Gallery 1.   We made a very short but lovely stop motion film which I’d love to go back and extend…we played with the Franz West adaptives and created short glorious scenes featuring sneaky gangs, black walls, fashion shows, personality changes and a deluded prisoner – or was she…we allowed the plaster heads to tweet and visited The Calder so we could discuss the Arts Party we are going to be working with The Hepworth on in August.   It was a celebration of play, dialogue and ridiculousness with the fitting finale of the morning being when four members of the youth theatre emulated the wire faces of the learning studios...

This week at gold company we had a change from the normal routine and had our Saturday morning session at the Hepworth. It was great to relax and 'play' after working so hard towards The Sea performance. We arrived on the drizzly saturday morning and had a quick look around the gallery, apart from some of the fabulous pieces of artwork I couldn't help my awe at the amazing windows there, you stand against one look down and it's like you're floating in mid air. (I'm sure you're enthralled about the architecture of the Hepworth) Anyway, we played a personal favourite of mine 'park bench' but with an array of characters sat on individual sofas and the types of people that emerged were a treat. I particularly enjoyed Georgia P and her imaginary friend 'Stephanie', Mathew and his wife who ran off with the Chinese man next door and Sam in his state of meditating tranquility. The session was brimming with different activities that made stranger...

This week I’ve spent a lot of time in Wakefield primary schools…I’ve met a lot of lovely children and had some wonderful experiences encouraging the pupils of them to think creatively.   Of all the delightful faces I’ve seen one particular little boy stands out and I’d like to tell you about him… The particular workshop I met him in was on a hot afternoon.   The children, from the outset, were a little fussy – partly due to the heat and partly due to the imminent and yearned for end of term.   The boy was one of the few children not demanding attention…small, dark with alert, bright eyes…he sat quietly, listened carefully and gently drank in the stimulus for writing I was presenting to the group.   He was easy to overlook amongst the clamour of the louder, brasher children.   Also he gave the impression of needing sustenance and nurturing physically, emotionally and creatively…the initial writing games we started with showed that literacy skills did not com...

Toni blogs about her second week of work experience My second week at Yew Tree for work experience has gone ridiculously quick. We started on Monday by creating monsters and beasts for the Castle of Dreams project with reception children and (once I was off duty) devising the hilariously fabulous Dick Whittington and his Cat with Sapphire - which is coming along a treat! What seemed like no less than a day later I was saying goodbye and parting from Gemma as she headed for her weekend trip to the sea side. So this week has mainly been about The Castle of Dreams project, except for Tuesday, when Sarah and Yew Tree were invited by the BBC to tell part of the story of the Summer at Nostell play 'Party at the End of the World' in one of their 'WW1 at Home' tents at the Great Yorkshire Show. The photos look great! And my day was spent at the Office, having quite a lot of fun myself, updating the Yew Tree scrapbooks. On to the rest of the week! The Castle of Dreams p...

Sam has reviewed our production of Taming of the Shrew With this little review of “Taming of the Shrew,” I feel that it would be very easy to fall into the trap of reviewing the writing rather than the actual performance. As I see it, this would be the natural course to take as Shakespearean pieces always seems to be viewed as texts to be analysed, whereby deep and meaningful inferences should be explored and examined, picked apart. However, being the first time I have actually watched a Shakespere play, it was nice to sit back and see it as something to be enjoyed rather than explored. Nostell Priory was, I thought a rather nice setting for the performance and (at the start) the weather was somewhat of a delight. With it all being outside, I did worry that hearing everything might be an issue.   Nonetheless, Black Company managed to communicate to us in quite an amicable fashion, making it easy to follow the story without having to think too much about the language used. Al...

I'm sat here trying to decide what to write about and I admit defeat...YTYT weeks are always full but this week has been unbelievably full after a half term that as been unbelievably full and a year that has been unbelievably full and I have finally reached saturation point... In just one week Sapphire have devised the first third of their Christmas show, Jade have performed to their parents, Orange have played with unashamed abandon, Gold have finished their piece for Ossett Gala next week and Black have performed Taming of the Shrew and they are just the groups I direct...in addition the script for Party at the End of the World is ready to roll for the next Black Company project and Ruby, Crimson and Purple have met and celebrated all things creative in their own inimitable style...Crimson after a glorious success performing the brilliant "Say Something" Next week I'm sure a more reflective response to all that is happening will be available but for now I am jus...

Toni has been on work experience this week and so has written the guest blog My week at Yew Tree for work experience has been far from what I expected! I knew that, during the day, Yew Tree was involved in visiting quite a few schools and doing drama workshops with them, but that was about it. I never realised the mass variety of things Yew Tree does. With an interest in how drama could be applied to work and everyday life, I was really looking forward to shadowing Sarah. The very first thing I did on Monday morning was unexpected. On my timetable, it was down as customer service training, and I was slightly confused but nevertheless, I turned up. When I got there Sarah was in a room that was about to be filled with 20 or so adults about to take a customer service course and I was rather curious about what Yew Tree had to do with it. I watched at the side as the course took place and listened in to groups when they were given an exercise, which was pretty interesting in itself ...