What's happening at YTYT

It’s interesting that some weeks, despite the fact that I am working with a myriad of individuals from lots of different groups framed by many different organizations, a particular aspect of this drama business will emerge… This week it’s all been about the way we respond to the day to day events in our lives.   I’ve talked about it in rehearsals with young actors, in training with professionals and in one to one conversations with both children and adults.   It’s created a fascinating pattern… One of the most vivid examples of the how useful it is to be aware of the nuts and bolts of responsiveness was in our Hacktivists rehearsal.   Yesterday things got pretty heated as we tried to make the conversations and situations in the play come to life realistically in our developing portrayal of the events of the play.   When we began there was something unconvincing about the way the scene was shaping up…it was vague, lack lustre, unengaging.    The key...

Amy W is our guest blogger this week... At Gold Company, we had a long awaited games session as a celebration for last weeks performance of Ever After. Before Ever After, we were rehearsing Twelve Dancing Princesses and, before Twelve Dancing Princesses, we were rehearsing The Sea and, before The Sea was our last session where we had to achieve absolutely nothing, so nobody can fairly say that we didn’t deserve our morning of games.  Just because we didn’t have to achieve anything, doesn’t mean that we didn’t achieve anything though. Several people experienced Situation Wink Murder and Yew Tree Roulette for the first time. (Can you imagine life without those games?) Shelbie taught us how all how to play a new game, giving two thirds of us the chance to make funny noises at each other and the rest had the opportunity to translate for everyone.  I particularly enjoyed playing Yew Tree Roulette and being a spy in a circus, although it appears that I wouldn't make it as a hum...

Thursday was one of those days where I didn’t really have time to do all the things I needed to do…a day running workshops at a Pupil Referral Unit, followed by teaching in an after schools drama club, followed by directing the glorious Orange Company, followed by hosting a theatre performance by Splendid Productions…it was always going to be a significant challenge but by the end of the day none of that mattered because I had been well and truly inspired… The source of that inspiration was Splendid Productions performance of   “Woyzeck.”   Splendid Productions were founded by my college friend, the exceptionally talented and brilliant Kerry Frampton, the company specialize in taking established work and re-envisioning it in an entirely original way whilst holding onto the integrity of the play.   Their choice for this years tour the unfinished Buchner play “Woyzeck” is a gritty and grave choice.   It tells the story of an impoverished soldier – the title charac...

Shelbie is our guest blogger this week Well my Saturday started off with 3 performances at the Hepworth, Wakefield. Our performance was inspired by an exhibition that was in the gallery, the work of Alexandra Bircken. Our play included many fairytale stories including one about a tree that was cut down and turned into ladders to help people escape the darkness but they got cursed by 6 sisters and no one managed to live. My favourite part of the play was creating all the different fairytales as if they hadn't panned out the way they should have done. The performances went really well and the audiences gave us some lovely comments that just warmed my heart.  Later me and Sarah headed over to the Alice In Wonderland rehearsals at West Yorkshire Dance Centre and just wow! It's coming along so well, I really enjoyed watching it. Finally I finished off the day with rehearsals for our National Theatre Connections play Hacktivists! We got the opening sorted and it's brilliant ...

Ellen sent us a mid week blog! I'm not very good at writing blogs but it can't be that bad.... So I've been so excited for the first Yew Tree sessions of this year, gold company was amazing, especially now we've already started a new project. Connections was great as per usual, each session we all discover something new about our characters each rehearsal! But what I'm really excited for is my first Sapphire session of this year. Unfortunately I'm missing the first session because my explorers session ran over, so note to all people attending Sapphire, have fun!  On another note, is it only me who has been bored out for their mind when Yew Tree was off over Christmas. I mean a break and some rest was well needed and much appreciated but I missed all my friends so much, so now I'm even happier that Yew Tree is back, it's helped me get through the first week of school! Thanks! Ellen xxxx

Yesterday was so rich, rehearsals for three very different productions all of which are going to be real triumphs for their respective casts but equally all of which offer equally real challenges for their casts. The first is “ EverAfter ” which will be performed at the Hepworth this Saturday.   It’s a short piece of physical theatre, which explores the darker side of fairy tales.   The absence of a linear narrative within the play requires a commitment from the cast in terms of their physical and vocal energy in performance to engage the audience.   It also, and this is the thing that is hard to achieve in a short rehearsal time, requires such precision and discipline in the actors performance.   Each and every movement on stage says something… adds to the impact the piece has on the audience…consequently any careless gesture or delay or absence detracts from or obscures the impression the performance makes on the audience.   Gold Company worked really har...

Musical Rivers Year 6 at St. Michael's Academy in Flanshaw, Wakefield are learning about physical geography in the next few weeks with their class teachers. To support this we composed some musical rivers in their first ever Yew Tree music lessons. We explored some features of rivers such as tributaries, a confluence, meanders, estuaries, waterfalls and lakes, and we learned that rivers usually start up in the mountains and are fast flowing and small, and they usually end at the sea, where they are big and mighty. 6B included a confluence (where the bells stream met the boomwhacker stream) and a huge meander. Their river, which they called the River Of Raymond, became very mighty indeed as it flowed into the sea. They learned some musical symbols for notes and rests and made all sorts of important and creative decisions about the structure of their composition. 6c also included a waterfall, some frogs in a lake, some golden fish swimming upstream, and some g...

After a time of as Rhiannon put it well needed rest we were back on Friday with a full day of YTYT loveliness, there was great progress made in both the Hacktivist rehearsal and the rehearsal for Ever After, the piece we will be performing at The Hepworth on the 17th, but for today's blog I want to concentrate on the first session I did that day. I began my YTYT term with "What's Next?" a session we run for YT member that are applying for drama school.  For those of you who don't know getting into a top flight college to train as an actor is exceptionally difficult and those that decide to attempt it have to work so hard, be so resilient and incredibly determined.  As a way of supporting this process we set up What's Next? a few years ago where I help people as much as I can through the process and develop their audition portfolio of speeches with them.  It all hots up this term so spare a thought and a dart of positivity in their direction over the next few...

Rhiannon is this weeks guest blogger! Woah, It’s January already. Where did Christmas go?   I guess i should start with my favourite part of last year seen as I forgot to send mine oops... Last term as a whole was really special for me because not only was I involved in A LOT of projects but from the Castle of Dreams project, normal Gold and Black sessions, Miners, Halloween, the World War piece, 12 Dancing Princesses, Vampire Story, the Children’s Panto, of course Connections and even going to OMN; I became so much closer and met some of the most fantastic people in my life. Yew Tree truly is my second family and I’m not saying that lightly. I honestly do look to members of Yew Tree for most things and I love everyone so much. Anyway, onto this year... After finishing last term with 7 performances, the two week break was well needed. However it feels so nice to be finally back, well rested and ready to go. Saying I came back on a high start is an understatement. CONN...