What's happening at YTYT

They seem to come round quicker each year but the local performances of our Connections shows are definitely a highlight of the YTYT calendar.   Sunday and Monday saw a company of 25 brilliant young people perform Eclipse by Simon Armitage.   Their performances were all exceptional and the pleasure I got from watching each and everyone of them succeed in such a challenging and poetically abstract piece was second to none. There is so much I could talk about in terms of the individual and collective achievements of the cast…they have all become better actors as a result of their journey from audition to performance.   They have all learnt a great deal about themselves and have been pushed as people and actors.   During rehearsals they were continually challenged to delve deeper, understand more and achieve greater clarity.   Their vocal and physical skills have improved significantly in the process of reaching to tell the story of Eclipse as eloquently as po...

Georgia Petts ladies and gentlemen... I don't even know where to start with this blog, here we go... Eclipse has been an emotional journey, from auditions, to being double cast, to now I suppose. Sunday and Monday were the last local connections performances I will ever do, and whilst that's hideously sad and makes me think I should be fitted for a hearing aid, it was also one of the happiest performances and general experience of my year! Sunday started off with no real drama, a 'quick' run of cast sun to get us started, and then a little bit of lunch, then a fire alarm, then a performance. Oh yeah, the fire alarm. So whilst everyone's tucking into a variety of lunches in a variety of locations across Wakefield town centre, the alarm goes off, who knows if anyone's still in the building, or if everyone's just getting an absolute bargain at pound bakery? Alas we were all fine and our first show went off with a hit!   Before each show the great Darkness...

Briony is our guest blogger with a review of Eclipse I think it's an understatement to call Eclipse 'great' or 'stellar' (as I did) or 'so good' with 'good' having as many 'o's as you please. In my opinion, 'Eclipse' will be the best piece of theatre I see this year - at least, until the next YTYT piece I watch. I only saw the Monday 8:30 showing with the Sun Cast leading, though I wish I had seen the other cast leading at some point. All of the performances were great, even if they were a bit surprising ('Tom Mason' + 'Blindness' + 'Christian' made me wince a bit until I saw him act). Special mention, however, goes to Alice…as she gave me a quid to do so. It is an injustice to talk about 'Eclipse' without the accompanying piece - 'Darkness in the Light'. There is always something captivating about physical theatre, and this was no exception. I supposed what also helped was that it felt so Yew...

I guess you’d be expecting another connections blog but I thought I’d mix it up a bit this week.   On Friday I got to experience something really special…I decided to use this opportunity to tell you about it.   It’s no secret that YTYT has an absolute respect and a privileged connection with the NUM in Yorkshire…we’ve performed annually at their memorial service across the length and breadth of North, South, East and West Yorkshire for pretty much the last decade.   However up until now I haven’t had the privilege of standing in the NUM hall in Barnsley amongst the colliery banners and standards, the legacy and the artifacts…I felt like the luckiest person. I had such an inspiring afternoon talking to two men who were entirely invested in the history and heritage of their industry.   They were also utterly generous with their time, views and sincerely practical in their outlook.   It is their ambition to install a beautiful and crafted national memorial to...

Bobbie is this weeks guest blogger So, today, Saturday 20th (writing in the car because I'm all efficient...not like Sarah told me to me do...), was the day of Eclipse final dress rehearsals tomorrow. And might I say, we're looking fab.  Myself, and a few others ended up at Sarah Ts a little early and we got to see Darkness In The Light do their thing. I'm always super interested in physical pieces stuff, so I was especially interested in watching this. Despite working side by side in rehearsals, we haven't really been able to see all that much of the partner piece, but it was a delight. It was such a treat to watch them perform.  Then it was our turn. Cast Sun (mine) was the first cast to perform as the characters (whilst Cast Moon were chorus). Everyone stepped it up a notch. Despite being a cast member down by the end of the run, when we were already down one (hope you're okay Ellen and Leah xoxoxoxo) was tough, but I'd definitely say we came through it...

So it’s August 2015 and the YTYT National Theatre Connections company are excitedly planning our next Connections journey… Let’s pick a play with only 7 parts even though 16 people want to do it, we said…let’s create two versions of the play even though we only have the same amount of time in rehearsals as we would if we were doing one, we decided…let’s choose a playwright who is really a poet and who infuses all of every line with ambiguity, we agreed…let’s also create a partner piece for the additional 8 actors who can’t attend half term week because term dates are different in the various local authorities they are educated in, we resolved… And so we did… Fast forward to February 2016 and production week is upon us – it’s been the most fulfilling journey – not always easy…not always clear but nonetheless excellent in it’s ambition, creativity, bravery and graft.   I’ll admit it there have been a couple of times when I’ve wondered why I didn’t just insist we picked a...

Alice Narey is our guest blogger Evening all! I hope you’ve had an excellent week off (for those who actually had their half term break this week) I have certainly had a busy week as this week was connections week for this year’s connections play Eclipse! (I am assuming you have already booked your tickets???) I should’ve put money on the chances of me writing this blog…but this is my connections blog done – until Kendal! Day 1: As this is my first year of being in the cast of a connections play – luckily I managed to do the sound last year – I was anxious to start this week of rehearsals and the prospect of a 6 hour day of hard work was both exciting and frightening. For our first day we were accompanied by the play-in-a-day cast, listening to the Willy Wonka soundtrack while working was definitely amusing. This first day made me realise 2 things – to be able to perform eclipse to its highest standards we were going to have to work hard and that technically we all had 2 plays...

Connections week approaches and I have to admit I am feeling more than a bit giddy for it.   5 days of rehearsals of Eclipse in store with a cast as good as any I have had the pleasure to work with…as ever it’s going to be challenging but creative work and that’s my favourite kind.   Last night’s rehearsal made the anticipation for Connections week even greater.   As a director there is a moment with plays where after weeks or even months of feeling like I am swimming under water with it suddenly something clicks and everything starts clicking into place.   That is the moment when I start to see a clear picture of what the production is going to look like…how we are going to take it from explorations of a text to something that an audience will understand and engage in.   Something akin to a route map appears in my head and I can see what needs to be done to achieve the best performance possible.   Sometimes this artistic revelation comes from the emer...

Charlotte J from Sapphire is our guest blogger this week... My typical week at Yew Tree starts on a Monday with Sapphire Company. This week we explored the genre of crime. I found this really interesting as people took on the style of the genre in different ways, from serial teeth stealers to Sherlock Holmes there was definitely a wide range of interpretations of this genre. Some people made it quite comical where as others made it more serious. I personally really enjoyed doing crime because I haven’t really explored this topic before and I for one love doing something and learning different techniques that I could apply ro different styles of drama. I am also a part of the NT Connections production which I’m sure you have heard of. This year we are doing Eclipse written by Simon Armitage. This is my first time doing Connections and at first I was really nervous in doing it because there were loads of people who I'd never really met before, but as always at Yew Tree, everyone...