What's happening at YTYT

This is, nominally, an NT Connections blog, and whilst there is much to say about the experience, it has been a little hard to work out exactly what I personally can write that wouldn’t be better coming from a cast member or Sarah. I was the assistant director; whilst it feels fair to say that I have contributed to the show in some way, I was neither a direct participant nor the orchestrator. I didn’t run the sound, nor the lights, nor did I call the show. I do feel that I left a mark on the show, though, in directing some scenes, and working with the actors. I hope it was better for my involvement - it was, after all, a remarkably good performance - but for the purposes of this blog I think it would be best to restrict the scope to what it has meant to me. About 18 months ago, I was kicking around a can of early-to-mid twenties malaise. I’m sure it will be familiar to some reading this: the acute sense of “this is it for 40 years, then I retire?” This was the immediate wake of the pan...

  Despite making notes for the past five months on what to include in my blog, I wasn’t actually planning on writing one because there was nothing that particularly stood out to me, but after a message in full caps where I was full-named and called a weirdo for not doing one from someone who can’t even say yoyo, I was persuaded. So here I am, watching a Bob Ross tutorial while writing my blog… During the show days of Brexit the Musical last July, before even having the options of what our Connections play would be, the crew was decided: Sarah as director (obviously), John as assistant director (or assistant to the director in a true The Office Dwight Schrute throwback), Sam as stage manager, and Ash as sound manager. Unlike previous years, I decided to actually read each of the potential play choices this year, and only one stood out to me, like I’m sure it did for several others. Come September, we had been allocated our first choice play, The Heights by Lisa McGee; a play about...

  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 ...

  Only a short blog from me this time, and I promise that because right now at the time of writing this, it’s the 29 th December and I have yet to finish writing my Christmas Cards, haven’t wrapped or given my brother his present (just like Royal Mail, my care for everything decided to strike over the Christmas period), and have barely started my UCAS application.     I took part in quite a few projects this term: The Big Conversation, Miners Memorial, Gold and Black Christmas plays (along with some Lamda too, and the beginning of Connections). I won’t go into any details about the first at the risk of starting an unpleasant conversation in the comment section of what’s supposed to be a safe space. Because of my inability to say no and my ability to procrastinate, I only had myself to blame when I began to get stressed out. These are also the reasons why I never ended up writing my Miners/Big Convo blog, but it was a great experience to take part in both.    Bac...

  This year has honestly felt like a whirlwind, I never would have thought that I would still be at Yew Tree by the end of it but there’s no where else I would rather be. At the beginning of summer, I thought I would be leaving and hightailing it off to university but after some complications in acquiring accommodation, I realised that all I wanted was to come back for another year. I remember the phone call I had with Sarah, and the tears streaming down my face, as I felt like everything was falling apart just a little. I’m so glad that she welcomed me back with open arms because it made me see that maybe everything wouldn’t fall apart and that it would be okay. After some renewed confidence, I can say that it was okay and that it will be still.   So, to actually start my year in review, I should probably go back to the beginning of 2022. At the beginning of this, subjectively, awful year, I found myself gearing up for my A-levels as well as starting our new project in Gold c...