Yesterday I spent the whole day interviewing people for the next round of WalesLab - at some point I was asked about how the current projects were going  so I thought I'd take this opportunity to say what's been going on.

In January we embarked on a new development for WalesLab, where a targeted call was made to encourage activity in a particular area: Butetown. This is part of a new way of working across the company where we're exploring the ideas of residency in our work;  with residency periods in Angelsey, Treorchy, Tokyo, following on from Butetown this spring. This doesn't necesarily mean that all the work happens at the same time - in fact most of these projects are just getting going now - and I thought it would be good to give you a brief flavour of them:

• Wibidi, A Wibidi Musical (working title)

  Wibidi Will spend two weeks doing research & development on a multimedia musical about the history of amateur boxing in South Wales.

• Geneya Parris,  Ashley Parris & Tom Veasey , SEEN but not HEARD

  Seen but not Heard is a silent theatrical journey, exploring events that shocked Cardiff and the UK. It explores the path of three young men who were wrongly convicted of a murder they did not commit, in one of the UK's most notorious miscarriages of justice.
  
  Geneya, Ashley & Tom will work with a choreographer & three performers to start to explore the way they tell this personal story.

• Our Mothers were Sisters, Wella Corria, Laila Mohamed Mason & Louise Osborn

  There’s some that would never believe that we are related - different colours, different religions and ethnic ‘types’ - but our feisty, funny, beautiful Mothers were sisters and in the docks, historically, this mix of ethnicity and culture has united us and made Tiger Bay the unique place that it was. We passionately want to share our stories – especially now, when new misunderstandings are arising, not previously experienced.

  Wella, Laila & Louise will work together for a week to beging to explore their stories and how to share those with the audience.

• Aftaag Legacy, Said Dualeh & Mohammed Dualeh 

  Aftaag Legacy is a documentary exploring the life of Said & Mohammed's grandfather, a man referred to as been the founding father of Somali politics in Wales.

  Said & Mohammed wills spend a week researching  and recording interviews in Cardiff and London.

• Last Words, Anthony Brito

  'Last Words' is a production performance bringing the memories and views of the very elderly of Butetown Tiger Bay to the public stage. Anthony will spend two weeks interviewing elder residents of Butetown and developing ideas for his new play.

Alongside these projects which are just getting going it's been great to see a couple of the projects that began last year have public outings including: 

• A six hour durational performance of good cop bad cop's In Conversation / Mewn Sgwrs’ (good cop bad cop vs cleverbot)... a piece that grew out of the work the company did in the first round of WalesLab

Tracy Harris' Lost. Found. Stolen. had it's first performance at Camden People's Theatre as part of the Sprint Festival. The piece began at last  years summercamp, and had further development time this year

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• Lowri Jenkins Performed To London Love Me at Rich Mix in February. The project began at last years Pollinate summercamp.

• Last but not least The Fear of Breathing, which was developed through WalesLab last year, is going to be presented in tokyo at the Akasaka Red Theatre this November.

If you want to be kept up to date on the current WalesLab projects, find out first which projects were supporting from yesterdays interviews or know when applications for the summercamp open join the group,