TEAM's Year 2 of activity has now been running for the last 6 months in Pembrokeshire and what a 6 months it has been!

We have been been working with communities around the county supporting local groups and individuals with a variety of different events and activities.

We have held a workshop at the POINT youth centre in Fishguard, giving the children the chance to become creative and working with local artist Pip Lewis. There they made fish masks and held a procession through the streets of Fishguard ending at the cannons overlooking Lower Town. During the process we were able to generate conversations with the children about what their local environment meant to them. 

During a National Trust event, Festival of the Sea, NTW TEAM provided a children's show telling the tale of Cantre Gwaelod, the story of the sea rising up and flooding a town because the villagers were too busy partying and having a good time to notice the oncoming storm; a story which in today's climate crisis is more relevant then ever. This was a collaborative piece which involved local artists from Pembrokeshire, TEAM Panel members Angharad Price, Tom Mallitte, local poet Kerry Steed and Naomi Chiffi. The piece used elements of clowning, storytelling, music and audience interaction from the children.

The third piece involved working with Pembroke based charity POD (Pembroke Open Doors) who support refugee families who have moved to the area. I got to meet and speak with these families, they were all so welcoming and together we came up with the idea of supporting them at an event which they were holding for National Refugee Week. Leading up to the event we recorded the stories of two of the volunteers of POD and one of the families who told us about the impact that the war has had on the environment & landscape of Syria and the journey which they took to Pembroke. At the event the families provided a delicious mix of Middle Eastern food and we provided a map of the of the world and asked the attendees to share their journey to Pembroke. This generated some great conversations with individuals about where they came from and their homelands. What amazed me most was the diverse community that was there who wanted to share their stories. 

As part of the Fly the Flag initiative, celebrating the 70 years of the signing of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, TEAM Panel members created short films in collaboration with Donmar Warehouse, where they spoke about human rights and what this means to them. Film maker Jack Abbott worked with Year 7 at Greenhill School, Tenby, where the children wrote, directed and starred in their own film around the issues of human rights. In Manorbier the choir originally formed by NTW TEAM for our Tenby production, Tide Whisperer, created their own flag which was flown over the castle whilst the official flag designed by Ai WeiWei was flown over Pembroke Castle.  Check out all of this activity on the NTW website.

On 4th July we had a brilliant night at The Druidstone Hotel for our NTW TEAM Open Mic night with Span Arts. Such a wide variety of super-talented acts, all in celebration of the environment & what a perfect sunset to top it all off too! Thank you so much to all involved.

So, what will be happening in the next half of the year?

We will continue to work with individuals and community groups within Pembrokeshire, around the themes of climate change, the environment and nature. We will explore the effect that the environment has on us, how we use it and what it means to us as a community, which, whilst disparate, is linked through our collective appreciation of the beauty of the environment around us. Pembrokeshire as a whole is intrinsically linked with care of and respect for the environment, which is why you have chosen next year's NTW TEAM show to be based around these themes, the beneficial effects the environment can have on our physical and mental health and how we must endeavour to protect it. 

Throughout the year we will we will be holding more events and training in order to support the artistic community of Pembrokeshire and spread the word of TEAM creating a legacy of performance, theatre and the arts as a whole within the county.

Keep an eye out on the blogs, Twitter and Facebook for upcoming events. 

Views: 247

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of National Theatre Wales Community to add comments!

Join National Theatre Wales Community

image block identification

© 2024   Created by National Theatre Wales.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service