I was accepted onto the two week intensive NYT Summer Course at the age of 18, which upon completion allows you to become a fully fledged member of the UK’s biggest, kindest and most daring youth theatre. NYT is entirely about working as part of an ensemble, and I developed exponentially both as an actor and as a director during my training.

     Working with 29 other young people, we had a week and a half’s worth of training with our Course Director, before merging with another group of 30 performers to devise a 20-minute performance based around the theme of WWI. 2014 marked the centenary of WWI, and it was therefore apt that the theme of this year’s NYT Senior Course was the First World War. We were asked to do some research into our local areas and families from during the war period, and our Course Leader specifically requested we also learn the ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ speech from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

     My Course Director for the two weeks was Lukas Angelini, a highly successful director and actor who trained in Zurich, Japan, Switzerland and Tibet. ‘Lukas is the co-founder of the London based Theatre Training Initiative, which promotes on-going physical training for actors and performers. He is also an Associate Artist with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.’ Lukas strongly emphasised that to find honesty and meaning in a performance, actors must make themselves vulnerable on stage and truly make themselves physically uncomfortable, so that the audience can observe an actual physical struggle.

     He demonstrated this to us through the Japanese method of ‘Suzuki Training for Actors,’ where we were taught through a series of physical movements how to truly find struggle within ourselves. This included tasks such as:

• Raising one knee and foot to be parallel with the floor whilst bending your knees slightly, creating extreme physical discomfort when held.

• Slamming the raised foot onto the floor, then shifting your weight forward onto the foot you just returned to the floor.

• Standing on your tiptoes, then returning to standing with your knees slightly bent.

     This created extreme physical struggle when repeated quickly and correctly, and when combined with the Macbeth speech and synchronised breaths from the ensemble, formed an extremely powerful and interesting visual image. This method did also help me find honesty in the lines, as when combined with physical pain there was no performing, merely truth behind what I was saying.

     We also devised short performances prior to our final show, one of which I was lucky enough to direct. Using Lukas’ methods of Suzuki training and viewpoints, I directed a short 5-minute piece with some members of the ensemble, which was an incredibly rewarding and useful experience. Viewpoints are a method of devising where music is played and, in a pre-marked space, people are able to interact physically with each other. When done correctly, beautiful and striking physical interactions can be found and then repeated when piecing together a devised piece.

     Lukas hugely inspired me by using one simple phrase:  ‘Theatre is making love.’

     NYT not only gave me intensive training and a hugely valuable skill set I can utilise with devising, directing and performing, but also taught me how to work closely as part of an ensemble and make sure that everyone has their moment on stage. In such a ruthless and competitive industry, I feel extremely honoured that I have received such incredible social and ensemble skills.

     We were also given intensive vocal training by Judy Browne (The Alchemists, Band of Gold), similar to that taught in drama schools. The majority of our Course Leaders have taught in drama schools, and so to be given some of the intensive training that many professional actors receive was hugely beneficial.

     From this incredible experience I have certainly gained extreme discipline, made life-long friends, and gained skills I couldn’t dream of getting anywhere else. From this, I am certainly going to get involved with future NYT opportunities and utilise what I have learned in a professional capacity.