Talking about Workshops!

Here is your next 'Ollie blog' an interview with workshop participant Sophie Milne chatting about BYT's workshops!  

Ollie: When did you start workshops at BYT?

Sophie: I started workshops at BYT in 2009!!

Ollie: What are workshops?

Sophie: Workshops are a place to develop both acting and theatre skills in a safe and friendly place!

Ollie: What have the workshops done for you?

Sophie: Workshops have introduced me to lots of new people and developed my skills as an actor, they have also highly boosted my confidence and people skills.

Ollie: Would you recommend workshops to others? If yes, please explain why.

Sophie: I would definitely recommend workshops to others because they can be used for any purpose, whether you want to be more confident, learn acting skills or other skills in other workshops!

Ollie: A fun question to end. What is your best memory of a workshop at BYT?

Sophie: My best memory of a BYT workshop was when Pip did my sessions and we use lights and a white curtain combined with sounds to create a murder/thriller piece!

The Ollie Blog

Here it is Guys! What you have all been waiting for! The Ollie Blog!

This week I shall be giving you the hoe down throw down on what this year’s Rep Company are up to so far!

Four weeks in and the Rep Company have explored many Theatre types such as Children’s Theatre, verbatim Theatre and this week’s session of Scripted Theatre. Exploring all these interesting types of theatre is allowing the Rep company choose an amazing type for this year’s show which they will take up to Edinburgh fringe festival.

The Verbatim Theatre workshop had the company acting as each other and exploring real life people and their mannerisms. It also had the company tackling some real hard issues such as Missing people, Cyber bulling and Child abuse and neglect.   

Well the Children’s Theatre workshop led the company creating a life like elephant, a waterfall, a box of toys, a bag of hissing snakes and a full on circus just out of a bag of material.

This week’s session of scripted theatre went just great with the company exploring and performing playwrights such as Whole by Philip Osment, After Juliet by Sharman Macdonald and Road by Jim Cartwright. It also had the Company working together as a big group and turning the prologue of Romeo and Juliet into a stunning Choral Piece.  

As you can probably see the Rep Company are well on their way to creating another amazing piece of Theatre ready for Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Tune in again soon for more of what the Rep Company are doodling.

A Spooky Wooky Interview

This week we used our magic spells to grab a quick interview with the cast of spooky tales and this is how it went!

Tell us about your show Spooky Tales – coming to Burnley Youth Theatre on Wednesday 30th October?

Edward Creep had the accolade of being Edward the Evil and Edward the Mighty; until he had an accident which turned him “soft”. Now to the utter disgust of his sister Martha, he’s scared of his shadow, wants to go to Disneyland and admires the music of One Direction!

Martha will enlist the help of the brave audience, to watch their collection of putridly performed short stories, and when they are finished and Edward remembers what fun It is to terrify, then she hopes he will be cured!

You’ll hear about a school for Witches, a haunted rocking chair, a gruesome twosome and a banshee trapped in a bottle and you’ll have the offer of a bogie omelette! Who can resist? Only for brave kids and adults!

Where do the shows protagonists Edward and Martha Creep come from?

Edward and Martha Creep come from Creep Hall, where they collect stories of the magical, macabre and downright nasty!

Martha and Edward first featured in piece about Victorian children’s gangs in Liverpool performed in the aptly creepy dungeons of St George’s hall.

Since then, The Creeps have created havoc at several site specific venues such as Port Sunlight village, and Croxteth Hall; there is a whole family of them included Great Uncle Bertha Creep and Meredith Creep amongst others!

Petite Ullaloom is the little sibling of Ullaloom, where did Petite Ullaloom come from?

Liverpool based Ullaloom were formed in 1999 by members of the Hope St Physical Theatre Programme. The company have a penchant for the dark and the mysterious.

Previous work includes ‘Macabre’, ‘Bram Stokers’ Nightmare…Dracula’ and ‘The Dark Room’, all have toured locally and nationally.

Petite Ullaloom is the younger sibling of horror based ensemble Ullaloom Theatre Company and came into being as a means of creating interactive work for children and as a vehicle to create new writing with a dark twist.

Past commissions include the Liverpool Biennial, Croxteth Hall, St George’s Hall, Port Sunlight village and National Museums Liverpool.

We also co-produced the highly successful ‘Snow Queen’, ‘The Red Shoes’ for the Unity Theatre as well as the original ‘Spooky Tales’ plus two family shows at haunted Croxteth Hall.

So basically, it is macabre theatre for children and young people! But equally as scary! I felt that Petite had a nice ring to it than “small” Ullaloom!

On that note, what on earth does Ullaloom mean!?

Ullaloom is featured in an Edgar Allen Poe poem, But were stopped by the door of a tomb –

By the door of a legended tomb;

And I said: "What is written, sweet sister,

On the door of this legended tomb?"

She replied: "Ulalume -Ulalume -

'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

However, ours is spelt differently!

Spooky Tales is part of the Big Imaginations Children’s Theatre Festival; do you think making theatre for young audiences is important?

Highly important! In my book and experience , children and young people have the most vivid imaginations and respond so well to theatrical experiences, especially shows with some danger such as Spooky Tales, there is a sense of comradeship and a willing to immerse themselves in the show that you  simply don’t get with adults and the audiences are so unpredictable that no show is over the same which makes it so exciting for an actor!

Adults sometimes stop using their imagination, or stop playing! In my book the best kind of adults never loose site of this! And learn from young people!

Some of the stories that have been created in the after show workshop have put me as a writer to shame!

Trick or treat?

Treat, but something like a bat shaped cream cake or a good old horror film! So I can be greedy and have the best of both worlds!

BYT now on Snapchat!

You can now SNAPCHAT Burnley Youth Theatre! To receive exclusive offers and discounts just send us a photo of your favourite theatrical pose (check out Mary's lunge for inspiration!). Our Snapchat username is BurnleyYT... Snap you later!

Busy, busy, busy

I thought I would drop in (I know it has literally been months!)  to say we are so busy it is impossible to keep writing a blog post!

Sorry.

MUST DO BETTER x 100

Do I have to stay after school to write that?

Well, I'm here anyway.  Beavering away and trying, as is everyone here, to keep developing and growing BYT to enable young people to fulfil their potential with us.  We know we are fast becoming a key cornerstone in the culture offer of Burnley and East Lancashire... but it's always good to know what people think...

So, if you don't yet come to BYT - why not?

And if you want to come and don't why not?

And if you don't know who and what we are give us a ring and find out.  Or text us.  Or tweet us.  Or contact us on Facebook

This is the case if you are interested in the performing arts or not.  This is the case if you are interested in the arts or not.

Right. That's all for now.  Off again.

Mandy

Enough

This is probably a bad day to do this but writing a new blog post is on my list of things to do and it has been months sooooo do you ever have one of those days when you think what's it all about and when the hole in the wall where you've been hitting your head just gets bigger?  And bigger? Where it doesn't seem to make as much sense as it once did?

This isn't a picture of me of course.  My desk is never this tidy.  My desk has never been this tidy.  My desk wasn't this tidy when it was brand new.  But it absolutely sums up how I am feeling today and just how hard it is to concentrate day after day on what amounts to quite mundane tasks when what matters is creating great work for young people and children, yeah? Or creating opportunities for aforementioned great work. Isn't it?

I'm not dissing the report writing or the fundraising or the writing of objectives or plans or even the need for any of these things.  I accept that accountability is necessary and I accept that we need to justify our very existence in terms of all of this but it does sometimes seem to log jam... A full-on endless round of new things with imminent deadlines. Here's me.

The trouble with this office, if trouble there is, is that it's an open office.  We welcome people - especially young people - into it.  And they speak to us and ask us stuff and like to be involved and have their say and be included in the heart of what is being reported.  That's the problem, if there is one, because all of that stuff matters way more than all the reporting and paper work that eats time that makes it all possible.  Sheesh, it's one long round of juggling, balancing, thinking, circularness isn't it?  It's a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on a half ... 

This calls for a song: 

I'm wondering if you've worked it out yet?   What all this is actually about?  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, 'It's Friday.  She's just trying to wind down the hours tile the weekend.' You think I'm 'avoiding' work - using the excuse of a blog for a little wander around the internet.  

Oh yes, I forgot.  Working Sunday.  

I'm supporting Walking into the Distance.  A new piece of work by Kailey McGowan which is on a week Friday (a week today) and supported by the Arrow Group's devised piece, Paloma's world.  For details, ring 01282 427767.  And aside from being evidence that young people really are making their own theatre and being facilitated to do that, it's also a fundraiser. We are taking a group of our older young people to Edinburgh in the summer - and we need a big fat pot of money for it.  (Any one seen one idly lying around? No?  You surprise me!)

Am I complaining?  A bit, yes.  Do I think it is a force for good all this youth theatre malarky?  I do, yes.  I absolutely do, yes.  Why else do you think I'm sitting here with the rising tide of paper threatening to engulf me and suffocate me and rob me of my very last breath?  Because youth theatre is an absolute force for good.  It is. Even if the Artistic Director is sometimes a bit fed up and a bit overwhelmed by the demands...

Right - off now.  If you don't see me for a bit come armed with a shovel.  :) 

On youth theatre and On Burnley

I am feeling torn. I think it's because six months or so after becoming Artistic Director full time for Burnley Youth Theatre the reality of the day to day has kicked in.  And because I'm in a bad mood anyway.  Why? Because this year has been tough and fraught for all kinds of reasons and you know, I'm not made of stone.  And because life it hard some times.  Life is just plain tricky.

Don't be fooled. I'm not down on the job - it's a great job.  What could be better than working with young people and enabling them to take their first full steps on the road to becoming life long theatre lovers, or facilitating their creativity, being part of an activity that improves young people's overall attainment and so on? Believe me I am not fed up of being the Artistic Director - I haven't even started yet. I'm just certain that it's a bigger job than I thought.  Just certain that there are some obstacles that need to be overcome.

Firstly, let it be said I am blessed with an amazing team. Lovely people who work above and beyond the call of duty. They all, everyone, work above and beyond their alloted hours.  They contribute ideas, thoughts, insights, passion, energy and above all enthusiasm into making the place work.  That isn't what's at issue.

Secondly, let me tell you we are supported by ACE, BBC and LCC and we're very grateful for that.

Thirdly, let me tell you we are in the National Portfolio and we are naturally pleased about that too. We are very excited about what this might mean for us...

But this is a period of change for the arts, and I know that how we've done things since I've been at the helm is very different to how we're going to have to do them in the future to survive - and, dare I say it, grow?
And this is the root cause of my general bad mood.

Well, sort of.

Two things are really exercising me a lot.  And here they are:

One is that sometimes - and I really do not have a chip on my shoulder about this - sometimes I sense that people glaze over when they hear the word 'youth' in our title - as if, whilst there is an acknowledgement of the work's value, it's not like 'professional' theatre, or it's not like, you know, real artists who are beavering away, you know it's just a bunch of young people; as though we are in the National Portfolio to make the numbers up. And I am talking about people out of the arts as well as people in the arts.  WE are not - definitely NOT - just about young people having fun, we are not just a diversion (although these things are important).  We are about enabling young people to particpate in high quality arts activity, an absolutely vital foundation for ensuring that in the future there are young people who want to participate as audience, as artists and that their enthusiasm for creating art is channelled AND that they are given the opportunity to learn. We are about extending our offer to every corner, class and youth club across the region. What we offer is something that is uniquely focused on young people - it's not a sideline.  It's not something that is competing for space in a busy theatre building (although our building is very busy!) - it is a new theatre space that prioritises the work of young people.  Young people in Burnley, and beyond.  Young people in East Lancashire, and if our ambitions are fulfilled young people from across Lancashire and beyond.  We are not about subsuming all other youth theatre activity either, but about saying, 'Look - we have something unique here - a place for young people to come and work with us in partnership and BE prioritised.'  Burnley Youth Theatre is a purpose built space for young people.  And also let me say that youth theatre is not just a stepping stone for professionals to cut their teeth - but an entity that prioritises the emergence of young people as theatre practitioners, as theatre creators and theatre makers, that nurtures young people's hopes and ambitions in the arts - and the point is that the workers' role is to facilitate and prioritise that work.

And Two - The other thing that is exercising me is the fact that dozens of assumptions are made when you say the word Burnley.  Over many years of working here I have grown to love Burnley and its people, a population emphatically not apologetic about where they live, let me tell you.  A place emphatically on the up... don't believe me?  Come and look.

Burnley Youth Theatre
So, I have asked myself, 'What's in a name?'  I know that many of the people attached to the organisation and with good reason, are very much committed to maintaining and sustaining the strong identity attached to our name... but ... if we aspire to being a youth theatre for young people around the county or across the North West do we need to be named by our location?  Yes? Or no?  If we are charged by the arts council in building the youth theatre as a live venue for touring theatre and as a venue for other youth theatres to deliver work - is Burnley Youth Theatre the right name?  Is it inviting or is it off putting?  I do know that when people do bother to come and take a look at the youth theatre building they are very impressed by it.  Sometimes they look slightly aghast and say, "Is this a youth theatre?" as if such a building is completely outside of their experience of what a youth theatre should be like, as if we've only the right to exist in a hut somewhere instead of a purpose built and state of the art theatre, and sometimes they just can't quite believe that the building, a beautiful cedar clad place in a clearing, in a forest, is actually a youth theatre.  For young people, yes.  For young people to be prioritised, yes.  A place that focuses on young people and their emergence as young actors...

Not sure what the purpose of this blog was now... just a rift on Burnley... and Youth... and Theatre... and just a steer on how ambitious we are... Okay?  Sorry, there's that crossness  creeping in again. We're great?  Alright?