YUF Drama Edinburgh trip June 08

	YUF Theatre trip to Edinburgh- June 2008 On Monday the 9^th June a group of 14 very excited youngsters and 4 adults ( John Haswell- Shetland Arts, Izzy Swanson – SIC Drama, Philip Taylor-musician and Michelle Morris-I@te development worker) boarded the Northlink ferry to start our journey to the NT New Connections festival in Edinburgh. With strict instructions to be in their rooms by 10 o’clock and in their beds by 10.30pm we set off. The next morning we left the ferry bright and early to walk to the Aberdeen Bus Station where we met Lesley Gray (NI Youth development worker, as she had to attend other business in Aberdeen the day before) and waited for the 08.35 Mega Bus to Edinburgh, which arrived at lunchtime. Walking down to the Youth Hostel all dragging our bags behind us we were filled with excitement and anticipation.
Arriving at the Youth hostel we were told that we could not check in until 3pm so we left our bags there and decided to have a walk to the Theatre via Princess Street Gardens so that John could register us there. This gave the children a chance to let off some steam in the play park. After returning to the Youth Hostel and unpacking we went for dinner at Jimmy Cheungs before going to the Theatre to watch two of the other groups in the festival perform their plays. The groups that performed on the first night were the Youth Theatre Fife with “A Vampire Story” and Falkirk Youth Theatre who performed “Fugee”. The Shetland Group thoroughly enjoyed the performances and were able to start meeting other group members at the after show reception with fizzy drinks and sweets.
	Wednesday brought another lovely day and the YUF Theatre had workshops to attend in the afternoon so in the morning we took a walk up to the St.James’s shopping centre for a little retail therapy. After lunch which we made ourselves at the Youth Hostel we set back off for the theatre. The group were split into two with half attending a workshop on stage fighting led by Carter Ferguson who is the fight Director for STV’s Taggart and River City, this was especially exciting for the children, they all left that workshop having mastered how to slap and punch another actor and how to faint, which the group proceeded to show the adults at various times making us think it was real. The other group attended a workshop called “Devising your own stories” which we were able to go and observe for the last ten minutes, all a brilliant experience for the actors involved. This was the start of the group being able to mix with other members from of youth theatres from around Scotland and also groups from Ireland. That night we ate at Pizza Hut which was great fun and delicious. The two plays we went back to watch at the Theatre that night were “Burying your brother in the pavement” performed by RSAMD Youthworks and the George Herriot School performed “A Vampire story”. This was very interesting as even though it was the same play as the previous night it was completely different.
Thursday there were no workshops booked so we had a visit to the Scottish Parliament were we were met by Tavish Scott, the Shetland MSP, who gave us a brief background on the new building as he then had to go on to a discussion in the Chamber. His secretary Alaistair took over and continued the tour showing us Tavish’s office and explained about the design of the building. We were then able to see parliament in action with a visit to the chamber where they were having a discussion on Transport issues.
	After a packed lunch in the grounds of Parliament we caught a double decker bus out to Livingston, this was especially exciting as we don’t have double deckers in Shetland so we all raced upstairs. Livingston has two huge shopping centres, the first one consisted of outlet shops that sell goods cheaper than the normal shops and across the road is another shopping centre with every shop you can imagine in there. We let everybody go off shopping in small groups with instructions to meet at various times at a rendezvous point, this worked very successfully. We had dinner at the Shopping centre that night as the children could choose from a variety of food establishments from McDonalds to Fish and Chips and then got the bus straight back to the Theatre. The two performances we watched that night were the Balerno Youth Theatre that performed “It Snows” which was the same play as our group were going to perform so our children were very interested to see what their version was going to be like. Needless to say it was completely different to ours and very interesting to see how a Director interprets a play. The next play was “Scenes from a family life” performed by the County Carlow Youth Theatre. By this stage the children were starting to mix well with the other groups at the after show parties.
Friday was a busy day for the Group who had workshops all day. In the morning they were all booked into a “clowning like you have never seen it before” workshop which explored comic timing, character rhythm, rhythm with partners, and the performers presence and playful relationship with an audience. After a picnic lunch in the park they were all off to a “Dress up not down” workshop where they used the Lyceum Companys wardrobe as a stimulus for ideas, this improvisation based workshop helped to create a world of characters and stories. This was also the day that our technician, David Walstaff arrived from Shetland with all the equipment. Dinner was by a massive majority vote of a Kentucky Fried Chicken enjoyed by all. That evenings performances were “Arden City” performed by Craigholme School and “A Vampire story” by the Kildare youth theatre again two excellent performances. Saturday- the big day – this was the day that YUF Theatre perform. In the morning all the group are off to a workshop on “Theatresports” this they all absolutely enjoyed it was the best workshop of the week. We had our main meal of the day at lunchtime as we knew by teatime everyone would be too nervous, so off we went to Jimmy Cheungs again.
	In the afternoon it was our turn for a dress rehearsal. The group had full use of the green room, stage and crew. Everybody had to make sure that they had all the pieces to their costumes and chose their dressing rooms, after a pep talk from Izzy and a run through of the script they were off for their dress rehearsal, they were fantastic.
A picnic tea was had in the green room with time to relax before the performance, this was the time that nerves starting showing. They were due on stage at 7.30pm so by 7pm most of the cast were in their dressing rooms getting ready. We had our stage calls and then they were off. Lesley, John and myself were able to watch “It Snows” from the back seats of the stalls and they were absolutely fantastic. They had taken on board everything that they had learnt during the week from watching the other performances, to speak clearly and loudly, not to rush your lines, it was just brilliant we were so proud of them. They got a fantastic response from the audience as they were one of the youngest groups there that week. They came off stage buzzing with excitement they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were asking when they could do it again. After the short interval we watched the final performance of the week which was The Lyceums own youth Theatre performing “Fugee”. The week had provided the group with many opportunities and a number of friendships were started there that week, phone numbers and MSN addresses were exchanged before we left.
	The next day we all set off back on the Mega bus to Aberdeen where we were able to fit in an hours worth of shopping, just enough time to buy Primark out before we had to board the Northlink Ferry. On board John Haswell gave a speech to the group congratulating them on their wonderful performance and behaviour there the whole week, he then presented each of the adults with a Thorntons chocolate block with “it snows” iced on, and all the children a princess chocolate bar. That night we didn’t have to worry if everyone was in bed by 10 o’clock as they were all shattered and fast asleep by 9.30pm. This was a fantastic week for all, the children got such a lot out of it and the adults too to see them work so well together. I can’t wait for the next performance………… Michelle Morris Initiative at the Edge Development worker