What's happening at YTYT

This week has been a good week…we’ve been successful with some funding bids which means in the next month or so YTYT will expand to encompass not just one new group but two…one in Normanton and one in Portabello.   It’s also been a good week artistically as we have had real breakthroughs in the rehearsal room. Firstly our Connections production, “Journey to X,” jumped into a whole new phase yesterday…scenes and aspects of the play that had been evading us were vanquished and discoveries were made that will in turn shape the rest of the play.   It’s at times like this you glimpse sight of the quality of performance that might be possible and also become aware of just how much effort you’re going to need to achieve it.   However when you catch that glimpse it gives you the motivation you need to get there, or at least it should.   I know that when I saw scene 1 speeding along at a place that was both breathtaking and necessary it inspired me to want to help the actors make

Our second in the series of drama at higher education blogs...thanks to Alex... Alex Palmer - Studying Drama at the University of Exeter. My experience of studying drama has been brilliant. The course here in Exeter has a great divide between the academic/ theory based work (which is normally one lecture and then a fol low-up seminar a week) and then practical work which is structured into 3 three hour long sessions.  The beauty of the course here is that no matter if you are interested in the theory or the practice, they are never very far away from each other. When you are in a lecture learning about a practitioner, you are thinking also about putting the theory into practice on stage or in a session. Also, whilst in a practical session you are always thinking about the theory behind what you are doing. The course gives a great grounding in all sorts of theatre practices. You learn pretty much all the influential practitioners of the 20 th and 21 st century

Rhiann Blogs with a Journey to X update... In less than a month, we’ll perform Journey To X (crazy or what?!). So with all this pressure, we’ve made so much progress since the last time someone blogged about Connections, and we’ve come so far with the whole piece. This is my second year of Connections and this year, I’ve learnt so many new way of acting and building my character up – since my character, Sarah, is the one who says things at inappropriate times as you’ll see. One of the big things I’ve learnt is to never compare a character you’re playing to one in the past that you’ve played since they are all unique and this has made me see that Sarah is totally different to Lilly who I played in Shooting Truth so I had to stop comparing them. I’ve learned to make sure that you don’t drop lines, even the really small ones since they can hint at massive parts of the story and relationships between the characters such as how Sarah makes other characters feel and how she reacts. Anothe

I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between technique and art this week…it’s something that has come up in a number of different guises both in rehearsals and workshops. Probably the most obvious one was the stage fighting workshop at Gold…after outlining six very basic techniques Danny and I asked the participants to use them in a creative way…the results were varied and brilliant…of a much higher standard than I expected as I thought the task was going to prove pretty challenging.   What was really very clear though is that the best moments in all of them were those where both technique and art were in perfect balance…too much of the first and a performance comes across as empty, unengaging and ultimately pointless…too much of the latter and at best the performance lacks focus at worst in the case of stage fighting it is simply unsafe. In acting and the making of performance technique allows us to stand on the shoulders of those that have come before us…

Hello Wonderful People Of Yew-Tree! Bobbie from Green here!   Let's just kick of by saying, I love physical theatre.   I didn't just say that because I was being random. No, Monday's session was focused around it and it's been so long since we've done any of it.   I actually love Physical Theatre, but I can't quite place my finger on why. Maybe it's because of the concentration that was in the room, or the way we all moved, with so much grace or maybe even the music that played while we were, for want of a better word, creating. It was surreal, to see the people who you least expect, moving with purpose and grace, even the self proclaimed, Kayleigh managed not to fall over and was fantastic at it. True, all of us have to make more of an effort with creating effort while performing with physical theatre at the base, but everyone needs to start somewhere and this weeks session were brilliant base blocks for that. I wanted to mention something about me having

Jonny is the first offer to an insight into life studying drama in higher education... Alright, life as a drama student and potential outcomes as a result. First thing to mention is the journey of applying and getting in. It’s relentless and cruel. It takes a lot of self belief and determination, it cost a lot of money and it requires a lot of train tickets and in my case a few years of my life. However, it makes to feeling of being accepted so much more poignant.   Once you’re in, you spend a lot of your first year examining yourself, looking at what components make you, what things have shaped you, stuff like this. After plenty of crying and laughing together as a group, you move on to plays. The approach to plays is much more mathematic then I ever imagined. Before you even stand up you spend the first week of two reading, understanding, uniting, cutting, dividing and actioning. You start to learn the theory behind thought; ‘what the character wants’ and ‘how does he/she get it’.

It’s one of those odd phenomenon in everyday life that things get established and become part of our everyday existence and then in time you become aware that they have faded to the point where they have almost slipped away entirely… A little dramatic perhaps but it’s occurred to me in the early stages of the new year that in amongst all the heady preparations for Christmas shows the older companies have to some extent lost their ability and desire to reflect…so this blog is sent out to you in the hope that it reminds you if the value in meaningful reflection and inspires you with the confidence and interest to start engaging in it more often… So…firstly, “Why reflect?” simple really without thinking what we’ve done we just do the same thing over and over again with no chance of improving, developing, moving forward, knowing more, furthering understanding etc etc etc.   We repeat the same mistakes, revisit the same frustrations, follow the same paths regardless of whe

James Loughlin with his debut blog... Hi there Yew Tree members and Yew Tree followers, yes this is my first blog after being a part of Yew Tree for about roughly 7/8 months it’s about time I finally did one so just bear with me whilst I get my thoughts and feelings on track throughout this. So to really get into things I will have to back up a bit to talk about the New Year that is 2012. Now me being who I am I can’t help but look back on things that have happened within the past year and see what I really enjoy about myself.     This year was a bit different for me I had life decisions to make which took a lot of looking into,   I decided that I would quit my extra 3 rd year at 6 th form because it wasn’t going to help me in my future endeavours. Whilst deciding this I wasn’t sure what I would do with my time apart from try and earn money and my Gold and Black sessions, luckily Sarah came to my rescue and now I couldn’t be happier with everything I have going on.

It’s all about the anticipation at Yew Tree at the moment…New Year, new term…lots of planning and preparation and beginnings as we get 2012 up and running… For that reason there was something very rewarding about Black Company on Thursday as we were actually able to get things started.   We’re working on “Spirits in the Landscape,” for the next 7 weeks and so the first session of the New Year was devoted to initial devising…developing a palette of ideas that will help us create our piece of theatre. There’s always an air of uncertainty at this point in a production, especially something that isn’t scripted…a little insecurity mixed in with the novelty of starting something new.   It’s so difficult to imagine what the finished product will look like and for some people that’s an issue…but I like it. The thing is I never know what something will emerge as at the end of the rehearsal process.   I have sort of half an idea…a sense of it with maybe a couple of factors

Our blog this week is by Jess Hopwood... So I’ve been sitting here, considering all the different things I could have written about. I think this is my 5 th or 6 th attempt…sooo I’ve decided to just mash it all together in one condensed appreciative blog about how brilliant Yew Tree is. I am grateful to be a part of Yew Tree for so many reasons; I may not want to study drama at uni or go for acting schools, but I have learnt so many skills and gained so many qualities from being a member of this company that I believe have got me where I am today. Without meaning to sound all soft, I am so hugely appreciative of this. Here’s a brilliant thought for you, whoever you are, and whichever company you belong to; just take a moment and consider what you’ve learnt, realised or gained from being a member of Yew Tree, whether it be a new skill, quality, or even a new friend. I can guarantee that there will be something. Personally, I can say that my individual growth and the frie

“So this is the New Year,” cue everyone singing the next couple of lines of Death Cab in their heads (if you don’t know what that opening sentence is on about Tom and Jonny have both referenced it on their facebook.)   However if you’re expecting a reflective blog from me this week you’ll be disappointed…I reckon that’s covered with the contributions generous people have made on the Youth Theatre facebook wall and maybe you could even add yours. Also you got sentimentality from me last week and that’s quite enough for now… So the New Year is here…hurrah…now lets get on with it…my blog tends to be mainly about what’s at the front of my mind at the time and so this week I’m going to philosophise a little about being a playwright… My professional work is usually a strange and complicated entity where I   seem to spend a lot of my time juggling many things of wildly disparate natures all of which are punctuated with wonderful regularity by delightful, creative youth theat

Rhiann Tintor here with a cheeky insight to Connections. On Thursday, we had a full six hours or so of developing scenes. First of all, we rehearsed scene 2 and 3 which we had off script for the first time - which was crazy considering it went great without it despite us all been a bit nervous and even if on the second time of doing scene 2, someone ended up hitting Ed and Merv pushed me (and somehow we all ended up in an evil angry mood). It was weird seeing how we’d made our characters react and generally come across in these scenes as we’d learnt so much more about them. Then we had a go at scene four which always makes me laugh as Sarah is just the best clueless character I’ve ever played. Scene five came along which we’ve never rehearsed or looked at so we had to take in so much (as we did with scene 4) so it made us think everything over and over such as how we spoke to each other and acted around other character. In all, it was a great day of Connections rehearsals so far, and I