National Theatre Wales Community

National Theatre Wales's Blog (213)

Barmouth Blog

Last night, a walk across Barmouth railway bridge yiedled this stunning 'red sky at night' view. Earlier there was rain and rainbows, but today, for Monday of this intensive rehearsal week, with all of the participating artists working in nooks and crannies throughout this seaside town, the sun obliged. Marc's plan for his 'performance tour' of the town is a wonder to listen to, with semaphore, French sailors, fruit stands, Rita Hayworth, lilo… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on June 14, 2010 at 11:00 — 4 Comments

Shanghai Blog

It’s Saturday morning and I’ve just finished a week-long directing masterclass at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

I was in Shanghai once before, in 1999. Even then you could feel the futuristic energy of the city seeping through every newly laid multi-lane highway, in the sweat of every rushing body. Now, as we all know, the future has arrived. Shanghai makes Manhattan look like a history lesson. Here space age fantasy towers wink across… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on June 5, 2010 at 3:02 — No Comments

Giant Inflatable Rocket!

Some visitors to this site will know Lesa Dryburgh - NTW's brilliant communications consultant, who helped us with all our ideas around marketing and building the National Theatre Wales Community. What you may not know is that she has a secret career as an Air Force Commander. All is revealed… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on April 26, 2010 at 1:23 — 3 Comments

Hitting a Stride

It's Friday morning and I'm on the train to Swansea. Shelf Life, aka NTW02, is in the middle of tech rehearsals and I'm planning a morning of sitting at the back of Swansea library being supportive. Last night the introduction to the show was being worked on - the WNO 'choir of librarians' outside the brick hulk of the library, sporting red umbrellas and singing in the rain. They are going to be wonderful. Peter Swaffer Reynolds' music weaves us into the world of the play with lyricism, humour… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on April 1, 2010 at 22:30 — No Comments

Phew, Hurrah, and Off We Go

It's Wednesday morning and I've staggered out of bed after a late night in Blaengarw Workmen's Hall. It's been an extraordinary few days: the tension and excitement of production week last week for A Good Night Out in the Valleys - the intense focus on the smallest points of rhythm in the staging - the tiny, unnoticed elements that could make all the difference; then the dress rehearsals (including one attended by two hundred pupils from Blackwood Comprehensive, a nerve-racking but ultimately… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on March 16, 2010 at 22:30 — 2 Comments

Multi-Tasking, Isn't It?

One of my favourite details in Alan Harris's play, A Good Night Out in the Valleys (Go as You Please), which opens for preview on Thursday, is that everyone and everything 'doubles up'. The idea came about in two ways. When we were running a workshop in Ammanford Miners Institute (with the fabulous Mess Up the Mess youth theatre) as part of the research for the show, we noticed that a lot of the local shops seemed to be doing a 'two in one' kind of business - the first one we noticed was… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on March 7, 2010 at 0:30 — 1 Comment

Paul Colley

Like many people, I've been a bit in shock for the past week at the news of the sudden and unexpected death of Paul Colley.

I worked with Paul for at Contact in Manchester when we were re-launching the building and the company after a big renovation and years of closure. Paul had worked at the old Contact Theatre and brought a great passion for and love of repertory theatre to our new, rather untraditional model. But he was also a man who embraced and loved challenges, and he quickly… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on February 27, 2010 at 6:30 — No Comments

Model Boxes and Motorways

It's 10.55 at the NTW office and people are gathering for the presentation of the set design for A Good Night Out in the Valleys. On Friday, Alan delivered a second draft of the script, which I read over the weekend. I'm genuinely very pleased with how it's looking. The first draft already did a great job of catching the spirit of the stories we were told when we did all of our workshops and chats in the Valleys in the autumn. It's full of surreal Valleys energy - with a great sense of language… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on January 25, 2010 at 0:13 — No Comments

Opportunities for 6 Emerging Directors to be part of our Launch Year Shows

National Theatre Wales is keen to foster new directing talent. We believe that one of the most effective ways to develop as a director is by spending time in the rehearsal room observing and supporting more experienced individuals. Therefore, during our launch year of work, we are offering opportunities for emerging directors to become involved in six of our shows.

Each emerging director will be given an all-in fee of £2,000 (to include any travel and accommodation costs you incur)… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on December 15, 2009 at 9:25 — 10 Comments

Casting Madness

So suddenly we are in the midst of casting three shows! With auditions this week in full swing for The Devil Inside Him, Shelf Life, and A Good Night Out in the Valleys, our upcoming year of productions is starting to feel very real indeed. Very few offers yet, as we in the midst, but I spent the day today with Elen Bowman meeting some fantastic Welsh actors, and felt so exhilarated by the depth and range of talent. We all know there are a lot of good Welsh actors, but to see so many one after… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on December 15, 2009 at 9:00 — 1 Comment

Crumbling Walls and Stubborn Halls

The morning after the launch before. November the 9th, 2009. I headed back to the Valleys. With writer Alan, trusty intern Hannah and a band of merry actors (Amy, Jess, JP and Olly), we were rapid-staging and trying out some of the stories that we’d gathered and dreamed up during almost two months of visits and workshops in and around the Valleys Miners Institutes. Alan had been off writing for just around a week, and I got his script just before the launch – I ended up reading it in a radio… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on November 21, 2009 at 8:30 — 2 Comments

Hurrah! (And Phew!)

Okay, I'll admit it. While I was pretty confident that we had a good programme to announce - which is of course the only thing that REALLY matters - this morning I was wishing I'd never uttered the words, 'Let's do it live online!'

So many things could have gone wrong. But somehow they didn't. We saw Mathilde live from Snowdon (possibly the funniest moment of the day). The young people of Bridgend were inspiring, and Lucy and I managed to get all the shows in the right order. Even… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on November 5, 2009 at 11:51 — 20 Comments

Here We Go!

So, here we are, November the 5th and the launch - online - of the first year's programme for National Theatre Wales. Log on at 12.30 at nationaltheatrewales.org for news of all the shows from March 2010 to April 2011 (or community.nationaltheatrewales.org if you want to chat along too) .

We hope that you will be as excited as we are by this rich and varied programme - it's going to be a lot of work to pull off all these shows - but it's going to be well worth it. There will be new… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on November 4, 2009 at 11:30 — 4 Comments

Countdown to the Big Bang

It’s just a week and a bit now until November 5, when we’ll be announcing the first year’s programme for National Theatre Wales. If you are wondering where your party invite is, it’s coming this week, but it’s not for your usual kind of party! In line with our digital, eco-friendly approach, our season launch will be an online event – with everything announced in a livecast at nationaltheatrewales.org at 12.30 on the 5th. We’ll be doing the… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on October 25, 2009 at 6:00 — 14 Comments

1,000 and Rising

Welcome to Jonny Weir, our 1,000th member on the National Theatre Wales online community - and while we're at it to Alwyn James Fletcher, who leads of the next team as number 1001. As we head towards the announcement of our first year's programme on November 5, it's great to have such a grand band of supporters and fellow theatre makers to help us along on this extraordinary adventure.

On November 5, things will change a little. There will be a full website at this address with… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on October 6, 2009 at 12:30 — No Comments

Artistic Director in Car Driving Shock

Those of you who know me reasonably well will also know that I have a long-nurtured fear of driving. I passed my test at the age of 21, but in the intervening years lack of practice (exacerbated by 9 years in New York - why drive when you can hail a cab - okay, I couldn't usually afford to take a cab when I lived in New York, but the subway is fab - remind me to tell you the story of when I was locked in jail for jumping a turnstile one day....)

You see how quickly I like to get away… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on October 3, 2009 at 11:00 — 4 Comments

Tipping Point

Just back from Tipping Point - the annual get together for artists and scientists engaged with the issue of climate change. I have been meaning to go for the last couple of years, but this time, with National Theatre Wales about to enter its launch year, it seemed particularly important to take this moment to reflect on how what we do can impact on the climate.

There were two overall areas that people in the arts were looking at:

- How do we minimise the negative environmental… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on September 14, 2009 at 11:00 — 9 Comments

Loss of a Great Man

I received the news this morning that Noel Greig had passed away. Many people of my generation and older will know Noel as a significant writer and director, who changed British Theatre, and perhaps British society, when he founded the hugely influential theatre company Gay Sweatshop in the 1970s. In later years Noel became known for his extraordinary work as a teacher. His playwriting workshops were the stuff of legend, and his book 'Playwriting', published by Routledge in 2005 is one of the… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on September 9, 2009 at 12:30 — 6 Comments

Edinburgh, Sue and a bit of sun too

At the end of a manic week in Edinburgh the grand news is that after Deepcut's success last year you g Welsh artist Dafydd James and colaborator Ben lewis have one one of the fringe's major awards as the best music theatre show for their gorgeously deranged, musically masterful and very funny indeed production My Name is Sue at the Total Theare Awards. As one of the judges I wish I could say I fought through Twelve Angry Men style odds to get this righteous result but in fact, despite strong… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on August 28, 2009 at 3:50 — 5 Comments

Feisty Old Ladies

Two of my most interesting theatre outings in recent weeks have been to shows by theatre legends - featuring some very feisty ladies of a certain age. We often hear about the lack of good parts for older actresses (other than Judi Dench), and it's no doubt true. But in Peter Gill's new play, Another Door Closed at Bath Theatre Royal, and… Continue

Added by National Theatre Wales on August 22, 2009 at 7:48 — 2 Comments