YTYT Highlights of 2016

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There has certainly been a lot to say about 2016 and lots of it hasn’t been the happiest.  Reassuringly however the YTYT year has been packed with enough highlights to keep it’s status as a place to retreat to, a place to escape the uncertainty, disappointments and loss of the world outside…this blog serves as a record of my greatest highlights…

The first event in the YTYT year to qualify as a highlight has got to be our NT Connections performance, “Eclipse/The Darkness in the Light,” which had it’s local performances in February and the regional performances in Kendal in May.  It was the second time I had directed this Simon Armitage poetic play but this production was very different to my initial go at it.  It classes as a highlight for lots of reasons including the sheer scale of the production – a cast of over 20 creating a partner piece and 3 versions of the same play.  It also classes as a highlight due to the quality of the performances and writing it inspired from the casts and my final reason for it achieving the highlight status is how delighted I was with the final scene – the power of the poetry in the writing, the physical and vocal commitment of the actors and the unity of the actors created something unforgettable.

Second in the highlight list is, “Maybe this Time,” as a director who famously assiduously avoids any musical theatre I surprised myself by thoroughly enjoying every moment of directing this play which involved not just acting and singing but dancing as well – surely the very definition of musical theatre.  Ossett Town Hall provided the perfect setting for this tale of gangsters, true love and aspirations and the performers were an absolute class act…

Third in this pick of the pops is, “Remember the Oaks,” if I had to describe this project in one word it would be honour.  To be commissioned to create a play by the NUM to remember the men and boys that perished in a mining disaster – to make history come to life and to do this with an entirely committed and talented cast was off the scale rewarding.  This reward and honour was amplified significantly by the wonderful audience we performed to…all in all a powerful and poignant thing to be part of…

The final flourish in this flashback of fantasticity has to be of course the Christmas shows.  It’s absolutely the best way to finish every year…a perfect mixture of nostalgia and newness – watching the performances of each company and seeing how far each actor has come whilst remembering how they were the year before…whilst celebrating the contribution of each new member we’ve picked up along the way…it’s the nicest Christmas gift available to a youth theatre director.


Just in case you were worried we already have a number of potential highlights lined up for 2017 – February will see us performing our NT Connections play – “Three.”  In March we’ll perform it at the Crucible in Sheffield.  In June Black Company will perform Macbeth at The Calder – a gallery of The Hepworth, Wakefield…and those are just the ones we know about now…keep your eye on us you never know what’s around the corner…so for now let us say thank you to everyone who has been a part of our 2016 –we appreciate each and every one of you and all you give and do and we hope you enjoyed your YTYT year as much as we did…

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