What's happening at YTYT

The delightful 9 year old Alice with her insight into 2017 at YTYT My favourite thing about yew tree in 2017 Looking back on my year at Yew Tree over all the things I’ve done, my most favourite thing I’ve done is the Christmas play. We do a Christmas play every year but I really liked the one we did this year. This year my company, Orange company did a show were there were lots of kids outside playing in the snow and eventually they don’t know what to do. Until somebody says we could meet a snowman. But nobody has a clue how to, then out of nowhere appears a snowman and the same happens but with evil Santa and a fairy. The snow man was on his way to the snowman conference, evil Santa was trying to take away Christmas but he didn’t because the children remembered there manners and the fairy granted a wish across all the children. Near the end of our magical mystical play after we met the snowman, Evil Santa and the Christmas fairy the children met Santa. Santa took the children to t

Mr Declan Kelly for your delight and delectation! Where has this year gone? This year I think has been one of my favourite years with Yew Tree by far. 2017 Connections has to be one of the biggest highlights of the year. I had the opportunity to play the part of The Narrator in Harriet Braun’s “Three”. This Connections play was like no other play I’ve done, we finally did comedy and to be honest we pulled it off so well. The whole connections experience was quite comedic with there been a power cut at Sheffield Crucible Theatre on the day of our performance. For me the best thing about Connections is that you learn loads of transferable skills which you can use for any other play. Techniques towards characterisation, vocal projection but also to have the opportunity to perform in local working theatres which gives us an insight to the industry. Playing the part of The Narrator was my favourite role of the year. A character who didn’t stop talking, loved the limelight and was over d

Emily is our next 2017 blogger - another delight of an insight into this year at YTYT This year, for me, at Yew Tree has pushed me in so many ways that I couldn't imagine. The year started with our National Theatre Connections performance of 'Three' at both our local performance and national performance. This pushed me most in terms of character as Lena was perceived as your typical teenage girl who loves boys and hanging out with her friends. However when I dug deeper into her, I discovered so much more about the way she ticks and how her mannerisms differ depending on who she's communicating with; which we see in the play is either inner self or Jamie. Definitely one of the more... interesting/annoying/funny events that happened during Connections was once we'd done our tech run at Sheffield Theatre to then have a power cut throughout the half of Sheffield so we'd have to perform on Monday. But hey, that'd show business! Then in May we had Yew Tree ass

This is the delightful Jacob Ladies and Gentlemen.... Well, what a year it has been. We’ve had good times, bad times and times that have made us consider whether we should’ve been so cocky to say that “2016 is as bad as it could get.” But that’s all in the past now (however recent it may be) and now we all look toward the next year in the hopes that maybe 2018 may be the good year. And I will delight in doing that with you all, once I’ve had one more round of remembering 2017 that is. But don’t worry for this will be a happy blog filled with all the niceness Yewtree had to offer me and so many others this year and will not contain the nastiness of the outside world that we at Yewtree call our “worsts”. So where to start, obviously the logical choice is at the beginning of the year and so that is where I will start. I am gold company so my blog contents will quite honestly be very similar to Connor’s so I must highly recommend reading his first because he’ll get through the year muc

Chloe is our next 2017 blogger - she's created another delightful read for you... Ever since I was about 5, I have adored acting. It may be the experience of seeing the world through someone else's eyes, or it may be an escape into a world different to my own. So, in February, when my dad said I was allowed to start an enrichment, I reflected back to a name I had heard on a few of my friends lips, ‘Yew Tree Youth Theatre’. I had done workshops and auditions with Sarah before, so she wasn’t completely a stranger to me. My dad phoned the number we found and I was asked to come for a trial the following Monday to Sapphire company. The moment I arrived, I was nervous. I’m not good with new people and feel shy and exposed, but the atmosphere at Sapphire was incredible. At first I stuck by my friend Elliyah, but eventually I made friends with so many different people, across different ages and backgrounds. I arrived at the start of a performance project, which was Yew Tree Assembl

Next in our 2017 blog is Ben... A year in Yew Tree Youth Theatre is not just a year of theatre, shows and performance, but a year of progress and the development of comradeship and friendship. Over the past year at yew tree I truly believe it has helped push me to become increasingly understanding, outgoing and mature as I’ve advanced through groups this year.  At the start of 2017 I’d just completed the annual Christmas shows with Sapphire Company where I took on a lead role of which was riding high on confidence off of and I found myself thinking I wanted more, I wanted a challenge and a new experience. So I joined the slightly older company gold and from then it was off to the races. My first experience of the new, more mature environment I found myself in was daunting, even though I already knew many members from previous projects together. The overwhelming, anxious feeling I had was all but lost within the first few minutes of the rehearsal where the

Maddie Mersini is our next end of year blogger! I have completed my first offical year at Yew Tree and i must say it’s been the best! It has opened so many new doors for me and I couldn’t be more thankful! Here’s one of my favourite pieces. Around October time, a few of us across the company’s did a Halloween performance at the Hepworth Gallery. It consisted of the Macbeth’s witches, Giselle and some poetry. I had the chance to play Giselle. It wouldn’t be the part I’d usually go for but I love a challenge so I stepped up to the plate and I loved it. From all the dancing and the beautiful story. What made it even better is when we got into the space dancing within all the paintings and sculptures gave it such a fitting atmosphere. It was very physical theatre based which is more my cup of tea. I had also never done a duet with a boy nor having multiple lifts in. All went well. Shout out to Tom for not dropping me. At the end of November, we had the chance to perform it again at t

Connor's 2017 Yew Tree Experience  So where do I start with my Yew Tree experience in 2017? I know! How about my very first session back on the 12th May? See during that time I had been taking GCSE Drama and had just finished my final performance when my friend, Elliyah, told me about this youth theatre group she went to on a Friday night. So I decided I'd give it a shot a see how it went, little did I know that it would be one of the best decisions I've made so far in my life. I was instantly hooked after watching Gold companies version of 'Bassett' up until that point and laughing at the hilarious modern fairy tales skit. But then something I didn't expect happened. Sadly, a member of Gold had to leave and now Sarah wanted Me to play that part! I couldn't believe it, I had been there for one trial session and was already been given so much more trust than I got doing GCSE Drama. So me, never being one to miss out on an opportunity to perform, accepte

Ellie's Miners memorial blog. So on Sunday 8th of October Yew Tree took off to Selby Abbey to perform in yet another miners memorial service. So in the weeks leading up to it we rehearsed very intensely to get the piece perfect to ensure we knew what our lines meant as well as just knowing the lines, this added a deeper meaning to the cast about the piece and made us emphasise with the audience, who were all family members of the miners who lost their jobs at the Selby pit. In our first rehearsal Sarah introduced us to the lovely Cheryl, who very kindly wrote and composed a song to interweave with the piece, using only our script for inspiration. If you’d like to see a snippet of the song I’m sure it’s on Yew Tree’s page. After the first rehearsal we didn’t get Cheryl back until the show, where she showed up as a surprise for us, but we continued to press on with the song and place the individual verses in appropriate places throughout the script.  Performing in the miners memorial

The last of the farewell blogs...Hannah says goodbye on her way to drama school... It is midnight and I am currently in another country having another crack at writing my last ever blog for which I have definitely missed the deadline. Preceding this there were possibly two others I'd signed up for and when I say "signed up" they weren't voluntary. Sorry Sarah. I think the reason for this is because it's quite daunting thinking about writing something with your voice, your own thoughts and opinions. The worries flood in, will people like it? Will they agree? Do I even have an opinion? So I end up writing some drivel I imagine other people will like, or not saying entirely everything I want to say. It is why I much prefer writing for myself. It is why when asked to write for Yew Tree I have always shyed away. These worries don't just go through my head when I am writing for an audience, they go through my head daily, in creating, devising, and even everyday co

John in his own inimitable style bid adieu to YTYT This time around, the honour falls to me to write my farewell blog to Yew Tree, and likewise does the question of how best to encapsulate my time here. I fear, however, that most approaches have been or will be done in a better fashion than I can muster. I don’t trade so easily in sentimentality, nor do I feel I can share any anecdotes without concluding with the dreaded ‘you had to be there’, and so what else remains but my tried-and-trusted approach of an overly-philosophical essay on the nature of what Yew Tree does best: creating. In October I leave for university to study chemistry, a subject I enjoy because of its real world applications. When we understand the nature of matter and the way it changes, we are empowered to manipulate the world around us. We create new molecules, new elements, new structures and we use them to enhance the life we lead, and I have always found this to be an alluringly human, arrogant aspiration. T

Our second farewell blog comes from Sam Winder who's about to start his 3 years at Durham University to study physics and philosophy...or Spanish...possibly...apparently...  I find it strange to think that aside from my close family and Wakefield’s steady charm, Yew Tree has been the most constant aspect my life - we’re talking 7 years. That’s longer than high school, it’s longer than I’ve known a fair amount of the people I see regularly, and it’s longer than any other group I’ve been to. In that respect, it’s framed a large proportion of my life and you could look through the Yew Tree photo albums and see me go from small blonde-haired Sam, through all the mistakes and the memories, and up to now when my hairline is a bit further back than is ideal for someone of my age but when I’m about to let go of most of the things that have defined my life so far and head on to the next step. So, speaking of frames, photo opportunity #1 is at Sapphire Company, that’s after I’d give

Sam MG writes the first of our farewell blogs this summer... Around two years ago now, myself and my proverbial partners in crime – Bailey Poching and John Broadhead – offhandedly mentioned that we should go and see Yew Tree’s latest production; we knew of it through Tom and knew that they were performing for the National Theatre’s ‘Connections’ program. Now, at the time, my only real acting experience was jovial roles in school musicals (We Will Rock You, Guys and Dolls etc…) and something of a ‘real’ acting challenge was what I wanted. After seeing this very same performance, entitled ‘Hacktivists’, three times, myself, Bailey and John decided that we were getting TOO MUCH sleep on weekends, and agreed to attend Yew Tree’s Gold Company sessions at 10am on a Saturday. 10am on a Saturday was something that I hadn’t seen since Under 7’s football. I could spend this writing about the plays we undertook, the direction we were given, the roles I performed in my tenure under Sarah’s di

Mia was on work experience with us last week and as per tradition she's  written a blog... This week has been a long but exciting week so I would make yourself a nice brew, or a cold beverage whatever takes your fancy really, before you begin to read my blog about my week on work experience with yew tree! This week I have been doing work experience and because I want to be an actor when I’m older I thought, what a better place to do work experience than with yew tree. So this week I’ve been going from school to school with Sarah. We began the week at De Lacey Primary school in Pontefract. We were working with children who found education challenging so they were a little bit more difficult and needed the extra support in classes. In the first two classes, which were years 3 and 4, we were helping the children create physical theatre pieces to the song ‘Human’ by Rag ‘n’ Bone Man. The routines included creating 4 movements about why the children enjoy being human. Some chil

Sam has blogged about our visit from Laerlingan! With a title as a Norwegian Jazz/Swing/Folk Band, Laerlingen have always sounded like something not only from Yew Tree folklore, but of actual folklore as well. They’ve been ranted and raved about by Yew Tree members throughout my two year tender, but I never anticipated just how downright fun a night with the band could actually be. My first meeting with the band came through their incomparable Artistic Director, Rolf. Being the latest performer to arrive to the pre-show rehearsal, I was met with his wry humour: ‘We did this perfectly earlier, so if it goes wrong it’s your fault’. I laughed it off and took it in my stride, then proceeded to – almost in a scripted fashion – get the song wrong. His faux-stern look was enough to humble my performance mode, but a quiet word of assurance from the man which, I might add he had no obligation to do, set me straight for the real performance. In a free ten minutes before the show, we decided

Lovely Toni has blogged about Macbeth... On Sunday afternoon, Black Company performed their full length Shakespeare, Macbeth, in the Calder at the Hepworth. For those unfamiliar with the space, this is the bottom floor of an old mill by the waterfront just next to the Hepworth playground. It’s hard to imagine that Yew Tree could pick a better setting. The stage was set against the back wall with the windows blacked out, other than the ones right behind the stage allowing three beams of light to flood into the room setting a dark and authentic tone. This also created silhouettes of the actors throughout the play, fitting to the eeriness of the witches and adding to the haunting nature of the cold blooded murders in the play. Barring the Romeo and Juliet film with Leonardo DiCaprio, I’d never seen a full length Shakespeare tragedy (despite studying Lady Macbeth for GCSE English). This was mainly because I’d stereotyped them as being harder to follow and a bit duller than comedies but

Lucy played Lady Macbeth brilliantly in our recent production and she's blogged about the experience... So as most of you know Black Company have just finished doing Macbeth, and I know I'm biased but honestly we absolutely smashed it! We started back in January with a workshop/audition session where if we wanted to be considered for Lady Macbeth or Macbeth we had to learn one of their speeches. I decided to throw myself in at the deep end and learn the monologue for Lady Macbeth, not thinking by any stretch of the imagination that I'd actually get it, but by some miracle I managed it, and to say I underestimated what a challenge that role would be is a massive understatement. Lady Macbeth goes on such a journey through the play and the difference between the manipulative, hard as nails woman you see at the beginning and the broken and defeated woman she is after her decent into madness is huge. And I'm pretty sure my first few attempts at portraying that were pre

Ellie has blogged about Bassett For the last few months gold company have been been rehearsing and putting together a show called Bassett, a past connections show. It's a show about some year 11 students who have been locked in a classroom by their citizenship teacher and one particular student, Leo, takes it much more harshly than the rest and ends up spray painting a wall and piling people on top of each other. Rehearsal wise we started off the first few weeks preparing the short 10 minute opening of it for the 21st of may, we made sure it was a strong audience worthy show and it definitely payed off, after the showcase on the 21st we started to focus on later parts of the play, creating the right atmosphere and building the characters. Thinking about action and reaction, feeling the emotion rather than just doing the emotion and it definitely built the show and made it much stronger, this also helped us create the right feel for the ending- where Leo goes nuts. After mont

As is our yearly tradition, today's blog tells the story of Three our National Connections production from the point of view of the actors - a talented and brilliant group of young people who produced a piece of theatre that genuinely entertained their audience... John As the lights went down on our performance of Three, there were many things passing through my mind: predominantly, frustration at the power cut cancelling our show. As the lights went down on our performance of Three for the second time, what went through my mind instead was the gratification of performance I have been chasing since I first started acting, gratitude to Sarah, and to the kind staff of the Crucible and National Theatre, and a desperate need for a kebab and some sleep. I'm glad to have been able to be a part of it all. Jacob There’s an old saying that’s a bit of a cliché that says “it’s impossible to describe … in just a paragraph.” Now while I’m not usually one for clichés this one do