Ben's 2024 blog

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This year at yew tree has been amazing for me. I've done so many exciting things and had so much fun along the way so here is my blog about my time at yew tree this year. 

At the start of this year, I moved up into a new company - Sapphire company. I was quite nervous as I didn't really have any friends there, but I soon found people that I could hang out with and that I enjoyed being around. We did two plays over the year - A History of Theatre which we performed at the Cluntergate Centre and our Christmas play, Hansel and Gretel which we performed at Ossett Town Hall. The History of Theatre play was really interesting for me as I found out a lot of things about where theatre came from and how theatre was portrayed hundreds of years ago. 

I especially enjoyed my role as a Banter Bird in the Christmas play - it was so fun to be a funny character who were messing about with Hansel and Gretel all the time and I thought me and Edward (another boy from Sapphire) really worked well together. In between these two projects, we also did some work on ghost stories where we were split into groups and created the stories ourselves which was quite a challenge for me because I hadn't really done anything like it before but turned out to be a fun experience in the end. 

I have also taken part in a few other projects - The Miners Memorial Service 2024 in Selby (my third time doing the service) was amazing and Selby abbey was a really beautiful location to do it in as well. For me personally, it is so nice to do a performance surrounding the legacy of mining, and also really important to make older people of the community who used to mine feel valued and to know that their history is respected. Also, I have just started rehearsing for NT Connections 2025 (We are performing Mia and the Fish) which so far has been such a great experience for me. I was just about able to take part in the performance this year. (You have to be 13 and my birthday was literally on the day of the audition!) Originally, I thought I would go for a smaller role since it was my first time but there was only really one character that I saw and thought "I really want to play him" and that was Faiz who is quite heavily involved with the play - and was cast as him! I was so excited and proud of myself to achieve this and I am really looking forward to the rehearsals to come and of course, the performances. I have especially enjoyed these projects a lot because it is a chance to branch out and meet new people from other companies which I think is really important to make friends who you don't usually work with. 

To add to this, I have also completed my LAMDA Grade 4 Acting Exam which was pretty nerve-wracking but I got a distinction! Now I'm currently working towards my Grade 5 and hoping to smash that one too! 

Overall, it has been a spectacular year at Yew Tree, I have met so many new people and made lots of new friends. I am so grateful to Sarah and everyone who volunteers at Yew Tree. It’s been such an amazing experience and I'm looking forward for everything to come next year - Yew Trees 30th Anniversary! Woohoo! 

 

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