BP News

Youth Theatre Corner

Well we're back from the Edinburgh Fringe and what a week of fun it was! I booked a giant flat for the group of 18 members and 4 adults. It wasn't luxury - the hot water was at best temperamental and the washing machine had only half a door but we settled in and called it home.

Our play, Cruel Intentions, played to large houses so picking a well-known title (the movie was a teen cult classic) was a wise choice - we learned many years ago that popularity usually sells itself. The annual debasement of having to advertise the show on the Royal Mile by gurning while doing slow motion somersaults was taken up with alacrity by the cast - something for them to talk about as they grow up and grow out of such craziness. But that's it 'the Edinburgh Experience' enjoyed by generations of Big Spiriters over the last two decades. It's always something rather special and this year even a hardened old cynic like me was touched by the group's devotion to each other and to the project as a whole. My thanks to Leanne and Liz for being such perfect chaperones.

But onward and upward as they say and its heads down for another play-derived-from-a-film, 10 Things I Hate About You. For the first part of the season I always like to do something that's unashamedly good fun and this fits the bill admirably. It brings the group together and they learn lots while having some laughs along the way. The next play will be more heavy duty and I'm on the lookout for something essentially physical although not epic, in the way that Oedipus & Antigone was. What will it be? We're not certain yet but there are one or two titles vying for attention and we'll look at them in more detail over the next few months. The final play of the year though is settled - A Midsummer Nights Dream, to be performed round the Balfe house in Barton-le-Clay in mid July and all proceeds will go to the new studio fund!

How will it all pan out? Well they'll be lots of adventures along the way, no doubt, and we'll keep you posted, never fear. Yes - thank God for Youth Theatre Corner, I hear you mutter - 'How else would we know these things?!'