I am currently upset. I've been eating plenty of chocolates, crisps and drank so many Irn Bru. I can't sleep. I am in denial. I am suffering terribly. I have not been well. A terrible condition called "NFYT blues" has taken over my body.
Okay, that is a little bit too dramatic. A couple of days ago, I've came home from a 4-days festival called NFYT and it has been the best weekend ever due to the workshops. NFYT is short for National Festival of Youth Theatre. This is the eighth year NFYT has done their weekend and my third year with them. NFYT provides training opportunities for young people to participate in. They can do the workshops, make up a performance from "scratch" or get involved in the young critics programme. It also gives the youth theatre the opportunity to perform on the main stage at Rothes Hall in Glenrothes. They also gave people who are 18 and over the opportunity to become "Amigos" which is basically a youth theatre. They were in charge of their particular group and took them to their workshops. They also lead workshops, playing games with the young people. One of the ex-DYT members, Bea Webster, was one of the Amigos and I thought I would give her a special mention in saying "YOU'VE DONE WELL BEA!".
I literally just sat in front of the screen, thinking about what I should talk about in the next paragraph and I didn't know where to start. We've been camping in Fife for NFYT for 4 days, a lot has happened over the weekend. I would have to say that the camping has been my least favourite part. On the first night (last Friday, 5th of July), a swarm of midges has attacked me and Danielle. We screamed and sprayed midge repellent all over the place. It was horrible. Today is Thursday (the 12th of July) and the midge bites are finally healing up. I woke up one day thinking it was actually 6/7 in the morning. Got dressed and grabbed myself a towel, ready for a shower but when I came out of the tent, no one was up at all. It was actually half 3 in the flipping morning! I was not happy. Here's me who forced himself to get up thinking "it's time for a shower" and then realising that it was too early. Apart from that, the weekend has been fab. I can't believe I just said the word "fab"...
As I mentioned before, NFYT is an opportunity for young people to perform. My youth theatre group, Deaf Youth Theatre (DYT), performed Funk'n'Love. This is the third time DYT performed Funk'n'Love and this is also my third time performing Funk'n'Love. We've performed this at the Arches in 2011 as part of Inspiration Festival and in 2012, we performed in the Arches for Arches Live. We've had great reviews and to perform this again was an amazing opportunity. I must admit, when I first heard about this, I was a bit skeptical because there are new people who has never been a part of the performance before. I felt like they wouldn't understand the importance of the message and what inspiration means to all of us. But they've understood the performance quickly and brilliantly. They worked their butts off to make this the best performance. Our director, Jennifer Bates, came back from London (she left DYT/Solar Bear to move to London with her husband) to direct this performance. She said this would be the best Funk'n'Love ever. Thank god she was right. When we performed, we received a standing ovation and positive reviews from people who cried their way throughout the performance. I was proud of myself and the fellow actors for putting out the best performance of Funk'n'Love ever. We only had 5 days rehearsals yet the performance was fantastic. Yes, I will keep saying that the performance was fantastic because it was!
Moving on, the workshops at NFYT has been top notch. Better than the past two years I've attended. Workshops included stage combat, dance, magic, text and comedy. They've all been great workshops but my favourite was magic. We did a 3 hours long workshop and I had so much fun. Learnt magic that everyone else couldn't do so. What I love about it is that they didn't just focus on magic but also on the showmanship of magic. The importance of "milking it" in magic. When you're doing magic, you present magic and connect with the audience whilst doing so. This adds more to the magic as the actual magic trick itself is very short. I loved learning the tricks and mess up people's brain. I did one of the trick the other day and she was shocked by the tricked and kept asking me questions on how did I do it. I also did other workshops but this is by far the best. I will continue to be a magician and keep the secrets behind the tricks. When I did the dancing workshop, I was atrocious at it. It was cheesy pop dancing and I couldn't do the dance to save myself. Despite this, I had a great time. Mucking up the moves was an ice breaker and got me joking with other people. I am terribly sorry if I have stepped on your foot or punched you in the face by accident. The dancing was hard...
I'd like to thank Promote YT for the best weekend. I've throughly enjoyed it. I would list all my favourite moments into one blog but it'll be massive and a bit too long to read. Also to Solar Bear for making the weekend happen. You're the best (cheesy person here...). To check out our weekend and our pictures with clips from our performances, here is the video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6B-uJ_nosA.
I am a new blogger and would appreciate criticisms on my blog. I want to learn and improve my blogging skills and learn from you guys. If you like it, please say so and why. If you don't like it, please say so and why. I am learning.
