What's happening at YTYT

My blog this morning is ever so simple in it’s intent – I just want to say congratulations – an 8 week half term…an absolute marathon…and you made it – more or less (I hope) intact…please spend your Sunday being ever so proud of yourself! Whether you’re a child or young person in the ever increasingly pressurized environment of education – battling trials and assessments made even more challenging if you’re contemplating what the next chapter of further or higher education might be.   Whether you’re a parent supporting your child through the hoops they’re trying to jump to come out with whatever they need to progress…living and dying inside with their successes and disappointments…whilst at the same time ensuring they are nourished in mind body and spirit and still having something of a childhood.   Whether you are a teacher/tutor/trainer trying to please the powers that be that insist on telling you how it should be done leaving very little room for intuition and humanit...

The words of the very excellent John Broadhead! A month or two ago, the opportunity arose to join Black Company, and deciding that Saturday mornings were better suited for sleep than Thursday evenings, I took it. The idea was at first daunting, joining a company of actors more seasoned than a well prepared steak (where as I am comparatively bland in that regard), but I wasn't alone in taking that step, which was a comfort. Soon after, we set to work on a heavily physical interpretation on Red Riding Hood, a name which conjures images of tiny actors in red cloaks, a great fellow in fur playing the wolf, and legions of primary school children gleefully playing trees . It wasn't these images that bothered me - I trusted Sarah to devise something decidedly more mature. It was that word: 'physical'. That word instantly brought about some apprehension - mincing about a stage 'representing' things certainly wasn't my cup of tea, but I'd just started, so with ...

On Thursday I went to see the NT Live showing of Hamlet – a stage performance live streamed from the Barbican in London into Wakefield Cineworld –that something like that is now possible is an impressive thing…but impressiveness was to be had in bucket loads that evening.   Firstly there was the vision of the production – just brilliantly epic – even better when you find out the director is Lyndsey Turner who featured in my Excellent People blog earlier this month.   More impressiveness was on display in the performances of the actors including of course Benedict (I’ve decided we can be on first name terms) There was a directness and honesty about their approach to the text that transformed one of the most quoted plays in history into a fascinating journey of a man who’s life is transformed by the death of his father…which was exactly as it should be and I was entranced from start to finish… The final bit of impressiveness came from the interview s...

The very excellent Hannah Speke is the first blogger... It's been a pretty busy week Yew Tree wise this week. I've had Yearbook rehearsals and then performances in Barnsley and Featherstone as part of the first week of Yearbook's six week tour across Barnsley and Wakefield high schools performing to year 7 pupils. As well as doing Yearbook I spent my Thursday afternoon with the lovely Orange company. Their numbers have significantly increased since the new term started and so even getting through best and worst is a mammoth task. Once we'd got through that and played a few games to make sure everyone was warmed up, we cracked on with putting together Orange's version of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' which is going to be performed at the Yew Tree Christmas shows. This week Sarah was in charge of the elves, Tom had the reindeer and I got to work with the lovely weather fairies. We had a read through and then chatted about characters and how each of...

Today the youth theatre did something excellent – they did it bravely and with an appropriate sense of gravitas and I was exceptionally proud of them.   A cast of twelve YTYT members travelled to Sheffield Cathedral to perform as part of the Miners’ Memorial Service for The National Union of Miners – Yorkshire.    This is something we have done for many years, our first performance was at Wakefield Cathedral in 2009 .   Every year I am struck anew with the importance of it.   Connecting generations, connecting communities and connecting individuals…it is an honour to share an hour of remembrance with an industry which is at the foundation of our heritage. Each year the cast alters as members grow up and leave the youth theatre, although it is interesting to note that Amy and Tom were there at the beginning and are still there now!   However each year I am told by ex members how valued their memories of this event are and by current members and their p...

And Courtney the second blogger this week! So I'm in both Black and Gold company so I've had a pretty good week! To start with I'm loving the work we are doing on Red riding Hood and the progress we are making. I'm totally in love with the Forrest/woods we have made using physical theatre as it really captures the creepy dark look I think Sarah was imagining. Over at Gold we have been working on The Snow Queen and my favourite thing so far has to been the Ravens scenes that I am in with Grace And Dec. I like the fact we can play around with it and really take our Charters on bored, we have also been looking at our creepy black costumes and make-up we are planning on using to make our charters even more creepy! (Deffo looking forward to that!). Lastly I wanna say how happy and glad I am to have joined black! It's my first term here and I've had been saying for ages that I wanted to start but things came up but now I have started I'm loving it I'm so gla...

Ellie Barraclough is our first guest blogger So I don't usually do other things for Yew Tree bar my usual Sapphire Session, but this time I did Miners! It's memorial service for family and friends of miners who have died due to mining incidents or mining related deaths. Rehearsals at the dance school started around 3 weeks ago, and we spend the first session coming up with material for the script and by the next session we had finished a run of the play, it was a short 10-12 minute piece with just 4 rehearsals, so it all had to be materialised and learnt pretty quickly, it included the miners lamp, the hauling rope, miners family's and the child miner. Each role and each speech was chosen perfectly for the person playing it.  Over all the service was a huge success, lasting around and hour, speeches were read and hymns were sung, and not to forget we performed, and all in aid of miners families, a huge thank you to Sheffield cathedral and the mining community for having ...

Earlier in the year than ever before it was the directors weekend for National Theatre Connections – this is the point in the year when I get to spend time in London, meet the writer of our selected play and try and fit in as many other things as possible while I’m there.    At first I was going to reflect on the events and experiences of the weekend as my blog but as the weekend progressed it became clear that the excellent people I have met, or in some cases interacted with on a slightly less personal level, have been the biggest influence on my weekend so instead I am going to write about them instead… So first off on this meet and greet is Ai Weiwei…Chinese contemporary artist who I first came across in, “Hacktivists,” the connections play we did last year and then again with his work on Alcatraz when we visited earlier this year.   He literally took my breath away with his installation of trees in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Art.   The trees are m...

Georgia is the guest blogger this week with a postscript from Libby With Sarah in London for the Connections Weekend Joanna Nicks, a previous YT'er, came and led Gold's session with lots of games and devising and it was great! We started of the day with a fairly interactive best and worst (sorry Joanna) and then move in to some games like Captain Beaky. My favourite devising game was one where we got into groups, we told each other a story then choose one to retell, slightly different in front of the other groups, the other groups had to then pick whose the story originally belonged to. It was really interesting looking at everyone's body language and listening to the changes in their voices to see what differed from those telling the truth and those lying. Overall, although i missed the normal sessions it was a really fun and interesting session which I hope we get to do again! PS So Friday morning I helped out in the "Yearbook" rehearsal, having seen i...