Fred's 2025 in Review Blog

Emily is our guest blogger So my week starts with the Yew Tree-ness (officially now a word) of Sapphire in which we did a more structured version of Wink Murder. We set it in a 1920's bar filled with people from bar-tenders to managers, gangsters to showgirls. We had 4 scenes, scene one had all of our entrances in the groups of types of people that were there, including a routine of showgirls. Scene two had a change in dynamics as genres of character were mixed so we saw deeper character traits and it concluded with the announcement that a murder will happen in the bar that night. Dun dun dunnnn!!!! (you can tell I'm no specialist in sound effects) Scene three had the actual murder. It was sadly Eve, a fellow showgirl. This swiftly moved into scene four where we made our assumptions of who we believed the murderer was. Guys I have a confession... I am the murderer! Then we got to Friday, tech rehearsal day! If you've missed it all on Facebook and Instagram, YTYT members Amy O, Tom O, Lauren W, Charlotte J and myself to name a few are part of WYTDC's Once Upon A Fairytale, a story where all the happy endings have been imprisoned along with the Queen Of Light Magic in the Queen Of Dark Magic's lair so Peter Pan joins Fairy-Godmother, Sunbeam, Aurora, Cinderella, Rapunzel (me), Snow White, Beauty, Prince, Paige and some Jesters thrown in for good measure on a quest to free the Queen of Light Magic from imprisonment and restore happiness in Fairytale Land once more. I'm assuming you've booked your tickets? Tech rehearsals are always hard. Working with the theatre staff who haven't ever seen the production before but have 24 hours to time everything perfectly is more than a challenge, one that we grabbed with both hands. Surprisingly, we managed to do a full run which in past years we haven't completed so at the end of the night we all felt that we were in a really good position for tomorrow. Opening night! Arguably the most apprehensive night as it's the first time you're performing to an audience but nevertheless exciting. Everyone arrived between 11am, and 11:30 so we could start our full tech run at 1am sharp. Doing a vocal warm up, in costume, in the café of the theatre was very different; the public's confused expressions as they walked past really made us all laugh. The tech run went well, a few mistakes but seeing as they weren't ever there before we didn't worry too much as we knew they'd correct themselves for the performance. 6pm arrived and we were all prepped, primed and in position. The curtain went up and it was go time! The first half went so well with everything from pretty Sunbeams to scary baby dragons, you name it and it was there! During the interval, Estelle (Young Rapunzel) and I went up to the top circle to collect money for Candlelighters who we fund raise for at every show possible. The audience were all really generous with donations and I even received a hug from the cutest little girl ever who ran up to me, I felt so loved! Then it came to act two and it went just as good as the first. When the music plays for the curtain call, an overwhelming sense of achievement fills your body as the audience clap and cheer for you as you take your curtsy/bow and wave to friends/family/public who have all come to support you and the rest of the cast. There's never a better feeling than knowing that you've made an audience smile and enjoy themselves through something you love to do so much. So as that curtains drops (then goes back up and drops again) everyone has a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon on their faces as we're all so proud of what we've achieved that night. That brings me to today. A matinee and evening performance so I best be going to get ready! Bring it on and break a leg to all my cast mates!