December 2011
1 post
November 2011
1 post
The Top of the Stairs
Peter ran to the top of the stairs of his very tall house.
They went up and up and up and round and round and round.
And at the top there was a place like no other.
At the top of the stairs there was the landing of adventure,
And on the landing of adventure there was the banister of invention.
Which was just as well as Peter’s house had no garden, instead there was a busy road right outside his...
October 2011
1 post
Sorrow and Pride
I’ve just got back from St Giles Church where eleven Yew Tree Youth Theatre members performed a piece of devised theatre, written and directed by Gemma, at the Miners Memorial service. They were the youngest and smallest cast to do this in the three years we’ve had the privilege to be part of it, but this didn’t stop them being an absolute credit to themselves and the youth theatre. The...
September 2011
1 post
Just sharing some inspiration...
By rights I should be writing this blog about Tuesday’s play in day because it’s the most exciting youth theatre thing that I was part of this week and because it was a brilliant day but James has done this admirably in his blog leaving me free to pursue a more tangential theme…
On Friday night I had the pleasure and privilege of watching an outstanding piece of theatre…it was thoroughly...
May 2011
4 posts
What happened to Grace Connor next...
The girl opens her eyes and stretches, it is cold but she feels little, less and less every day and this aspect of her existence as is the case with so many other things in her life barely registers. As she crawls into consciousness she thinks about her day. Every day is a challenge; every day needs planning in the finest detail…
Her disappointment of 3 months ago was still to her irritation...
The best bit about writing...
It’s the moment you feel a character assume an identity of it’s own…you’ve brought it into existence, nurtured it, developed it from a single thing…a name or an action, or a single point, an entirely one dimensional thing and then all of a sudden without any warning it starts doing things you never imagined it doing…failing at things you didn’t realise were threats, saying things that shock you,...
April 2011
7 posts
A favour...
I’m writing a scene about inspiration for the Hepworth Gallery launch…so please can you comment with what inspires you…it can be anything at all from something concrete to something abstract…any ideas will help me…
If you can ask other people you follow/that follow you and feed that back to me that would be ideal…
Legacy
I have made no secret of
My wish for immortality,
My desire to suck each possibility,
Each aspect of life dry.
The certainty of that dark end
Casts insistent shadows on life’s light,
That stalker we must all accept
Follows ever loyal and constant.
Yet, despite acceptance of this wraith
There remains a glimpse of hope,
Some comfort in projected loss
That fills the expected emptiness.
Hope...
A musical fairy tale - inspired by the writers...
Once upon a time in a kingdom not so far away from the place where you live, a people lived a desolate existence. In every room, in every house, on every street there was a sadness, a kind of emptiness that comes from the lack of something vital, something needed.
It was in this kingdom our hero arrived, dressed from head to foot in green. With him he brought the four essential elements of...
Goodnight Mr Tom at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
It is rare I go to see an adaptation of a book for stage or screen without first having read the original, but somehow I had missed out on the literary version of “Goodnight Mr Tom.” I’ve no idea how as it’s such a classic…somehow it’s just slipped through the net. I also, having booked my tickets, found out that I am one of the few people in the world that hasn’t seen the film version. Normally...
State of the arts
This week has seen a landmark event in the world of arts with the announcement from Arts Council England of who and what they are going to fund from 2012 onwards.*
Since then I have had many heated debates with people about the nature of funding and the place it has in society…there is no doubt in my mind that the arts in all it’s guises not only enriches society but binds it together. It can...
March 2011
3 posts
“Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t...”
– Virginia Woolf (via deadwriters)
Raised Curtain
Today Yew Tree Youth Theatre did one of their bravest things yet…they performed in an alternative performance event at Wakefield Theatre brilliantly titled “Raised Curtain” no prizes for guessing I came up with the title…ha…
It was brave in a number of ways…the main one was that it was impossible to rehearse in full…we could rehearse elements of it…sections…but as an entire thing that was...
More than proud of this →
February 2011
5 posts
Part 4 →
Part 3 →
Part 2 →
The start of a Shooting Truth extravaganza... →
elliemoran asked: I had been looking for you on here... but i was typing in Sarah Osborne rather than Sarah yew tree :)
January 2011
1 post
Inspiration
Being inspired is the most energizing, affirming thing and it’s happened twice this week in such ridiculously diverse ways.
The first serving of inspiration came from a trip to the theatre. I booked tickets last year to go and see Me and My Girl as my first theatre experience of 2011 for a number of reasons: I hoped for a perfect theatrical pick me up in early January, Miriam Margoyles was in it...
December 2010
4 posts
The Gift
Mable looked out of the window, remembered why she hated the world so much and retreated further down into her duffle coat. It truly was a grey, grim world she’d been sent out into, with all the roads and pavements slick with residue of rain on snow. Everything damp and wilted, with the heaviness of thaw thickly laden so it permeated every last thing. There was no escaping it. She shuddered...
Snowflake
A wonder of natural geometry.
Such intricacy wasted on such transience,
Fleeting, perfect, glorious then gone.
The smallest thing made vast by impossibilities,
Senseless in almost every aspect.
That something so fragile stops traffic,
Seems ludicrous.
That something so tiny brings countries to standstill,
Equally insane.
However that you can hold something perfect in your hand
But not stop it...
November 2010
2 posts
“If we’re really unlucky they’ll be on the train”
I’ve known about the Contemporary Music Festival in Huddersfield since I lived with Music students in my first year at Bretton Hall. However despite the fact the festival was always talked about in respectful and admiring tones by my contemporaries, I had never actually been until this Friday when I went to see the opening of 2011’s offerings. I have to admit I had an ulterior motive as in...
October 2010
9 posts
Inspired by the Ace of Clubs
Please don’t be offended if I am staring at you…I will keep staring and if I catch your eye I probably won’t look away…it’s not because I think I am better than you, I know I am not…I know I am nothing…I have suspected it for most of my life but now I have the proof…certain indisputable proof…so I sit here at this table, my hands around a cup of coffee that cannot keep me warm…it cannot hope to...
The final chapter of what began in frivolity...
Tonight I know I will finally find him again…it feels like I have been looking for him for so long but I this is more because of how badly I want to see him and how entirely I miss him. I am hopeful about tonight…it follows a beautiful crisp Autumn day, the biting cold made pleasant by clear blue skies and golden sunlight. My fifty fifth birthday has been celebrated with appropriate cheer, an...
Dead Writers Club: October →
deadwriters:
O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; To-morrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow, Make the day seem to us less brief.
Some thoughts from our performance at the Miners... →
The majority of the script for yesterday’s performance at the Miners Memorial
Service was written by the brilliant Gemma Whelan…this was my contribution…
Sometimes I don’t go to school; I go with Dad to the picket line and stand by the brazier for warmth. Mum says it’s no place for a child but I go anyway. I want to try and understand Dad’s world. The hours that he’s away from...
September 2010
3 posts
I love my occasional visits to the writer's forum...
Opening the double doors wide I step onto the balcony straining my eyes to seek out the sight I am longing for…
Carefully I check my dress with my hands smoothing out the creases in the material and make sure my hair is in place…I want so much to be perfect as in 5 or 10 or 30 minutes I will see the hunting party return and glimpse the face that occupies my dreams both in sleep and on...
August 2010
9 posts
So this is how I spent my weekend... →
The Battle of Wakefield (work in progress)
Autumn 1460 and England is discontented, in disorder and disarray.
A flawed Lancastrian King, Henry the Sixth is on the throne
And the politicians make their hay; test their strength.
The Duke of York the closest and most powerful of these advisors
Protector of the realm and now heir to the throne.
The Act of Accord passed that means he will succeed Henry
A king compromised by weakness,...
What do you bring?
This is not a well thought out offering with a satisfactory conclusion…instead it’s something that I’ve been pondering since a youth theatre session I ran on Thursday…in fact I’ve been thinking about it for much longer than that but I refocused on it on Thursday. It’s centred on the question of what do people bring…and by people I mean everyone…what do people bring as individuals to a creative...
Goldilocks
The slightly ajar door was irresistible, too tempting to walk past. Tentatively she pushed it further open, could it be this simple? She called, “Hello?” to the potential listeners…no reply. She closed it behind her, thought again and returned it to the open position she’d found it in, now with her at the other side…
The interior was basic…the living room into which the front door opened...
Podcast number 5 Yew Tree Youth Theatre does... →
