Well that was a whirlwind of a week.

I travelled up to Anglesey on Train on Friday morning, 5.05am, with crust in my eyes, to get involved in the WalesLab DIY festival that was taking place on the Saturday and Sunday, hoping that the experience of a free spirited creative experience with creative people would set me up ready to direct my first assembly, rehearsals starting on Monday.

With the issue (Energy) already being selected Monday was the first day the cast and crew got together and we had four days to develop and put on a show. For myself and Angharad this wasn’t too much of a problem although we knew it would be hard work, but for the others who had never been involved in or attended an Assembly (although they never said it) I think the prospect was a little daunting. The performers involved were Siwan Llynor, Neil Williams, Simon Holland Roberts, Angharad Evans and Iestyn Lewis.

We spent the first day thinking about Energy, what energy is, what it means to us and what it means to the planet. We each had to create a sculpture, a movement, a poem or anything else that represented energy and explain why it was a representation.

Tuesday we then began to think about an individual piece that each performer would develop for the final show. Four of the performers chose a theme as a staring point, with Neil taking the role of host for the evening. The themes where Mother Earth (Siwan), Time (Angharad), Ideas (Iestyn) and Energy (Simon). We also began to think about what tasks or questions we wanted for the audience.

Wednesday we continued to develop the individual ideas, and once these where developed, not to the finished article, we had our first run through, then our second, then our third, them our fourth.

Thursday, so after three days to make a show from scratch here we where, Llangefni Town Hall, only this time with a few hours to dress and tech the space. For whatever reason I wasn’t anywhere near as nervous as I thought I would be, I think that I had complete faith in the group I was working with. So, dressed, teched and rehearsed we where ready to go. The only nerves I did have vanished when the doors opened a 7pm – we had an audience.