Diary Entry

Thursday 4th July 2013 - I started more detailed research on transport to my proposed Theatre Trip. I researched both feasible methods of college mini-buses and  hired coaches and weighed up/listed the benefits and problems that could come from both methods of transport.

Diary Entry

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 - I spoke with domanic and we both agreed that the most feasible mode of transport to get to our eventual chosen event would be by either a hired coach or by using one/some of the colleges mini-buses depending on the size of the group, availability, cost and distance we were travelling. We felt that for a smaller group of students the Mini-bus would be the most feasible method of transport as we could get funding from the college so that it would cost very little to get the mini-buses running, we could use the college drivers, it would be affordable for students, it would be easily accessible and organisable through college procedures, it would allow us to take a smaller groups of people together directly to the tourist destination, would allow for good health and saftey, would mean that we would only have to use one mode of transport to get there and would be quicker than cheaper than using public transport as found out from our previous research. If this option is unavailable at the time of the visit we feel that the next feasible methods of public transport would be to hire a coach, this would be more costly than using the college mini-buses however we could get funding from the college and this mode of transport would be much cheaper and quicker than using any type of public transport as found out from previous research. This option would also allow us to take a larger group of students than the mini-buses would, together, directly to the chosen event.tourist destination without having to swap over transport in between making it a completely safe and simple method of transport. Dependent on the group we end up taking to the event, hiring a coach may be much more feasible for taking a very large group of people to the event destination as you can fit more people onto a coach which would give the opportunity for the event trip to benefit more students as it would allow more people to attend the trip event. After the discussion, we both chose to go away and do our own independent research on transport to our chosen options for events/trips to see what we can come up with in order to find the overall most feasible method of transport for our event/trip.

Diary Entry

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 - I completed my detailed research on The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, describing how the event would be planned out and how feasible this tourist destination would be as an event for this project. I gathered additional information on contact details, cost/price, feasibility, activities, best time in the year to plan this visit, appropriate shows/productions/plays for the chosen target audience of students, discussed using questionnaire to chose which performance would be most appropriate and beneficial to students,  added information on group bookings and benefits from booking as a group, screen shots, options for workshops and resources and detailed information from the West Yorkshire Playhouse's official website along with some comparisons to other similar tourist destinations.

Planning a trip to The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds..

We would have our event in the middle of October as this would give us enough time to plan the trip successfully, would allow students enough time to save up the money for the trip, would be at a sensible time in the academic year as its out the way of exam periods and would be off peak season and would therefore allow the trip to run at a cheaper cost.

Whats going on @ The West Yorkshire Playhouse during the time of the intended visit (Mid October/October)? Shows/Productions/performances/events.

  ^^Above is a Screen Shot from the West Yorkshire Playhouses official website which show's what's on during the period of the intended visit/trip - Mid October/October. It also gives brief yet clear information about the productions plays, when there running and there cost. The three main productions/plays running at the time of the intended visit are:

-'Sweeny Todd-The Demond Barber of Sleet Street'

-'My Generation'

-'Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play'

'Charley and Lola's Extremely New Play' is targeted at younger children and therefore is unlikely to be enjoyable, relevant or beneficial to the college students of whom the event/trip is intended for unless they are studying children's theatre by any chance. However both 'Sweeny Todd - The Demon of Sleet Street' and 'My Generation' are both of appropriate content and target audiences which would suit and be understood clearly by College Students, as they would be able to relate to them. They could both also be relevant and beneficial to students studies, dependent on what there studying in particular. To make the event/trip relevant and beneficial we can produce and send out a questionnaire to appropriate subject teachers/students to find out which play/productions would be most beneficial to students from relevant subject areas (drama and theatre studies, performing arts, English Literature  English Language, Music, Dance, History) as previously mentioned and discussed by me and Domanic. This would be an effective way to figure out which type of show/play/production would be most appropriate, relevant and beneficial to particular students at Wyke 6th Form College.

Both productions/plays 'Sweeny Todd-The Demon of Fleet Street' and 'My Generation' cost from £12-£28 which is relativity cheap for a Theatre Ticket. When booking as a group and for students who are classed as concessions we would also get discounts which means the cost of each ticket would be closer to the £12 mark, making this trip/event affordable and feasible for the Student Target Customer this event/trip is intended for (especially with students typically having a low income and not a lot of money to spend on luxuries like trips and events).

October, in must Theatres, is typically not the predominant 'Theatre Season' and therefore it may be a possibility to consider the months surrounding October - both September and November which may open up more options to which shows/events we can take a trip of Students to see. Both November and September are also sensible months in the year for a Theatre Trip/Event as there out the way of major exam periods and won't cause much disruption to academic learning. Also, many Theatre productions/shows run on Evenings and Weekends which leaves the possibility of Students not having to miss and College Lessons or learning at all so they won't fall behind, making this Theatre Trip/Event even more feasible.

Main Productions/Plays running in September at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds are listed below (print screen/image), information given directly from the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Web Page:

     ^^Plays/Productions on during September at The West Yorkshire Playhouse are..

-The Secret Agent

-Sweeny Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

-A Midsummer Nights Dream

-The Ugly Sisters

-Jumpers for Goalposts

^^The content of all these plays would be appropriate, interesting and relevant to many Students, which is essential as this trip/event is targeted towards the Customers of College Students. 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' particularly stands out to me as something that could be relevant and benificial to many different types of Students as for example English Students Study Shakespeare, Its a piece of theatre and a Performance and is therefore relevant to Drama and Theatre Studies and Performing Arts Students and its also relevant to dance students as its A Dance Theatre piece will professional dancers form the Northern Ballet. However many of the other plays in September at the West Yorkshire Playhouse could also be relevant and beneficial to a range of different Students studies. The type of Theatre Performance we take students to go and see would depend on the feedback of questionnaires and meetings with relevant subject teachers/students to establish the most appropriate production/play to take Students to and see as part of a Theatre trip/event.

Main Productions/Plays running in November at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds are listed below (print screen/image), information given directly from the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Web Page:

    ^^Above shows the productions/plays of at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in November, information taken directly from there official website, such as:

-The Jungle Book

-On the Other Hand

-1984

-The Letter

-Mark Thomas - 100 Acts of Minor Dissent

-Beauty and The Beast

-Footloose

-Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play

-Russell Kane - Smallness

^^ In November, it can clearly be seen that there are three times as many productions/ plays/ shows available to see than there is in the month of October, when the event/trip was originally intended to run. It would therefore be worth considering putting the event/trip back to November as it would leave a lot more choice of productions shows/ plays for Students to go see and therefore is going to more likely be relevant and beneficial to student study. As in November there are a variety of performances available to watch from classic plays to comedy to pantomimes to children's theatre to musical to historical plays, there's bound to be something that will be relevant and beneficial to Student Study. There is also the possibility of combining seeing a matinee (afternoon) show with a evening show which would allow students to see more stuff, make the most of there trip, be more educational and allow them to make comparisons and understand the depths of theatre more. The tickets also start from £12 which a relatively cheap for a theatre ticket with added concessions for students and discounts for group visitors making the trip/event overall more affordable and feasible for students.

Also.. Taking Students for a Theatre trip/event in September would have the benefit of helping Students prepare them for the course ahead of them and taking students for a trip in November/End of November would have the benefits of acting as an enjoyable but educational Christmas Treat

Here is specific information/research on Group Bookings at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from there official website (screen shots) giving details of the discounts, benefits and advantages you can receive from making a group booking with them which makes a trip/event at the West Yorkshire Playhouse much easier, cheaper and beneficial:

             ^^Contact details are also made clear above which will allow us to easily make a group          booking with the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

There are also food and drink facilities on sight at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, information as this are given below as shown on there official web site:

         ^^This allows us to make more of the visit, allowing students the chance to have a pre-show meal or buy sweets, ice-scream, cold drinks or hot drinks to take in with them while they watch the performance/show/play/production, making the trip more feasible.


Below is more information provided by the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Website about Group Visits, more specifically about School Visits, information that is also relevant to College Student visits. Such as information on prices discounts, resources and work shops that could help make this trip/event more enjoyable, interesting  relevant  educational, beneficial  worth while, affordable and feasible....

Diary Enrty

Monday 1st July 2013 - I started to develop my research on the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds by doing more detailed research on how this trip/event would work and be planned for the travel and tourism events project. I began developing further information on how feasible this trip would be and gathered research on the best time period of the intended visit, what shows/productions/plays/performances were on at the time of the intended visit, prices, cost, suitable activities for the target customer for this trip/event -students and the general feasibility of running this particular trip/event.

Diary Entry

Sunday 30th June 2013 - I started doing some poignant, detailed base research on West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds to find out how feasible a trip/event from Wyke 6th Form College, Hull to the West Yorkshire Playhouse would be for a group of Students. I started by researching its appearance, images, seating plan, website, contact detail, location, travel and the most feasible way to get to this tourist destination with a conclusion of its feasibility of access/travel compared to both The Lowry Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds -Information, Location, travel, Appearance, Contact Details....

The Appearence of the West Yorkshire Playhouse (images)

Outside the West Yorkshire Playhouse at Night....




Outside the West Yorkshire Playhouse during the Day Time....



Close up of the outside of the West Yorkshire Playhouse....





Close up of Entrance to the West Yorkshire Playhouse at Night....




Inside The West Yorkshire Playhouse - Seating....





West Yorkshire Playhouse Seating Plan....




Address of The West Yorkshire Playhouse:
West Yorkshire Playhouse
Playhouse Square,
Quarry Hill,
Leeds,
West Yorkshire,
LS2 7UP


Website of The West Yorkshire Playhouse: www.wyp.org.uk

Hompage of the West Yorkshire Playhouses Official Web Page..

Contact Details of The West Yorkshire Playhouse:

Location of The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds on Google Maps, marked with a red bubble and black 'A'....

^^Above shows the location of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds marked with a black 'B' in a green 

bubble and the location of Wyke 6th Form College, Hull (where the trip would be running from)

 marked with a black 'A' in a green bubble. There is also a thick blue line running between the two

locations which marks the route on this map which would be the quickest, easiest and most feasible

route to travel to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds from Wyke 6th Form College, Hull by road 

(probably by hired coach/ college mini-bus - most feasible and cheapest method of travel for group

visits, dependent on whats available at the time of the visit). Travelling this route through the M62

could take just 1 hour 11 mins or upto around 1 hour 20 mins, depending on the variable factors

of the type of vehicle, traffic, stops and route travelled.

^^Above shows the location of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds marked with a black 'B' in a green 

bubble and the location of Wyke 6th Form College, Hull (where the trip would be running from)

 marked with a black 'A' in a green bubble. Between the two destinations is a thick blue line, which

on this map marks one of the most direct, easiest and feasible route to travel between these two 

destinations using public transport. This map, research and information suggests it could take from

around 2 hours 11 mins to get there by public transport or upto 2 hours 45 mins dependent on the 

variable factors of which types of public transport are used, what trains are running at the time and

what type of public transport would be most feasible, cheapest and easiest. Travelling by public 

transport could therefore take around twice as long as it could take just 1 hour 11 mins if travelling

by road either by bus, coach or mini-bus (dependent o availability). Public transport also typically costs

a lot of money especially using the trains which are the most direct route, this could also have health

and safety implications and a lot of messing about as it could lead to a lot of swapping and changing

between different modes of transport. Students typically have less money that most other groups of

people and therefore many may not be able to afford the cost of the trip/event if travelling via public 

transport. Therefore overall if we were to do this as an even/trip it would be more feasible to travel

to this destination by road, either by a hired college and college mini-buses, as it would work out 

cheaper, easier, more convenient, safer, quicker, more direct and more affordable for students 

(the target customers this particular trip is aimed at).


The Overall distance from Wyke 6th Form College, Hull to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds is 

approximately around 67.5 miles/101.4 km when travelling by road. This makes The West Yorkshire

Playhouse in Leeds much closer to Wyke 6th Form College, Hull than both the Lowry Theatre in

Salford and The Globe Theatre (Shakespeare) in London. Therefore a trip/event for students from

Wyke 6th Form College to The West Yorkshire Playhouse could work out much more feasible than

a trip/event to The Lowry Theatre or The Globe Theatre as its closer, easier to get too, more direct

to get to, could work out cheaper and more affordable and would allow students a longer amount of time

to spend in Leeds and The West Yorkshire Playhouse.