What's happening at YTYT

I’ve blogged before about how impressed I am at the bravery of new starters to Yew Tree Youth Theatre.   For each one of them there are so many new faces to take in, traditions to absorb and games and ways of working to process and learn.   It’s a pretty big step out of anyone’s comfort zone and if you are not the most confident of people we’re looking at leaps and bounds of Olympic proportions.   I try and put myself in the new person’s shoes and find it very difficult to understand why anybody would come back the next week – I think I’d be tempted to run away with a cry of, “It’s all too much!!”   Thankfully the majority of people are back for a second week and by the third week they are well and truly part of whichever company they are joining and we, the old timers, wonder how we ever thought we were a company without them. So it’s become a given that crossing the YTYT threshold for the first time inarguably takes significant bottle and there’s a piquancy to...

I don't know she's got away with it for so long but this is Hollie's first blog...enjoy! With Kendal fast approaching (only 1 week to go!!) it's fair to say the Hacktivist cast is rather excited to perform in the Kendal brewery arts centre and spend the weekend in Kendal having fun as a group and performing. Today was the final rehearsal before Kendal and we did a stop start run to highlight and iron out all the tiny details. We wanted to make sure we can put on a truly professional performance. We did this by looking very closely at the first scene and brought up the energy 10x more than what it was at the beginning - everyone in the cast could feel the difference on the stage. We also started off by thinking about our characters and made sure we knew that every thought throughout the show helps us with our character journey, but it also helped me form my opinions on other characters in the play because I was really listening to what they were saying and what I fee...

I love first rehearsals - not the read through bit but when it's all stilted and everything feels too big to get our head round but when we first step up to the text and start pulling things together.  At Black Company this week we did just that, attacking the first scene of Beauty and the Beast and creating something really impressive.  It had been a while coming due to my American sojourn but the anticipation was definitely rewarded by a cracking rehearsal with talented actors. I direct so much of my own writing which is of course utterly fulfilling but in all honesty it's a treat to direct another playwright's script - the challenge of getting in their heads and realising their vision is an excellent creative challenge and that is coupled with wanting to put my own stamp on the work...so essentially on Thursday night I had fun.  It took a while for the cast to feel confident with the overblown, story telling style but they absolutely got there...it's always a good ...

The unmistakable Amy Osborne ladies and gentlemen...I started to try and edit it and then just left it in her own inimitable style... hi gals, if you haven't noticed already I think this might be like the second time ever in the history of yew tree blogging ever that I have actually written a blog (which is pretty impressive considering) anyway it's two weeks until KENDAL! Kendal is my favourite time of year, no competition and I love every part of it especially the party playlist (I don't think anyone enjoys that as much as me), being able to walk around pretty little Kendal, and the whole road trip feel including midnight pizza and time with my favourite people.  However before the cast of connections can get that reward, they have to go through the process of getting their play up to the performance level that it was 6 weeks ago, as well as incorporating the points of improvement from the assessors report and re-staging the performance for a theatre setting. this...

It’s always a delight starting a new term but there was something especially sweet about yesterday…after a spring term of playful nonsense at Gold and a little bit of time off for me, it was time to get our focus back. Over the course of this term we are making a performance for the Hepworth, Wakefield and devising our Christmas play, here is also the possibility of an additional bonus –yet to be confirmed - project too.   For the first time in a couple of years we’re creating something brand new with Gold Company for their major production of the year…we’re going back to Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen,” before it was “Frozenised.”   The company dived straight in, in their brilliant inimitable style we had the prologue all set for me to go and write it by the end of the session. The afternoon was also full speed ahead with a Hacktivists reboot as we started preparations for taking the production to the NT Connections regional festival at the Brewery Arts Centre...

Grace is our guest blogger this week I t was back to early morning starts at G old Company as we began t o gather ideas for our Christmas show. We devised physical pieces for the prologue and watched each others pieces that we had created. I think this year the Christmas show is a nice contrast to the 12 Dancing Princesses show we did last year. This gives us more of an experience to try out new things and have different perspective on theatre. Finally, it was good being back at Connections and Hacktivists rehearsals after a long 7 weeks. I must say, for our first session the full Connections cast were great with lines and there were barely any errors! Kendal is on the horizon and we are all really looking forward to it. My favourite bit was to see the rest of the cast and get back into the swing of things and enjoying being with my best friends. Just a great way to end a Saturday.