Celebrating the past in the present...

First in the double bill for today's 12 days of Christmas blog is Dec!

Another year and yet another Christmas blog... 2018 you have been a treat! Once again Yew Tree has given us even more opportunities and allowed some of us to undertake an unforgettable experience. And once again within the year new people have joined the Yew Tree family whilst others have flown from the nest. So here’s a snippet of my year at Yew Tree 2018. Yew Tree taking on the National - Connections 2018 Many people throughout Yew Tree past and present know what an amazing experience national theatre connections is. But imagine that experience being heightened by saying your going to be performing at the National Theatre in London... Well that happened this year. We started our connections journey in November 2017 with a newly written play, ‘Ceasefire Babies’ by Fiona Doyle. The cast ranged from members from black, gold and sapphire, some people who had never done connections and some who had done so many more. Having diversity within the cast opens new opportunities of working with new people. In our connections journey we performed the piece many times before The National, some people were fed up of the piece whilst others cherished each performance but I’ll tell you this performing it at the National allowed us to discover different elements within the play. Throughout my connections journey I managed to break my ankle and cut the top of my finger off which lead to performing the Crofton performance day after finger surgery. When it came to our few days in London for the National it was such a good experience and brought back memories of when connections used to happen in Kendal. Can I just say that the best part of performing at the National was the 1970’s casts wigs - special shout-out to Ben Walton with his blonde bob. Connections 2018 was the first for some people but was also the last for some. Tom Osborne what a guy! Performed twice in one week at the National once with Yew Tree and then again with CAPA college. What an icon. I write this same thing in every connections blog “connections experience will be the best experience you’ll ever have”. Black 2 Brecht So black company summer piece for 2018 was ‘ ‘Fear and Misery of the Third Reich’ by Bertolt Brecht. The piece was staged in a stylised way which allowed us to learn new performance skills but also we used an ensemble the whole way through creating backdrops for scenes happening on stage. This play, not going to lie, was a challenge was some of us were siting our A-levels and GCSE’s but whilst revising on the side of the rehearsal room we managed to pull through. This performance was a last for Lucy, Tom and Becky who went onto adventures but this didn’t stop them putting an amazing performance. The play is series of playlets which are continuous scenes which have no connections but are all evolved around the same themes. For me the text was a challenged as it had so many different characters and we all were given 4-5 different caricature’s, even though this was challenge it allowed us a company to heighten our acting skills by playing many different characters. We performed the piece at the Hepworth art gallery in July time. This time was nice time to perform the play as we a-lot of us had finished college and didn’t have the pressures of education behind us. LAMDA exams In 2018 I sat my silver LAMDA exam in April time. This exam included learning 3 monologues and then answering questions to with the chosen speeches. My contemporary speech was from ‘The Pillowman’ By Martin Mcdonagh. The speech explores dark comedy through the topics of a child abuser. My second speech was from ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, I decided to pick this speech after being in Macbeth the summer before. And finally, ‘An Ideal Husband’ By Oscar Wilde. All three speeches were completely different and one of the best parts of sitting LAMDA exams is that you always come out of your comfort zone with the range of monologues you come across, but also you learn more about character motives and analysis which you can apply to any play or character. I would advise anyone to LAMDA exams because my grades have allowed me to gather UCAS points which boosted my A-level grades to outreach the entry requirements me to start Leeds University to study ‘Theatre and Performance’, since starting it has being the best few months of my life to date. Schools out for summer Every summer Yew Tree hold a summer celebration which showcases performance and talent across all the companies. It's a time to reflect within the Yew Tree year before summer commences. Its such a good idea because within the day theirs performers from the age of 5 to 24, everyone on the same stage at some point throughout the day. This is a great way for younger performers to look up to the older performers of Yew Tree but also for the older performers to try influence the younger people. This once again creates the idea of the Yew Tree family, having that community spirit.
Through summer time Yew Tree doesn’t have its regular sessions which is a shame, but there's always summer projects which run throughout allowing people to engage with Yew Tree projects. This year we took on a brand new play called ‘Comet’ which explored a student at university who killed people in a canteen. The play allowed us to create a very physical ensemble piece with the chorus narrating the story throughout. This was such a good experience as the play was a new write and had only being performed once before in London. The reason why this piece became even more special for Yew Tree members is that the original cast had a past Yew Tree member in it. For some reason this created ambitions for people throughout the cast. People moving Once again as September draws closer this meant time for change and time for people to move onto to wider aspects of life. Including myself I started university alongside other people such as Tom, Sally and Becky. This change was going to always be a challenge and let me say the first few weeks was a challenge adapting to the university lifestyle. But I'll tell you this, I’m still back at Yew Tree every Thursday for black company and connections on Saturday. There’s just a part of me which is not ready to say goodbye to Yew Tree just yet. And me for me the thing about Yew Tree is that the friends you make whilst being there become family. Referred constantly to our ‘Yew Tree family’ I’ve never met a more welcoming collective of people. Over my 5-6 years at Yew Tree I’ve met some amazing friends people I will cherish forever. We know everyone has had ups and downs throughout the year but there’s nothing better then forgetting about the outside world and producing theatre with people you love. Personally I think that’s something I love about you tree the comm-uni-tree. With my generation at yew tree we always get together and have a catch up with people who have moved on and are now at university, which is always a pleasure. One thing about Yew Tree is that is constantly moving people will come along and people will go but once a Yew Tree family member, ALWAYS A YEW TREE FAMILY MEMBER. With the Christmas shows just a few weeks ago, you’ve probably realised that Yew Tree is a family and if thats showcasing talent all together in a theatre or in a rehearsal room. Sarah some how manages to bring people together. Can I just say a massive thank you to Sarah and Oz because at the end of the day me personally wouldn’t be who I am today without all the support they give every year each in different ways. Sarah believes in each and every performer and has complete faith that everyone will do amazing when on stage and that's something which can be hard to find. Sarah is literally like a second mum for all of us and has personally helped me so much since meeting me 5 years ago back in high school. Just want to say a special thank you too all my mates within Black, Gold, the 2017-18 connections cast and connections 2018-19, you all are amazing. But Helena Wilkinson needs a special mentions with her taking on more directing roles alongside Sarah and you’ve being amazing. I miss my right hand man Tom now he’s in Manchester and I’m Leeds university but hopefully we’ll be reunited on stage one day. Happy Christmas and New Year, to everyone who is involved in Yew Tree’s big family in which ever way that may be. You’re the best. DEC