What's happening at YTYT

  Connections 2023 has been quite the journey. When Sarah first released the rehearsal schedule, the fact that I would be giving up every Saturday afternoon for a good few months did give me a few misgivings. But I’m very glad I bit the bullet and took part, because it has been well worth the sacrifice. Although ‘The Heights’ wasn’t necessarily my first choice of script, I was far outnumbered by my peers, and I wasn’t mad about it. Giving the script a thorough read-through, I really enjoyed it, even if I do wish it had a slightly different ending.  On this first read-through, two characters stood out to me – Lillie, and Jacob. I chose a section of the play for my audition that contained both characters, and sat down with Ash, my fiancé and the mastermind behind our music and sound for The Heights, to go through the scene, once as Lillie and once as Jacob. With Ash’s advice, I decided to go big or go home and audition for Lillie; it’s my last Connections so I had nothing to los...

I took part in connections this year as stage manager. I had very little knowledge about the role so there was a lot of learning as I went.     The local performances were very strange to me. I would ensure all props and set were ready before a performance however throughout the performance I had very little to do. I’m so used to being on stage and actively thinking about what’s next or my next line. Even when I have done sound for a performance, there’s always something to be thinking about.    Sheffield was, however, different to the local performances. I was able to watch their stage manager run the tech rehearsal and then calling a dress rehearsal. It was then my turn to call the second dress rehearsal. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was ultimately determining when the sound would start and stop and the lights would change. This is something I have never tried before but I knew that if I didn’t I would regret it.    The dress went ok...

Ok one of my last blog posts, I will be trying not to cry while writing this.    So when we were picking plays this years, “The Heights,” stuck out for two reasons for me. The famous writer and the text itself. I got the character Bizzy at casting and I’ll be honest, I didn’t really like her, she wasn’t a character I normally play. But after a couple of weeks, I started to like her as a character.    Working with both Arwen and Eliana as the Dara’s was so fun, both played her so different, meaning I could have two different relationships with both the Dara’s, especially in scene 9. The street scenes, the ensemble work was so fun to do. Alice as Webb was really good, she really got Webb’s annoying nature and funny one liners. Robin as Boyle was perfect casting, they went in from the start with Boyle’s fun nature and really showing that these characters after all that happened are still young. Hattie as Jimmy was great too, the group leader, commanding control with an ...