2018 “what a year!”

So as 2018 nears its end let’s reflect on the huge strides we have made these past 12 months.

We have learnt new skills, tried new things, entered competitions and turned professional, all whilst remaining true to our ethos of making theatre accessible to all.

In April we produced Fame the Musical at Dewsbury Town Hall, this was a new venue for us and we loved every minute of it and will be returning in Spring 2019. This show was great for us as it showed us the strength in depth of talent we have and it was great to see some of our younger members shine.

This production also gave us the opportunity to perform our first BSL interpreted performance, opening our shows to a wider audience. This was really well received and we repeated it again in our September production of Starlight Express and will be doing so again in our Youth Production Shows next year.

In the Summer our Adult company entered The Wakefield Arts Festival with the play Thick as Thieves. A play close to our hearts it was the 3rd time we’d shown it and passion we have for it along with the great writing won through as we came in 3rd place and won best comedy. we are hoping to return to the festival this year if we have the time available.

Over the Summer we also took on our biggest challenge yet in our production of Starlight Express, this wasn’t only a challenge because of the skating involved from a performance point of view, the whole production had to be thought through step by step for safety reasons as well as performing. everything is a little different when the cast roll everywhere. There was also the problem of staging the races. How would we do that? Simple we taught ourselves how to use green screens and then filmed them to project during the show.

We were lucky enough to have 2 Emmerdale stars come and work with some of our AYTC members in an acting for camera workshop. We know our limitations and so its great when we can get experts in from other areas of performing that we aren’t as experienced in.

During Fame and Starlight rehearsals we realised that although we allowed performers from 8 upwards to join Acorn, our 8,9 &10 year olds werent really getting that much of an opportunity to stand out. So we decided to launch AYTC Jnr for 8 to 10 years olds, so we could rehearse and perform shows aimed at the younger performers and while we were at it, we thought, why not do something for 4-7 year olds? so we launched Little a’s. Both our new companies had their first meetings on a Thursday evening in October and gave their first performances in December in our own little theatre and the Jnr’s also performed at the Batley Christmas Light switch on event.

Elf Academy this year also to its next step with our Elves, not only, working at our studios but also at Christmas Fayres and events around the area. This year ALL our Elves were current or ex AYTC members getting their first taste of paid performance work.

This leads us nicely on to our Pantomime, tourning schools, sports clubs and community centres in Yorkshire and Derbyshire or first fully professional show was well received and we are already taking booking for next year.

2018 has been great but 2019 is set to be even better.

Thankyou everyone who has been a part of our journey so far.