Our NT Experience - A study in Kindness and Generosity!
It’s been a while since I blogged…a long while…but if the
events of the last few weeks don’t merit a blog I don’t know what would…
Unless you’ve been in social media hibernation you’ll be all
too aware that YTYT fulfilled a long held ambition this summer to perform our
play as part of the NT Connections festival at the National Theatre. (I imagine
even, “…the dogs on the street,”* were fully aware) It’s been the most amazing
experience for all of us…creatively fulfilling, exciting, enriching and
educational – I’ve learnt so much, the cast have learnt so much and we’ve
learnt it all having the nicest time. I
will be forever grateful for every bit of it…it was absolutely worth all the
paperwork and logistics and time…genuinely something I will “Never forget.”*
On reflection although there were a myriad of things that
made the experience unforgettable two of the main ones is that for the entirety
of the adventure we were surrounded by kindness and generosity. I want to use this blog to acknowledge my
gratitude for that…
The cast literally dropped everything to make it happen –
some missed out on their prom and important family events…all of them fitted
extra rehearsals into a June that was already jam packed with stuff – some of
that stuff being significant exams.
The NT Connections team were simply amazing – nothing was
too much trouble. From the moment I got
the phone call I felt like I had the backing of the most kick ass amazing
team…their generosity was backed up with the most insane amount of knowledge
and skills – at every point we were treated with respect…never ever made to
feel like second best…the Connections team, the technicians, the production
crew, stage management, costume – the list goes on and on – every individual
was a privilege to work with. Quick
shout out to Fiona Doyle at this point for writing a stunning play and coming
to see us perform it and rewarding us with the kindest words about our
interpretation of her script…have to admit to getting a little tearful at that
point…
Special mention to Tom Hughes, who was, quite simply, an
inspiration – he questioned, challenged, supported and taught me things I
didn’t know I didn’t know about making work…since our collaboration I look at
theatre differently…and what’s more he did all of this with humour and kindness
despite being stretched literally and figuratively the length of the country.
Another great kindness was shown by the people that came to
see it: my Mum all the way from the North East, the intrepid Faith and her Grandma,
Amy and her QM crew, Sarah and Victoria, parents and supporters of the cast and
a glorious band of grown up yew treers.
Those that couldn’t make it watched from home on the live stream and
said lovely generous things.
Even the general population of London were kind to us…when
one of the company accidentally left her phone at the site of our picnic
instead of someone making off with it they trailed round 3 hotels until they
found the one we were staying in and it was waiting for us when we got back to
the theatre. The whole thing was a
restoration of my faith that there are excellent humans to be found everywhere.
A final huge thank you to Laura and Gemma for holding the
fort so I could take the Ceasefire Babies to realise their dreams and Colette
for feeding my cat
*#ifyouknowthenyouknow
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