Graig Du Theatre Players
Information
The players are in the process of being formed. I will post further updates in the next few days. My intention is to form a community theatre group, with four probable performances a year, to encompass the work of playwrights in the Rhondda as a beginning. Original work will be encouraged. I would like to hear from any members, when I give out further information, if they would be willing to partake in the first staging. This will include actors, actresses, directors,who would be interested in supporting the idea to get valuable experience at the start of their careers. It would be a learning curve for me. I intend staging my play" Sorrow for my Sons" to publicize the group within the next few months. The full version of this play "Painting the Darkness" is to have a performance with the Fluellen Theatre in 2017. The play tells of the mysterious death of William Dillwyn Llewelyn, the eldest son of Sir John Dillwyn Llewelyn, who was found shot dead in the woods of the Penllergare estate on the afternoon of his engagement to Lord Dynevor's daughter in August 1893. The play explores the background to events, the inquest held the following day into his death, and William's friendship with J.Arthur Gibbs, the author of "A Cotswolds Village". I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the late June Lewis-Jones of Fairford, Glos, who helped me considerably with the three-act version of events. After answering my advertisement in her local newspaper, she was intrigued by my discoveries and, as she held Gibbs's diaries in her possession; she was also an author in her own right, she said she would aid me in any way as long as it did not jeopardize her work. June said that I had seen something in the unfolding events that no-one had realized before. Gibbs's strange requiem poem to his dead friend is well worth reading, as is his version, which I believe to be truthful, of the events that took place at Penllergare on the fateful day.
Location: Porth, Rhondda
Members: 10
Latest Activity: Dec 11, 2018
Discussion Forum
Street Singers of the Valleys. Gwillym Pen Pwyll.
The one regret my father had while growing up in Dinas was that he did not pay much attention to the stories that were being told. The stories he did tell me were fascinating to the say the least,…Continue
Tags: Du, Theatre, Players, Graig, Pwyll
Started by Glyndwr Edwards Nov 21, 2015.
Unknown Stories from the Rhondda.
Ebenezer Chapel, pictured above before its demolition in the 1960s, was one of the…Continue
Started by Glyndwr Edwards Nov 17, 2015.
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Comment by Josh Edwards on February 2, 2016 at 10:14
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Here's another curious story for you, Glyn. I was reading Andrew Birkin's biography of J.M.Barrie and there was a picture of a forgotten Welsh actor from the silent era: Gareth Hughes from Llanelli. He was in a still with an actress from an early adaption's of Barrie's works.
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Comment by Glyndwr Edwards on January 31, 2016 at 9:00
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Interesting, Josh. I wonder if it is the same actress who appeared in The Thirty-Nine Steps with Donat? I did not know the other three actors were born in Scotland. Look out for Williamson in The Bofors Gun if you get a chance. Ian Richardson was brilliant in Private Schultz and he played a Scotsman if my memory is correct in a later episode in the series. I had little idea William Squire took over from Burton. Thanks.
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Further information that I gleaned. I had little idea that Ian Richardson, Nicol Williamson, and Dirk Bogarde were born in Scotland. Another surprise was that Edmund Gwenn was born in Wales. I came across the last snippet for Edmund Gwenn in a newspaper item for a John Galsworthy play before the Great War. A Madeleine Carroll was also in the cast! Also, William Squire took over from Burton when he left Camelot.
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Your wallet must be full of mothballs!
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Thanks for your help, Josh. The pointers are invaluable. I will buy you a few pints if the pennies stretch that far. You are probably correct that Owen Jones was uncredited. I have a few things on and this is why it has taken me so long to reply.
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You owe me a pint for all this research, Glyn. Pen Tennyson did direct another film after The Proud Valley and it was called Convoy,1940, starring Clive Brook and John Clements. I did not find a credit for Owen Jones in John Clements's 1939 version of The Four Feathers. He was probably uncredited.
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Further update: the oddly named named Wirt Sikes did write another book about South Wales. One of my mate's mentioned his father read a cracking historical novel years ago set in Wales during the Napoleonic Wars. It was entitled The Illuminati Conspiracy by Richard Rees. The twist in this story is that Nelson was killed by an Irishman at Trafalgar and the bullet is kept at Windsor Castle.
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I would like to welcome everyone who has joined the Graig Du Theatre Players. There has been much interest from playwrights' who have contacted me about what the players will offer and its general purview. The main ideals in the writing of what some people have suggested is a lack of originality. The scenarios, repeated ad nauseam, are about the fashionable ideas forever being spoken of that will lose their potency because of over familiarity. An audience, I believe, needs to be entertained and not be coerced into accepting ideals that appeal to so few. Good writing will attract actors and actresses and I stand by this principle. The other point I mentioned, after one or two enquiries, is not to pin your hopes on one play however good it seems. Always keep another work in draft stage, so you can go back to this and not be disappointed with criticism. There are good playwrights in Wales who have never had an opportunity because the system is biased. I will post further updates soon.
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I came across a forgotten story last week about two cousins who were chemists at Blaenarvon Ironworks and forgot to say. Sydney Thomas and Percy Gilchrist invented a lining that could be placed inside a Bessemer converter during the 1880s.This meant steel could be made from high-phosphorus ore anywhere and Blaenarvon was doomed. Gilchrist died at a young age. I also had a few ideas after watching a magic lantern show. It was very entertaining
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I thought I would add the short screenplay of "The Bloodstone" for those who may be interested in reading it. The story will work either as a graphic novel, which I am working on, or as a short film. I will add my own changes at a later date when the story is completed. In 1854, Tobias Ashworth, the Master of Broad-lands, an estate in Wales, suffers from terrible dreams. A noted polymath, explorer, Ashworth is also an occultist. After a tumulus is excavated on his estate, Ashworth discovers the body of Ambrosius, an ancient chieftain. Clasped in the chieftain's hands is the bloodstone that is the catalyst for what follows. Ashworth's mind disintegrates as he sees into the future. The body he sees on the stairway is his as the past and the future merge. I will post the screenplay as a blog as there is a limit on characters that I just realized.
Pages (108)
- Brook Cottage, Dinas.
- The Dinas Pals'1914.
- Death of Arthur Rees, Appletree, Dinas. 1908.
- Boot Inn, Dinas.
- Dinas Road before the clearance.
- The Prince of Orange pub, Dinas Road
- The Last houses to be demolished in Dinas.
- Inkerman Street, Dinas. "Concretes"
- Bethania Chapel, Dinas Road.
- Gwillym Pen Pwyll's"Ragamuffin Tales"
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