As you probably know, NTW is a pretty small organisation doing some pretty big work.  To help us stay organised and plan for the future, we're recruiting a new role - Director of Administration and Development.  The job does what it says on the can - and it's a senior role working alongside me and Lucy.  We're really excited about recruiting this new role.  Do take a look yourself or pass the info on to anyone who looks like a good candidate.  Here's the info:

Director of…

A very happy new year indeed to everyone who is part of the National Theatre Wales community.  It's been an extraordinary year for all of us - from the scale and spirit of that Sunday night at a roundabout in Port Talbot when 12,000 people turned up to see the heartstopping final moments of The Passion, to the storming of Edinburgh by Welsh Theatre companies including both our national theatres, the great Welsh talent behind Muscle, and many new and smaller companies proudly strutting their…

Working on The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning  - arguably NTW's most overtly political piece of theatre to date, I've been asking myself 'What is political theatre today?'  Is it a question of subject-matter - a campaigning play bringing an urgent issue to people's attention via a familiar medium.  Or is it as Brecht, Piscator and the 'real' John McGrath of 7:84 Theatre would have it, equally a matter of form - the shape in which a theatre piece comes - the ways in which it causes us to…

A jetlagged Monday morning after flying back from Tokyo yesterday.  Gary Owen and I had been invited over to research a possible project as guests of the wonderful New National Theatre.  I'd never been but had often dreamed of Tokyo.  My Tokyo was mainly in my mind - coming from writers such as Murakhami and Oe more than TV or even film.  But like New York, Tokyo is burned…

Hi All, Peter Brook wasn't able to attend the awards held in his name this year (at which NTW was the proud recipient of the Dan Crawford Award for Innovation), but he sent along a speech that you might be interested in:

EMPTY SPACE 2011

Sorry, no jokes this time – it’s serious …  The past is past and I’m never  interested in going back on it.  But there are always exceptions.

Suddenly the title of an article that I wrote long, long ago springs into life.  It was…

Hot on the heels of Michael Sheen and Bill Mitchell's Best Director award for NTW13 The Passion on Sunday, and The Observer's accolade this weekend that 'National Theatre Wales is one of the best things to happen to the stage in the past five years', today NTW was awarded the Dan Crawford Innovation Award at the Peter Brook/Empty Space Awards for our entire first year's programme.

It's wonderful to receive this award celebrating all of the artists and production teams who made our…

An inspiring day on Friday visiting Gillian Clarke on her farm near Aberaeron.  We talked of 'poetry and the land' as key to Welsh artistic tradition - and to our work at NTW.  We raised a cup of coffee to Kaite O'Reilly and Owen Sheers - examples of how poetry and theatre can step with a bold iambic foot into each others' worlds.  And we talked about young farmers in West Wales and young rappers on the streets of Cardiff and Manchester keeping poetry alive through the thrill of out-rhyming…

Sometimes time collapses.  Warsaw was the first place I ever went outside of Britain. I was twenty one years old and had never flown - never had the money.  But i had a job offer in a university in the far east of Poland, and was obsessed with Polish theatre, and wanted to change the world, so why not get on a plane with about £100 and a teach yourself Polish book, and a letter of invitation, and go and live behind the Iron Curtain for a year.  The plane flew from Heathrow to Warsaw, at the…

I have sent the following email to relevant members of the Kosovon government and press.  It is written from a personal perspective, but I feel that it represents the overwhelming view of people in this community.  I'm also attaching Jeton Neziraj's original email calling for action at the bottom for anyone who didn't see this.  Let's hope that Eid sees a change of spirit in the Kosovon government!

Dear Sirs,



It is with great distress that we at National Theatre…

It's just over 2 years since we set up our online community at National Theatre Wales and yesterday we passed the benchmark of 3,000 members.  Congratulations to Laura Free our 3,00th member. 

Laura, the prize for you is quite special.  We have commissioned a limited edition set of love spoons to be made from the cross that featured in our production of The Passion.  Each spoon will be individually carved and should be a real collector's item.  To claim your prize, contact…

Hi All, the excellent Sonja Linden of the pioneering Ice and Fire Theatre Co has picked up our campaign and framed an online petition on behalf of all UK Theatre Makers.  Thank you Sonja!  We can all sign the petition here

Please add your names, even if you signed the letter already (especially if you did in fact) It's an online petition so I…

The following letter went to The Western Mail and The Guardian today.  Copies will follow to the Heritage Ministry of the Welsh Government and the Israeli Embassy in London.  Many thanks to all who have supported this small but important attempt to speak up for the role of theatre in one of the world's most difficult situations.  I hope that our friends and colleagues in Jenin will be heartened to know that we hold them in our hearts.

Open Letter from the Theatre Makers of…

Below is a draft of an open letter from theatre makers in Wales relating to the recent attack on Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp, where our colleague Jacob Gough is general manager. Please feel free to add your signature through the comment box below, and/or to comment on the draft. The goal is to send this off by the end of next week to key Welsh and UK newspapers, the Welsh Minister for Heritage, and the Israeli Embassy in London. This is a small gesture of solidarity on our…

We just received this news from Jacob Gough (production manager on Outdoors and Village Social, and a member of Freedom Theatre in Jenin):

Last night at 3am in the morning the Freedom Theatre was attacked by the Israeli Army and members of the theatre were arrested from their homes.



Here's one of many…

Thanks to everyone who got in touch to put their names in the hat for the spare room in the NTW apartment over the weekend of the Edgelands Flash Conference in Edinburgh.

Edgelands is an event being organised by Forest Fringe - the truly excellent innovators behind the revival of the free strand of the Edinburgh Festival, and general purveyors of good…

The truly excellent Forest Fringe gang (who produce a free festival at the Forest Cafe in Edinburgh every year) are also presenting a 'flash conference' this year at the venue on 21 August. 

In their words it's a chance 'to ask daring questions and suggest implausible answers. To share a spirit of generosity and a galvanising sense of hope; that despite or perhaps because of the political,…

We're super-proud to let everyone know that the Chair of our board, Phil George, who set up National Theatre Wales (and gave us all our jobs!!) has deservedly won the Inspire Wales Award for Arts Media and Creative Industry. Here's more details. 

Phil has been the steady hand and far-seeing eye behind NTW from the very start and it's a real joy to…

It really is amazing to think that tonight we launch the second year of National Theatre Wales.  Our last launch - in November 2009, seems an age ago, and also yesterday!

Back then there was a certain crazy thrill to saying 'We'll do one show a month every month for a year, each one in a different place, each taking a different approach to theatre.' It seemed both a bit insane and exhilerating.  And they we'd add 'Plus one spectacular finale!' - not quite imagining what we…