Acting up with the National Youth Theatre
Hippolyte Poirier, Year 12, has just spent the summer acting with the National Youth Theatre. The show, called “Slick” ran from 31 August to 3 September with five performances in the Sheffield Park Hill estate, the setting for the BAFTA award-winning film “This is England.”
Hippolyte rehearsed for nine hours a day, six days a week during the fortnight’s gruelling rehearsal schedule but Hippolyte was grateful to be treated as a professional actor. The five performances, which were open to the public, were held as a promenade theatre experience and the audience were taken on a journey around the estate for various ensemble performances.
The plot focusses on a stowaway who has escaped from an island which is built out of recycled plastic but is now toxic. The stowaway attempts to warn people that everyone is dying on the island. Hippolyte described the play as “very much an ensemble piece, with the audience divided into groups to experience different sections of the play and then ultimately the whole audience joining up to see the whole thing put together.”
Hippolyte thoroughly enjoyed his National Youth Theatre experience and says, “I thought it was absolutely brilliant. It was so good to act with people who are so dedicated to drama, the level was extremely high and it was motivating to be treated like a professional actor all the time.”
Hippolyte is now back treading the school stage boards and is studying A level Theatre Studies, for which he achieved an A grade in the summer AS exams. His advice to anyone considering studying Theatre Studies is to accept that the subject is very time-consuming.
“With A Level, in particular, you need to rehearse outside school so you need 100% commitment and organisation. A Level Theatre Studies has a real ensemble feel; at the end of the day you get an individual grade but everyone has to be in the production together.”
What’s next for Hippolyte? Currently he is a National Youth Theatre ambassador and is helping out at the Hull Truck Youth Theatre. He will be auditioning for another National Youth Theatre production next summer and is currently preparing for his auditions for drama school next year, with the intention of going to RADA.
