Upcoming Tour Dates
If you've not caught our exceptional new show- HMS Stormus- a wry look at the climate crisis and humanity through the medium of circus theatre, comedy, physical theatre and bilingual storytelling, then get these dates in your diary!
We've only a few performances left this summer, they are at:
July 12th Market Hall, Caernarfon
July 20th Pontio, Bangor. Rhythm Aye
July 21st Big Splash Festival, Newport
August 6th- Eisteddfod Genedlaithol.
Hope to see you there!
This announcement has been a long time coming, but it has been a busy spring. This year I will be making my directing debut with circus theatre extravaganza, HMS Stormus. HMS Stormus is set in a post climate crisis world, it is the year 2827 and the majority of the world is under water. Humans have only survived by living on cruise ships, endlessly traversing the oceans without much hope. Our 3 outlandish former enterainers are desperately trying to carry on with the ships' intenary and are controlled by the mysterious voice of the tannoy.
This is a fun, action packed circus cabaret that showcases the talents of Ellis Grover, Iago Morgan Jones and Daisy Williams. It weaves bilingual text with jaw dropping circus skills. Commissioned by the Welsh Outdoor Arts Consortium, it will be touring festivals the length and breadth of Wales this summer.
It is a big task to write and direct a show, now that it is all coming together, I am enjoying the challenge. I think it will always feel strange not being on stage, but I have an amazing team of performers who bring joy and enthusiasm to every rehearsal. I have also been well supported by the Articulture team, my mentor Gwen Thompson, writing mentor Kate Jones, who is also a prop making genius, and sound designer Daniel Rhys Lawrence. The work in progress showing at Machynlleth Comedy Festival went down storm (pun intended) We are now in our final rehearsals and the show will premier at Awen Trust's Seascapes Festival Porthcawl on June 1st. Click on the link for details, I hope to see you there.
https://awenboxoffice.com/whats-on/seascape-2024/about
Commissioned by the Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium (WOAC), supported by Articulture and the Arts Council of Wales. Comisiynwyd a Chonsortiwm Celfyddydau Awyr Agored Cymru (CCAAC), chefnogwyd gan Articulture Wales a Chyngor Celfyddydau Cymru.
I was at The Circus Village/Yr Pentref Syrcas for 2 projects this spring, a residency with Kitsch n Sync Collective and my own residency with News From Nowhere, a project in development.
This is an idea that I have been working on in different ways for a wee while now. The idea is pretty big compared to my previous work- creating an ensemble narrative circus theatre performance with a bespoke piece of aerial equipment and commuity engagement. As the idea is complex it has been hard to gain support in the form of residencies, many venues simply can't accomodate the equipment. However, the Circus Village had an amazing, can-do team, a whole range of rigs and tents and equipment at their disposal and they were happy to offer us a residency.
The idea is still in its very early stages, the performance is a series of intersecting journey stories that meet in the performance moment, using a unique configuration of aerial equipment to play out that story. This residency focused on the exploration of the equipment, generating ideas and vocabulary under the guidance of Rowan Fae as director. There is still a lot of work to do to bring this idea to fruition, but it felt so good to begin working on it with Daisy Black , Saya Yamaguchi and Maisie Luk. I'd also like to extend my thanks to the whole team at the Circus Village who made it all possible. Watch this space for further developments.
I've been a little disorganised with my news this summer, so, here I am harking back to something that happened earlier in the year, in April in fact. The Circus Village/ Yr Pentref Syrcas is a really great thing that came out of those dark days of the covid pandemic. It is a circus festival organised by a collective of Welsh circus organisations. It was initially created to bring together the circus community after the isolation of the pandemic, for circus performers, teachers, techinicians, directors and students to be able to come together to talk, to train, to explore and create. This year was the second edition and the remit was extended to include a week of residencies and a performance festival.
As well a being there for my own residency (see next news post!) I was lucky enough to be invite down to be a performer/rigger with Kitcsh n Sync Collective, who are a brilliant company who specialise in fusing comedy, contemporary dance and circus in full length shows and walkabout performances.
Bitchcraft is a wry look at the witch trials, religious zealotry and feminie power, combining theatre, contemporary dance, comedy, circus and fire. We spent 5 days developing the ideas and then performed a work in progress show for an invited audience of industry proffessionals. It was tremendous fun, well recieved and, for me an honour to work with Kitsch n Sync for the first time. Being at the Circus Village, surrounded by other companies all working on new performance ideas was also great soul food. I'm looking forward to the next installment, and remember, You can't burn women made of fire.
Howl! Performances have been going well with the show bedding in nicely. We have some more dates coming up before summer comes to an end. If you haven't seen it yet then come along.
Mae perfformiadau wedi bod yn mynd yn dda, a dwi'n mwynhau gwneud y sioe. Mae gennym fwy o ddyddiadau yn ddod i fyny cyn i'r haf ddod i ben. Os nad ydach i weld eto, dewch draw.
Eisteddfod Genedlaithol Cymru 10 & 11 Aug/Awst https://eisteddfod.wales/programme
Awen Trust, Bryngarw Country Park 30 Aug/Awst https://www.bryngarwcountrypark.co.uk/whats-on/
Span Arts, Scolton Park 31 Aug/Awst https://span-arts.org.uk/whats-on/
Commissioned by Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium.
I spent a large part of 2019 in Wales, not visiting family and friends, but working on a show.
Drudwen is a bilingual (Welsh-English) circus theatre show. Written by Kate Driver-Jones for North Wales based company "Cimera" it is a dark and twisted fairytale, that charts the destruction of the natural world by the forces of evil, and the eventual triumph of the reluctant heroine over this evil.
The show was a brilliant challenge for me as a performer, and was a hugely ambitious achievement for the company. It combined circus, theatre, live music, 2 languages and one hell of a story. We toured the length and breadth of Wales,and although it was challenging at times, it was also a lot of fun, the company was lovely and I had a great time.