Summer Show - Take 2!

Growtheatre Youth Theatre – Summer Term 2022

Our Summer Term has been a very busy one! We have started a new Intermediate Group on Tuesdays, we have been having lots of fun in exam season with our Thursday Senior Group and we have been rehearsing and performing shows with our Thursday Junior and Intermediate Groups.

It has been an absolute privilege to start a new Youth Theatre Group on a Tuesday evening with some lovely young people! Starting the group in the Summer term has meant that they have had the best the woods can offer and we have been outside all term. We have been getting to know each other, learning how to operate as effective group, developing solid outdoor performance skills, exploring Ecclesall Woods, using tools, building with ropes and wood and lighting fires! We can’t wait to see what the Autumn Term brings.

Many of our Seniors have been taking GCSEs and A-Levels and after working very hard to produce an awesome Play Back Theatre Showcase we have been having a term of fun, fun, fun! Together, we planned a programme of favourite activities and the opportunity to try some new things. This include getting physical with stage combat, being creative with newspaper and designing crazy costumes, time around the fire, being highbrow with Shakespeare and turning our hand to stand up comedy. Perhaps our favourite session was a Murder Mystery to say goodbye to some of our oldest members – food, drink, incredible costumes, larger than life characters and one murderer on the loose all contributed to a very memorable evening! We wish our 18 and 19 year olds every luck with their next steps into the future and know that they will burn brightly and hope they will keep a little bit of Growtheatre in their hearts!

Juniors and Intermediates have worked incredibly all term to devise two awesome shows. The Junior’s show was called Time Travellers and explored the many ways you can time travel and highlighted the many, many dangers that might befall those that come into contact with Time Travellers! The Intermediates devised a fabulous Promenade Performance called The Mystery of George Yardley’s Terrible Demise. This took the audience on a journey of discovery to try to discover why a local charcoal burner had died whilst tending his fire back in the 1800s. The Intermediates presented many possible reasons for George’s death and asked the audience to vote on what they thought was the most likely scenario.

On the day of the performance, just as the Juniors began to perform the heavens opened and the rain came down and down and down! Rain was quickly followed by thunder and sadly, despite the Juniors valiant efforts, we could not hear anything but the storm. We quickly cancelled and everyone hurried to get out of the storm. The following week we decided to Take 2! We had beautiful sunshine and the most perfect evening but missing cast members – from both groups. Thanks to several Intermediates taking on new roles, our brilliant volunteers and 2 awesome Senior members, Zak and Daisy, we were able to replace all the missing people and put on a fantastic show. We were so proud of both groups – they both absolutely pulled off fantastic performances and really showed us what strong and supportive teamwork is all about – both audiences were so impressed!