Yep, Sunday’s will be fun again!

After our summer break the Riverside Youth Theatre met up again last Sunday. It was great to see everyone again and meet some new members too.

I’m looking forward to helping out on the committee (we meet again in a couple of weeks time) and hope I can be of use since I’m going to be sorting some publicity for the group and future productions. As well as writing a few press releases, this blog should help, and I’m sure I’ll be making use facebook too!

So what’s next for RYT?

Well, we’re going to be doing three one act plays on the 3rd-6th December 2008 and I’m directing one of them, Lunch in Venice by Nick Dear.

Lunch In Venice is a great play. I love it!

I first came across it when I began reading the plays for young people commissioned by the National Theatre as part of their New Connections program. The play appears in the 2005 anthology along side Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill and Chatroom by Enda Walsh.

Incidenly Deborah Gearing’s first play, Burn, is also there. Deborah Gearing? Well Deborah went through the very same Nuffiled Theatre Writers Group that I am in. And this play was her ‘graduation piece’.

Oh and there’s also Through the Wire a musical one act play by Catherine Johnson. Who’s she? Well you may not know the name, but you will know the ABBA musical Mamma Mia (now a film) and it was Catherine who wrote it.

So why did I choose Lunch in Venice? Well, basically because it was the first play I’ve read where I had to read it through again – immediately! Here’s what’s said in the production notes:

In a tranquil square in Venice five teenagers eat pizzas and talk. The weather is perfect, the food delicious and the talk engaging. But Lunch in Venice is a play where the realisation of what has already happened to the characters gradually creeps up on the audience and, from the point where the penny drops, they will receive an emotional jolt. Their perception will be dramatically reshaped in much the same way as the characters’ perceptions have been reshaped by the dreadful moment Nick Dear has subjected them to.

It’ll be challenging to direct, but I’m looking forward to it.

In addition Emma Dow and Gill Lambourne will be directing the two other plays.

Emma co-directed our last production Into The Woods and will be directing All’s well that Ends as You Like It by Michael Green.

This as the name suggests, is a Shakespeare parody and is from ‘The Art of Coarse Acting’. Michael Green coined the term “Coarse Acting” in the early 1970s — A coarse actor is “one who can remember his lines, but not the order in which they come. One who performs . . . amid lethal props. The Coarse Actor’s aim is to upstage the rest of the cast. His hope is to be dead by Act Two so that he can spend the rest of his time in the bar. His problems? Everyone else connected with the production.” (Michael Green)

Coarse Acting is now a recognized theatrical skill: it takes a company of highly-skilled and committed actors to master its delicate art. I’m sure the talented bunch at RYT will be more than capable!

Gill directed last December’s production of Cider With Rosie and this year will be directing Stone Soup a morality play by Paul Thain.

In this allegory of modern society, derived from an ancient folk tale, the wise Sophia enters a starving village and declares she will feed everyone with her magical stone soup, and in this way gradually encourages the villagers to share their own hoarded goods for the benefit of the community as a whole. Mr and Mrs North hold a monopoly on the cooking pot and use this fact to try to gain control of the soup. When Sophia philosophizes about peace and justice she is labelled a subversive by the autocratic government figure, General Mayhem, who attempts to nationalize the soup and place it under government control. In the end, however, the spirit of sharing and co-operation prevails.

We had a read through of all three plays last Sunday and since each play offers something completely different for the young people everyone had their favourite.

Auditions will be held this Sunday, and boy is that going to be difficult. With thirty or more young people to cast in the three different plays, it will be very hard for each person to get the play they want, let alone the part they want.

I have six parts to audition for in Lunch In Venice (though additionally there is a role for “A Troupe of Acrobats” so anybody who hasn’t a major part in the other plays can join in if they can juggle! – I knew me teaching them how to juggle earlier in the year would come in handy at some point!) and like most directors, I have a pretty good idea who I want to cast.

Auditions, though, are important because it is then that you find the surprise actor who you hadn’t initially thought of or the actor you thought would be brilliant turns out not to be quite so good and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the cast.

If I’m honest, I hate auditioning.

One has to rely a lot on experience and going by what you know about the person and what you have seen them do before.

It’s always the case that there are actors who can sight read as if they knew the whole script backwards, and who can do a brilliant audition, and you think ‘yeah, gotta have him’ and then you find that he doesn’t take direction well, thinks he’s god’s gift to acting, wont work as part of a team and is basically crap.

In complete contrast, I know one young actor (not at RYT) who is a very slow sight reader. He is very self-conscious and hates auditioning (to the point of almost avoiding it) because he believes he will never get a part. The upshot is, he can act and is a bloody natural, though you’d have a hard time convincing him. I cast him as the lead once, purely based on what I had seen him do in another production, and irrespective of his reading/audition. Needless to say he was brilliant.

My main problem will be getting the good actors who I know I can work with. Lunch in Venice is going to be very demanding. There is a lot to understand in order to convincingly get it across to an audience. The trouble is the very good actors will also be in demand by the other Emma and Gill, so we’ll just have to share them!

Though I do, as I say, have the semblance of a cast in mind, it’ll be fun working with the young people, whoever I end up with.

I’m really looking forward to it. Roll on Sunday!

Sunday, and after a Saturday of not much at all, I went to Sunbury for the Riverside Youth Theatre’s AGM.

I was elected onto the committee as the publicity officer and after an hour’s meeting it was time for the post AGM entertainment: A live Who’s Line Is It Anyway? style show.

I’ve spent the last six Sundays running an Improvisation Workshop where the young RYT members have been learning a variety of improv’ techniques.

It was brilliant. We were in the studio at the Riverside Arts Centre and had set up some staging and even had a some proper lighting too. (Thanks Aaron!)

I hosted and about a dozen or so members performed a variety of games from the show: Foreign Film Dubbing, Dating Show, Press Conference and some hilarious Alphabet Scenes.

The members were all brilliant and audience was great too; All willingly chipping in various locations and character styles for the actors to improvise with on cue.

It lasted forty five minutes – too short as we could easily have gone on, but we had too stop for some lunch.

A good time was had by all, with some really pleasant comments from various parents afterwards too.

We were supposed to have had a picnic afterwards, but with our great British weather as it is we ended clearing the studio and having our lunch inside, during which it was announced that Lewis Hamilton had one the Grand Prix.

Another good day for me in Sunbury. I do love spending my Sunday afternoons over there. There such a great bunch of people; adults and young people alike.

Next week it will be our last Sunday before we break up for the summer. I’ll be having my first committee meeting and the members will be rehearsing for a show they are putting on for the Shepperton and Sunbury Arts Association – a week of various arts related workshops and shows put on every summer in the centre. RYT will be performing an evening of drama and songs on Friday the 18th.

And when they return in September? Well it’ll be straight into auditions and rehearsing for the next show, a production of three one act plays to be performed in December.

Oh, and yours truly will be directing one of them: Lunch in Venice by Nick Dear. More on that later.

Right, now I’ve done my blogging and indeed a whole host of other things on my MacBook today (including my Nuffield homework), I’m off to bed; some of us have to be up early in the morning – like five o’clock! I’m off to Warwick Racecourse for a couple of days; more corporate hospitality supervising. (Think I may just take my MacBook.)

Just a quicky!

I’m off to Silverstone for theBritish Grand Prix.

Well, practice and qualifying anyway. Cant see the race as I need to be back for the Riverside Youth Theatre AGM!

Bye for now…

A little more active this week. Just.

Rich and I meet up with a couple of friends briefly yesterday, which was good as I haven’t seen much of anybody in a while.

I’m also doing FOH for Ottershaw Players production of Oscar Wilde’s short story ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ (adapted for the stage by Constance Cox in the ’50s) at the Rhoda in Woking this week.

I watched it Wednesday night and very enjoyable it was too. (Brilliant costumes Chris and thanks for lunch!)

Last night I sat in the foyer and did some prep work for my Riverside Youth Theatre Improv Workshop on Sunday.

Last week’s went down well despite my poor mood and lack of concentration. I managed to plan something in the morning, having had a couple of hours sleep and the workshop was well received. I had a few thankyous directly afterwards as well as a couple of emailed thankyous later which made me feel better.

Week Two (of six) on Sunday, and after a few trust exercises I’ll be introducing the ‘Who, Where, What, When, Why and How’ of Improv.

The objective for Week Seven (the AGM before they break up for the summer) is to have a couple of groups perform a live ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ style show, using all the techniques I’l be teaching them.

If their introduction to it all last week was anything to go by, then we’ll have a good show. They’re up for it, which is great!

Tonight in the foyer at the Rhoda I’ll be reading a play that John emailed the Nuffield Writers Group as a little bit of extra homework!

By next Thursday I need to have read a couple more plays, plus the emailed one, as well as finished writing a two character scene involving ‘action’ and writing another scene entirely of snippets of ‘overheard’ conversations.

I’m off to Argos at Brooklands to buy a digital recorder thingy then I’ll sit in the Tescos cafe and see what nuggets I can record! You’ve been warned!

Having recently overheard (and scribbled down) such interesting lines as “She was proper minging”, “It smells like horse piddle” and “Go on be a bitch, at least I have a life”, I’m looking forward to it!

Monday, and time for a post.

You’ve probably gathered I’m up at the moment. And this weekend I’ve been a little ‘hypo’ too if I’m honest. Having two hours sleep Sunday morning didn’t help either – more on that later!

Okay here goes… A long post, but hey, it’s my blog so I can write as much as I want!

Full House Friday

Curtain up was about ten minutes late since FOH were trying to sort tickets – half the audience had been hunting parking spaces. Great show though. Audience not as responsive as the previous night, which is odd since you’d think that more people would mean more laughs or more applause. I did make all my gauze cues and it didn’t get stuck, so I was happy!

After the show ten of us adults went to an Indian just along the street for a lovely meal. The cast normally go for their own meal too, but the Chinese they go to has recently turned into another Indian and they don’t like the food or the price so they skipped that tradition on this show, which was a pity.

Short Haul Saturday

Well, long haul actually, since having gone to bed at about two I was up again at 6.45am with a number of things to do before leaving the house for what was to be a very long day.

After picking up 18 gold helium filled balloons from the shop around the corner, I left at about 10:15 to get to the Fairoaks Airport in Chobham. The events company I do some ad-hoc work for (when I’m well enough) had a variety of events going on that needed management staff, one of which was the FA Cup Final in Wembley. (I did the Portsmouth winning semi-final last month.)

But I couldn’t do Wembley because I knew I’d be unlikely to be back in time. (And after the fiasco last time, wasn’t particularly fussed anyway – the smaller stadiums are much better organised.) Instead I was asked to oversee a 50th Wedding Anniversary being held in the aircraft hanger next to the company’s offices in the airport – the first the company had hosted itself.

As it was, that was just as disorganised as Wembley but the guests had a great time and had no inkling of the chaos behind the scenes.

I had been promised two agency staff to help be, but Nicky (Fin’s mum – she works part-time for the company) wasn’t told about it and by the time she was, the agencies she called said it was too short notice. I ended up texting my friend Jon and Nicky called a friend whose husband had bar experience – and for this function we basically winged it. (Apt, being as we were in an airport!)

Jon, Rob and I had a code word for whenever the shit was really hitting the fan – Grapefruit! It was so funny.

When you understand that we were running this function by preparing afternoon tea for sixty people in the company’s board room with no sink or running water and in order to provide the hot water for the drinks, we had to constantly fill the kettle up from the disabled toilet then you can see why this was just a farce. We had to hunt around for teaspoons, and plates and stuff then find 60 glasses for the toast – oh, and an then wash the dust of them first.

The highlight of the afternoon for me was getting our lunch from the airport cafe where I had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Corbett (yes, he’d flown short haul!) He was ordering a cup of tea and I did one of those double take things then said hello (I was filling up a flask of hot water from behind the counter having given up on the boiling a kettle idea). Mind you he isn’t the sort of celebrity that you wonder wether it’s them or not. It so obviously was, though I have to admit he did appear to be shorter in real life than on TV. He’s very stocky so he’s big and small at the same time. Very pleasant though.

The function finished about 6.30pm and I literally jumped into the car to get over to Sunbury for the last performance of ‘Into the Woods’. Arriving in my black Wembley suit and red Ricoh Stadium tie did require a lot of explaining since no one had seen me in a suit before, but I quickly changed into my blacks and helped set the stage.

The house was about two thirds full, so not as many as the previous night, but the audience was so much better. They laughed and applauded much more which made the cast feel so much better too.

It was a great show. The golden egg laying hen flew across the stage, and then had a number of us in quiet hysterics back stage when we discovered Jack (Mark) sat on the floor in the wings – his Hen was reading the script!

All to soon the fourth and last performance of the show was over and the curtain call ‘Ever After’ was sung for the last time. Needless to say the audience loved it, and I’m not surprised: the whole cast gave an excellent performance and the energy was clearly evident.

We had a quick clear up and then everyone gathered in the auditorium for the after show ‘thank yous’. The Wolf (Alex D) and Cinderella’s Father (Adam D) took to the stage and gave out a card and present for each of the adult helpers as well as the band and the tech crew. Even Milky White (the cow) got a card and present too!

The cast were so appreciative of all the hard work and time the adults gave to putting on the production and it makes it all the more worth while when they make such a big point of saying thank you. Hardly surprising then that some of the adults still help out even though their children who were once members have long since grown up and had children of their own.

I had some lovely comments in my card. One of them was from a member for whom this was his last production – they have to leave when they reach 18. He wrote: “Typical! Just as I have to leave, someone to stay for arrives.” I was also presented with a set of juggling balls, which was just brilliant and very thoughtful. I use juggling balls in my various warm-ups and exercises and my current set was beginning to show signs of significant wear. I was so pleased to get a new set.

Next stop: Clare’s house, (Baker’s Mum) quarter of a mile away for the cast party! Among a host of teenagers dancing, singing, eating and drinking, and jumping and spinning the bottle on the trampoline were a few of the adults having a drink in the kitchen. Great fun.

It wasn’t until a bit later that another teenager made an appearance. Reported to be Clare’s nephew, the depressing looking emo/goth/grunger going by the name of Alistair was noticed by a few wandering about the house, then lounging on the settee reading a magazine, listening to his iPod, eating bread and drinking a beer.

Yours truly, incidentally, was last seen heading in the direction of an upstairs loo. I reappeared half an hour later complaining of a dodgy stomach.

I confess…

Last week Richard brought home a rather cool wig from the Mind (charity) shop. It is black with red streaks and a long fringe. ‘Fantastic’ I thought as I tried it on in front of the full length mirror in the bedroom. And before I knew it I was immediately perfecting that somewhat annoying teenage habit of swishing the head to get the hair out of the eyes, and having one of those brilliant ideas!

In addition to the rather cool wig, add a long sleeved black teeshirt with my sleeves pushed up, a pair of black jeans with half my arse showing, a LowLife ‘Devoid’ belt (Thanks Taddy!), the obligatory white earphone cord disappearing into the pocket and the ‘I couldn’t care a shit about anything – apart from music’ slouch coupled with few choice monosyllabic grunts, and I was 20 years younger!

Okay so I didn’t fool everybody; the adults (though not all of them) guessed straight away, but quite a few of the younger party goers were convinced for while, and it was great fun having an alter ego.

‘Alistair’ was chatted up and asked to dance and it was even suggested he got his own facebook/myspace page!

I eventually left Clare’s house (after doing an early morning Agony Uncle stint) with the sun shinning on crashed out teenagers and finally got home and into bed at 6.45am.

Yep, exactly 24 hours after I’d got up!

Song Free Sunday

And then, just 2 hours later, my ever wonderful Rich, bless him, bought me up a cup of tea.

“What time did you get in?” he asked sitting on the bed. “I heard you get up for the loo about six.”

“Er, no Darling” I mumbled, half awake. “That was me getting home!”

I was back at the Riverside Arts Centre by half ten, and already the raked seating had been dismantled, costumes and props were winging there way back into cupboards, and lights were being de-rigged. I helped Alan and Kevin take the set apart, then moved onto organising a team of cast members to rub out the pencil marks in all the returned scripts. (They were hired.)

That done it was time for lunch. Ellie (one of the show’s directors) had taken a couple of the young people off to Tesco’s and some of the others set up the tables in the hall. And by then I was aware I was still a little hypo.

I then cut up the french sticks as others rolled sliced ham, chunked up the cheese, chopped cucumber and tomatoes and layed out the rest of the ploughmans lunch on a table at one end of the hall. The tables were arranged in two rows with the adults on one and the young people on the other. Convention dictates that the adults help themselves to lunch first, then the young people demolish what’s left. Various boxes of chocolates are then passed round (adults first, naturally) and lunch was then cleared.

And all that was left was the post show debrief in which everyone (about 40 of us) sat on chairs in a huge circle and Ellie invited comments from each of us. We had a round-robin style discussion in which each person was invited to talk about their experience of the production by sharing one bad thing, one good thing, a ‘man of the match’ and any other general comments they wished to give.

It was so good to hear of everybody else’s experience and many commented on the Baker (Adam A) who had taken on his first big part and done a great job, as well as the the two Princes (Tom A and Peter) and their rather brilliant ‘Agony’ songs. Amoungst others, the tech team who provided sound and light were also acknowledged for their work as well as Amy the musical director.

It was me who was last to speak (before Ellie excellently summed everything up) and after highlighting my bad thing (the gauze getting stuck a number of times and my unfortunate lack of concentration during Thursday night’s performance meaning I was late with my cues to lower the gauze – and after me banging on about concentration in my many warm-ups!) I talked about the good points from the show and how brilliant everyone was, and how proud I was to be part of the such a dedicated and truly wonderful team of people.

Unfortunately, there is one slightly embarrassing side-effect of going ‘hypo’; I get incredibly emotional.

Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense mental state that arises autonomically in the nervous system and evokes either a positive or negative physiological response. When I’m hypomanic (about a 7/8 on my scale of 0-10), this mental state is highly intensified meaning that it’s impossible for me to suppress the visible signs of emotion. Subsequently, there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop the inevitable tears of joy! (I was already welling up with all the positive things being said by the time the discussion got half way round the circle!)

Even when I am ‘up’ and not necessarily hypomanic, a ‘moving’ moment in a movie or TV show can cause the odd tear to trickle down my cheek. (And they say men don’t cry!)

Sadly, however, it was particularly soul destroying for me to be party to a disparaging remark from one of the adults in the coffee bar afterwards and then to hear a small group of the young people alone in the hall (what appeared to me to be) taking the piss after they’d thought I’d left the building.

Ah, what the fuck. I don’t care. Life’s too short. At least my feelings were genuine, even if my Bi-Polarity means I show them in a somewhat (for a man anyway) unconventional way.

Oh well, here I am at the end of a very long post: I drove the 30 minutes home and after eating only half my dinner, I went to bed watching a rather well written Agatha Christie themed Doctor Who and then promptly fell into a very long, deep and happy sleep.

All that remains to be said is that I am very lucky and incredibly proud to be involved in the development of such a talented group of wonderful teenagers and be part of a very caring group of kind, considerate and supportive adults who, as parents and children collectively, make up the Riverside Youth Theatre and, it has to be said, without whom my Sunday afternoons would be completely and utterly worthless.

I know some of you read my blog and you’re all brilliant! (And that includes the Steward! – There you go Ryan, your wish is granted!)

Thanks guys!

PS: I am very pleased to report that Cinderella’s Father (Adam D) did eventually find his fluffy thing!!!!!!

1.) Don’t be distracted by Rapunzel’s Prince’s radio mike and follow him back stage when you’re supposed to be dropping the gauze for the scene in the cottage, else the Wolf won’t have enough time to eat Granny and get into bed before Little Red Riding Hood appears and will probably kill you in the dressing room afterwards!

2.) Remember to vacate the milking stool DSR after the Steward has killed Jack’s Mother, else when he and the Baker drag her off stage you’ll be trapped under them as they fall on top of you ’cause there isn’t much room in the stage right wings and you’re in the bloody way!

Apart from that – oh and the gauze rope’s cleat breaking after lifting the gauze and then grabbing the rope quickly as the gauze dropped a foot – the show was great!

So great in fact that my friend Jon – who wasn’t expecting much since he assumed it would be ‘just a bunch of kids putting on an amateur show’ – told me in the car as I gave him a lift home, that it was the best amateur production he had ever seen!

Jon had plenty of praise for the high standards of acting and singing, couldn’t fault it, and loved the whole show. He said that had he not had commitments for Friday and Saturday night he would have come again. He even went as far as to say that it was better and more enjoyable than some of the professional shows he’d seen at the New Vic in Woking!

Naturally, Jon now understands why I so much enjoy spending my Sunday afternoons with this talented bunch!

I’m informed that after the sucess of last night’s performance, the show is now sold out for tomorrow so we’ll be adding a couple of rows in the front for those that have assumed there’ll be tickets and turn up on the door!

PS: I noticed for the first time tonight that the Hen who lays the golden egg appears to have a mind of it’s own and moves it’s head about as Jack is talking about the Giant. It’s hillarious!

Brilliant!

Just finished printing and folding the programmes for tonight’s performance of Sondhiem’s Into The Woods, being performed this week by the Riverside Youth Theatre in Sunbury.

I’ve had a lot of fun working with them on my Sunday afternoons over the last few months, with warm ups, characterization workshops, and the all important (dreaded) line learning – oh, and not forgetting: juggling! (I know it’ll come in handy at some point!)

Tonight is their first performance, and after the usual dress rehearsal nightmares last night, the omens are good for a really great first night.

If you fancy coming along to the Riverside Arts Centre in Lower Sunbury, then you’ll be in for a treat. (14th – 17th May 2008, 8pm – Tickets £8)

I’ll be in the wings down stage right doing a variety of things including: raising and lowering the gauze – having sorted the problem of it getting repeated stuck during the tech; re-attaching the clips on the Princes’ radio mikes – they unclip relatively easily (Agony!); assisting the Baker with his quick costume change – love the hat; helping Rapunzel climb up and down from her tower – winding, binding and minding hair; filling up cast members’ water bottles – dry throats from all the smoke (sorry, mist) in the woods; finding a pen – theres’s never one around when you want one; listening out for the cries of the Baker’s wife – “Paul! Help!”

It’s great fun, and really good to see all the excellent performances from the young people involved – I keep having to sneak a look on the stage manager’s monitor!

And so to Luke (Narrator), Fleur (Cinderella), Mark (Jack), Tahi (Jack’s Mother), Adam A (Baker), Claire L (Baker’s Wife), Frances (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Lara (Florinda), Georgie (Lucinda), Adam D (Cinderella’s Father), Chloe (Little Red Riding Hood), Emma (Witch – Act I), Claire H (Witch – Act II), Annabel (Cinderella’s Mother / Giant), Tom F (Mysterious Man / 2nd Narrator), Alex (Wolf), Laura (Granny), Rianna (Rapunzel), Tom A (Rapunzel’s Prince), Peter (Cinderella’s Prince), Ryan (Steward) and Daniel (Page), you are a brilliant cast and there is only one thing left to say before ‘curtain up’ in two and a half hours time:

Break a leg!

I have spent this afternoon with the Riverside Youth Theatre in Sunbury. They will be performing Sondheim’s Into The Woods in May and today was their introduction to the work.

I had been asked if I could run a workshop for an hour after we had watched the DVD of the original Broadway production and had done some singing with the MD.

Following some research, I discovered that the show actually began as a workshop in the summer of 1986. It was produced without costumes or sets. The performers wore baseball caps with signs on them indicating their character names. When they changed roles, they changed caps. The cast was grouped around a piano bench which became a variety of locations and props.

After some warm-up exercises, some discussion on the origins and history of fairy tales and then some characterization work, I split the group into two and each choose four different envelopes in which were sealed different fairy tales.

Cinderella
Beauty and the Beast
Little Red Riding Hood
The Three Little Pigs
Rumplestiltskin
Rapunzel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Sleeping Beauty

My idea was for them to choose some characters and plot lines from the fairy tales, mix them up and create and perform a completely new story. The character names were written on card and taped to baseball caps and the only set I allowed them was one chair. To help them (though to be honest they didn’t need any) I also gave each group a ruby ring to incorporate in the story.

I designated two of the older members as Director/Narrator for their group and flitted back and forth shouting out time checks as they were only given 20 minutes to work it all out.

The hilarious results (the three pigs were changed into horses to pull a carriage for cinderella, then changed back into pigs and eaten; there was a Fairy Goth-mother, and a Prince Chav) were then performed to everybody in the Studio and I was really pleased with what they had achieved.

A talented bunch, I can assure you.

Just finished my first production with the Riverside Youth Theatre in Sunbury. The group performed an excellent “Cider With Rosie” (Adaptation: James Roose-Evans) and I’d been involved primarily helping out with warm up sessions etc, and then back stage. I think what I really enjoyed the most was how welcome I was made to feel by both the adults and the young people alike. A great show and everything very well organised too. Well done RYT!