What's happening at YTYT

With the Halloween at Nostell performance being a major feature of the last 7 days, this week has been dominated by fear and all things fear related…and as it turns out fear is a much more complicated issue than I first thought…Who would have thought, for example, in a group of actors volunteering to take part in a Halloween performance I’d have so many that are genuinely scared of the dark and all the imaginary things that might lurk in it… In a production like this you find yourself applying a psychological view point as much as a creative one as a lot of your time is spent trying to predict how audiences will react to what you present them with…the answer to this, is of course, you never can tell…it’s dependant on so many things…so all you can do is make the performance you believe is the right one, the one that upholds your artistic values and suits the identity of the venue and the company…in this case a job well done I feel… It’s hard to do a show where you aren

And Tom Mc the 5th... Halloween this year so far has been “bloody” brilliant! Aha simply because I have had the pleasure of performing, not only at Nostell Priory again with Yew Tree, but performing as apart of a Ghost Walk, something I have always wanted to do!!…And the opening night on the Saturday evening was both very exciting and spooky, all at the same time… The performances were split into two different but equally important types…First there’s the Outside Tour, which is all about following Amelia’s footsteps through the woods, and being told of her life’s story and tragic demise by tour guides and story tellers…And second are the House Tours which consist of groups of people being lead around the basements and attic of Nostell Priory, and again, told of chilling stories and past encounters with spirits the staff have had... I am part of the House cast with James, Charlotte, Beth and Ashleigh and we all perform short monologues and characters either based on truth or fiction

Lucy T. wrote the 4th Hi guys, I’m thinking I should probs write a blog this week since I was supposed to last week after doing work experience with Yew Tree... I did write one last week, it just never made it as far as reaching Sarah due to a bottle of Tru Blood spilling on and then breaking my phone, and the Hilton charging horrendous prices for wi-fi. So yeah, I’m writing a blog. Right, a fair few Yew Tree-ers have spent their week at Nostell rehearsing for all sorts of Halloweeny performances and it’s been really really nice     we have an absolutely terrifying tour of the basement and attics of Nostell going on (not kidding, it’s actually terrifying, I nearly cried/suffered from a heart attack), aaaand we have an equally as creepy outside tour of the grounds, a ghost walk. And it’s the ghost walk that I’ve been (and still am, still got another couple of performances to do, so get yourselves there on Monday) part of. I’m one of the storytellers you get to meet on your way round

The third one comes from Dee So this week at Nostell we’ve been rehearsing Amelias footsteps.. the tale of a 16 year old girl who falls in love with a ghost, Francis.. leading to her suicide. Its something completely different to anything at all I’ve done with Yew Tree before... I mean: 1) We're in the woods of nostell priory just jay ceeing with woodland creatures and that …   2) We're playing dead people running about all ghosty   and  3) ITS PITCH BLACK AND ALL WE HAVE IS A LANTERN (and a torch like, but still..) so yeah.. s’different to the stage and warmth that were used to.. and y’know daylight.. Without sounding a cheeseball though I’m pretty proud of myself for conquering my fear ha I mean on the first rehearsal that we had we did a run of the tour in the semi dark.. it was 6pm (nowhere near as dark as the performance times at 7pm and 8pm we did last night) and yep I bawled my eyes out in the woods on Mikey and probably caused circulation issues in his arm thinki

Mel's is the next... So this week for us older ones of Yew Tree has been pretty loud, emotional, grumpy and whatever else anyone is when they're just flat out tired.   Amelias Footsteps and the Spooky House Tour have been such good performances to be a part of! Everyone has got soo into it and even made themselves scared. Its such a different experience for us as a youth theatre, its teaching us to learn new skills, interact with people in ways we never would and for some of us, face our fears head on and still produce such a brilliant piece of theatre.   Each day we have seen little parts of it all come together and flow even better but its down to us as performers to push it more and more each time to produce a more entertaining piece of quality theatre for the audience. All week we've rehearsed and felt more comfortable in what we were doing - until - it became dark. As soon as there is no natural light left the parklands are nothing less than pitch black and its lik

First Halloween blog is by James B Ahhhh, Halloween at Nostell. Where do I even start? It’s been brilliant, just five days of yew tree. Its not been normal yew tree though, which has been weird. Me being used to Saturday mornings and all that, anyway, I’ll get on with the blog now… So of all the ideas floating about, Sarah wrote us a ghost story about a girl who gets practically possessed by ghost called Francis (that’s me). This is what we had at 1pm on Monday afternoon. The challenge for us was to move the story onto the grounds of Nostell priory and I think we did it pretty well personally, that’s sounds really cocky but oh well. I think it was possibly the most fun I have ever had planning a performance, I mean, the first run through consisted of running round Nostell priory finding places to get seen. After that it was a matter of doing it again and again until we knew the route. Everybody had their own set of challenges to overcome aswell, which made it even more interesting,

I have to admit on Friday night I was a little concerned, it had been a long day at the end of a long week at the end of a long half term and the Saturday ahead of me promised to be quite the challenge. What was the challenge?  A Sleeping Beauty rehearsal where I needed to get to the end of the script with a half term level of absence and a three hour physical theatre workshop which at the start was also going to include a significant amount of younger actors from West Yorkshire Theatre Dance…all under the observant eye of people who had travelled up to 350 miles to watch them. So no pressure then... The concern had turned into resigned trepidation by Saturday morning however predictably there was, in the end, no need for either as the day turned out to be a rather joyful thing indeed…to itemise all the good things that happened would mean writing a book rather than a blog so instead I shall feature a number of highlights… Highlight number 1: Seeing the NODA directors aga

Danny Southern Ladies and Gentlemen... So… haven’t done one of these in a while. Gonna get back into the blog saddle and ride this bad-boy… Here goes… BONUS WORKSHOP. WHAT. A. LAUGH. Honestly one of the best things I’ve EVER done. Literally. I really didn’t know what to expect tbh ‘cos I’ve only ever been to one other workshop and that was Shakespeare, so I was kinda throwing myself in at the deep end when I heard the words: “Physical Theatre”. Now, I dunno if I’ve made this clear enough in the past at Yew Tree, but me and ‘physical’ ended in PE in Year 10 when I was picked last for dodgeball… after the blind kid. Physical exertion is just something I’ve never really been any good at, so when Sarah mentioned “Physical Theatre”, I was like… oh.   I can honestly say that my expectations were obliterated immediately. First of all, these epic peeps from West Yorkshire Theatre Dance Company… OMG what legends. Not one of them was daunted a bit by all these strange looking people (especiall

Amy Walton blogged about Saturday So here it is my blog, I thought I would do one due to the fact it has been ages since I last did one! Firstly we started this Saturday at gold by playing a few games and then going on to Briar Rose where we got to the end of the play! It felt really good to know that we had run it through once all the way through.  Then this afternoon I attended the bonus workshop that was run where people from NODA came and watched us do a workshop. We started of by playing games with the younger members of yew tree youth theatre and then went on to do physical theatre. My favourite bit was b lind leading and leaving, where you get lead round by someone, because you give someone else the responsibility of looking after you for a short time.  So a lovely afternoon and day all round!

A blog from our work experience victim for this week Emma... I spent this week's work experience with yew tree and it has been totally fab, getting to see how much work everyone puts in for yew tree to be as amazing as it is, i have actualy really enjoyed my time being in the office and helping out with computer work and getting to look through the scrapbooks and start to help with making new pages:) and also helping out at the sessions has been great to see how other sessions are and what they get up too, and getting to watch them rehearse peices has been amazing, and to top it all off i got to help out back stage at peter pan, that was simply brillinant to see how it all goes down backstage, im just so happy i got to have this experience at yew tree, so yeah many thanks to Sarah, OZ, Danny, Gemma and also Alice x

I’m having one of those days today…a proper come down day…the type that only comes when you’ve put your heart and soul into something and it comes to a wonderful end…and then it is gone… All last week my life was all about the production of Peter Pan I wrote in January and have been directing since February…months of hard work, problem solving and dedication from a whole team of professionals and a whole cast of brilliant children. The production was a credit to everyone involved especially those that stepped out of their comfort zones…the professionals involved worked in a different way to what they usually would as essentially we were inventing a new type of performance… students who had done very little acting of any major kind grew into challenging roles producing performances to be proud of…some of which brought a tear to my eye due to the impact they had on their audience and the distance I knew they had travelled to get to that moment…people who had never worked back stage too

Tom's blog about being one of the crew at Peter Pan Over the last few days myself along with several other Yew Tree members put aside some of our time this weekend to help out as stage hands and crew for the Wakefield Theatre Royal production of Peter Pan, which was adapted and directed by our very own Sarah Osborne…And it was a very enjoyable and lovely experience to have been a part of… The cast of young actors and dancers all performed so very well, and where all professional indeed…Most of the time, it is usually me that is on stage acting along with fellow Yew Tree’ers, but being backstage shed some important light on how much work goes into staging such a production like Peter Pan…I’ve only done some small backstage work from time to time now and again, but not on such a scale as a professional theatre like that…All of the Theatre Royal crew worked very hard to make the production the best it could have been…And one person who worked just as hard as everyone else was Alice

Rhiann has blogged about being part of the MIners service Last Sunday, I took part in The Miners performance at Pontefract Cathedral and it was the first time I’d performed in the service after I was given the opportunity by Gemma. After weeks of rehearsals and line learning, we were finally ready and excited to show our piece which was all about the miners who worked and had pride in their work but also made the area what it is as well as the history behind it. Our script showed the families of the miners as well as, like the little sisters and the wives which made the piece show the fact that mining was about family. When we all got to Pontefract Cathedral on the day, I’d never been more scared, looking round, we noticed how many seats would be filled and the families and miners who would be there. After our quick rehearsal, we all prepared for our performance. But before our performance, there were readings from the NUM which were very touching as they said about how people ri

I’ve just got back from St Giles Church where eleven Yew Tree Youth Theatre members performed a piece of devised theatre, written and directed by Gemma, at the Miners Memorial service. They were the youngest and smallest cast to do this in the three years we’ve had the privilege to be part of it, but this didn’t stop them being an absolute credit to themselves and the youth theatre. The remembrance of miners is of even greater significance this year as the industry has suffered 5 fatalities in this country in the last month…one of them in Yorkshire. As a consequence the bright and vivid colliery banners that are a familiar feature of the service were adorned in black in remembrance. Each year I am humbled by the fact that the material we create a play out of is a way of life for the people who attend the ceremony to pay their respect to loved ones they have lost. The sorrow and pride, often in equal amounts, is tangible in the atmosphere in the building and on the faces of all of

Tasha has written a blog on her return I am a Yew Tree newbie. Despite joining at the age of 12 many moons ago, I left the group in 2007 to embark on a foray into university life. I return now merely weeks away from my 22nd birthday and, inevitably, a decade shared with Yew Tree in its various shapes and sizes. Coming back has been a fairly painless process, aside from playing the ninja game; who knew a simple concept could confuse an adult so much? Other than some of the faces and the size of the company, it all seems as familiar as when I was a regular. Speaking as an official Black Company member, what a lovely, talented and downright hilarious bunch you / we are. The full Robin Hood script exists now, we all have it and, if Thursday night is anything to go by, it will be a lot of fun to pull off. Casting is complete, costume has been discussed and venues have been determined. The read-through ran smoothly and allowed us to get to grips with the performance style, as well as t

An overview of the week from Mel Well, this week for black company has been a triumphant one you could say, with the Ossett, Walton and Jubilee festivals all happening. All of which we've had brilliant feedback (even though for certain people it was a little harder, having to learn lines and new movements just a mere 5 minutes before the performance was supposed to start). However, Thursday night was such a treat trying to help devise scenes for Robin Hood, we just couldn't help ourselves but be a little self indulged. For gold we've got further in our rehearsals for sleeping beauty with people already off script and raring to go. I'm sure that as soon as we have a full cast we'll fly through the script and be able to focus more as a group. Xx

My blog this week is not strictly about a Yew Tree thing as this week I want to write about Peter Pan, a production I’m directing for the West Yorkshire Theatre Dance School. Now I’m saying it’s not strictly a Yew Tree thing but I wrote and am directing it and Danny and Mikey are in it, as are a host of the Orange and Sapphire Company and Alice is stage managing it and Oz is sorting out all things technical so in fact there’s a whole lot of Yew Tree about it…so enough of the justifying, time to make my point. The production is to be performed on the 14th and 15th of October and it’s on a grand, grand scale…there are more than 50 performers in it, there is a whole heap of set and costumes to source/make/gather and for a lot of the actors i.e. the ones that don’t come to Yew Tree this is the most acting they’ve ever had to do…add to that trying to make a cohesive show out of more than 20 dance number that need to be integrated into the play bit of it and essentially what you get is the

Sapphire this week being represented by Holly and Laura So on Monday, we did a nice bit of Jack and the Beanstalk devising, which is going brilliaaant And to make it even better, we had Sarah and Danny for half the session and Gemma for the next half - best of both worlds innit ninja warrior is my new fave game, cowboys and indians is still my favefave though, and it was a treat for me to do Gemma's job for a bit and run ninja warrior. Right, I was well nervous at the start but when I settled into it - loved it also, I'm loving my part in Jack and the Beanstalk, I get to be bossy, which is what I do best tehe, sorry this is really disjointed, and short, and late... I'm sure Laura's bit will be MUCH better so read that bit before this, and if you've read this, I promise my next one will be better, ily yew tree. Freeman xx This week we had the pleasure of seeing Gemma for half the session and letting her see how far we have got with Jack and the Beanstalk whi