As TEAM Associate I represent West Wales, my role involves promoting the company, introducing people to National Theatre Wales and through TEAM, NTW’s approach to collaborating with communities and getting as many people as possible involved in our work.Through TEAM I am working on the Sound Project which is based in Monkton, Pembrokeshire. 

The Sound Project is a community project about stories of people from Monkton told by someone who thinks they are ‘sound’. In every community there are people regarded as legends or characters, people who think very highly of that certain ‘sound’ person and there always is a story to be told about them.

 

Through various meetings, interviews, many cups of tea and biscuits, I have been collecting stories from the people of Monkton.  A selection of these stories will then be turned into short performances giving the community a chance to see their story taken one step further into stage adaptions. We are also offering writing and performance workshops in order to give the community the opportunity to develop their skills.

So far I have heard some fascinating stories and met some really interesting people. Eddy Woolford (far right) tells us his story of buying a bus, filling it with food and toys to deliver to children in Romania.

Wyn Jenkins (left) told us about a man called Jack House, who could carry a full length telegraph pole on one shoulder and his adventures whilst working for the electricity board.

Margarate Howells shows us a collection of family photo's and tells us a story of an old lady who owned the only record player in the village and on a Sunday evening children would flock to her house to listen to music. 

Last week I attended a coffee morning hosted by Pembroke and Monkton History Society to talk about the project. There was an abundance of cake and lots of friendly faces curious to ask about the project. Old footage of Monkton was shown as well as a collection of old photographs.

Once I had spoken about the project, a series of photographs were displayed for people to talk about and reminisce. There became a domino effect, as one story was told, it would spark off someone else’s imagination, who then would tell their story, reminding someone else of a story they wanted to talk about. It was great to hear so many happy memories from what I could see is such a strong close-knit community.

The aim is to get all generations of the community involved and as I continue to collect stories I will continue to spread the word in order to get more people story telling.  Do you have a story about how heroic your dad was? Or a memory about your neighbour and how they did something really inspiring? Or a story about a relation that made you proud. It could be something so funny that it has become the type story that comes up time and again around the dinner table.

Your story can be as long or as short as you wish and will only take the maximum of 10 minutes of your time. So if you know a certain sound someone from Monkton or know of someone who does, please get in touch via team@nationaltheatrewales.org or give me a call on 07478336114 and we can make arrangements to meet. Looking forward to hearing from you! 

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