NYT Blog: Moving In
The National Youth Theatre REP, a company of 15 young actors from 18-25, are moving into the West End. Having been training and rehearsing at our Holy Grail nest in Holloway Road for the last six months, we now ride the Piccadilly line straight into the bull’s eye of Covent Garden. Zone one we will enter, three plays we will perform and ten weeks we shall remain.
Our programme is 9 months long and coincidently, the preparation leading up to the big move bears a very tentative resemble to what I assume pregnancy is like. After being conceived into the NYT programme, the first segment of training consisted of absorbing streams of expertise from industry doctors. We had workshops and Q + As with the National Theatre, Royal Court, Headlong and BBC Radio to name but a few, all disclosing their best industry nutritional advice for the gestation period ahead of us and beyond.
The second third of the process, after the scan and being cast, was the rehearsal period. We’ve spent the last three months getting our three plays, our triplets, ready for the stage. The three plays are glaringly unalike in style, with three different directors, so it's been a lesson in how to treat and rehearse each triplet differently. Macbeth is the tough thriller that will be popular in school, Private Peaceful is the team player and heartstring puller and Selfie is the radical and satirical hipster.
This week we’ve moved into the Ambassadors Theatre. Pre-warned by our Head of Costume who dubbed the backstage area "as tight as a Nun’s Chuff," we have arrived fully prepared for weaving our way around the STOMP props for our technical rehearsals. The previews are awarding us with a chance to test out our material in front of an audience, giving us a chance to hone and polish the pieces before their due date – Press Night. To continue scraping the barrel of forced similarities to bearing a child, we are absolutely knackered, have swollen feet and fear that at some point down the line, we might leave one of our lines in a different aisle at Tesco’s….but we are very excited.
The NYT Rep Company’s Season featuring SELFIE, Private Peaceful and Macbeth runs between 17th Sept – 28th November at Ambassadors Theatre and is on sale now.
For more from the National Youth Theatre and to book tickets head over to the NYT page.
