New Digital Commissions
We’re delighted to be working with the team at National Theatre Wales, and in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts, to commission the theatre artists of Wales to make live theatre in digital spaces during the ongoing lockdown. The theatre artists of Wales were invited to come up with innovative, exciting and human responses to this challenge and help audiences, communities and their theatre makers to come together whilst we are all kept apart. Alongside National Theatre Wales we will work with these artists to develop and present their work over the coming months.
The successful artists in the third round of applications are: Karen Owen and Rhys Slade-Jones. More information about these projects available below.
Pull Up a Pew
by Karen Owen
with Maggie Ogunbanwo
Two friends, a half-hour journey, a world of memories – all from behind masks during a global pandemic.
Join author and poet Karen Owen as she boards a bus and sets out on a journey from her home, and the street where she grew up, to the clock in Bangor city centre. Maggie Ogunbanwo will join Karen on her personal pilgrimage; originally from Lagos, Nigeria, Maggie runs her successful food business from The Red Lion in Penygroes.
The journey itself only takes about half an hour, but it encompasses Karen’s whole life – from early childhood to her university years, passing the hospital and pubs – all speeding past as Karen and Maggie discuss their different roots and life experiences… about love, belonging, racism and forgiveness.
Pull Up a Pew
by Rhys Slade-Jones
In Pull Up A Pew, Rhys Slade-Jones will spend five days walking a section of Offa’s Dyke, carrying with them two chairs adorned with hand-crocheted covers. These chairs will be thrones. Totems offered to those who were denied a funeral service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Along their journey Rhys will explore the nature and rituals of grief and the ways in which traditional crafting skills, handed down through the generations, connect us to our past and our ancestors.
The successful artists in the second round of applications were: Er Cof, Jessie Brett, and Anna Poole and Kelly Jones.
More information about the second round projects below.
Er Cofid 19
by Er Cof
A Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and National Theatre Wales production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
4 Friends. 6 Hours. 100s of Words. This is Er Cofid 19.
From Zoom quizzes to on-line fitness workouts, from spare room offices to ‘alternative’ versions of Calon Lân – this is our new normal.
In the first Welsh-language digital performance of its kind, join four friends in lockdown, messing around and shooting the breeze in the name of killing time. Come and go (and come back again!) – whilst sitting in the garden, cooking tea or filling the bath. The four will be there for you, providing six hours of entertainment and banality in this theatrical marathon.
Room To Escape
by Kelly Jones and Anna Poole
A National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
A knock on your door…
The clatter of your letterbox…
A box arrives…
Inside, a magical theatrical world waits for you to play and create.
Mysterious boxes are dropping through the letterboxes of four families’ homes across Wales. Inside, they will find the ingredients to transform their homes into a magical theatrical space. Join us to discover what happens next.
Working with theatre makers Anna and Kelly and their collaborators, four families will bring their very own, tailor-made stories to life, performing them for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own home in a live, online performance.
Humans Move
by Jessie Brett
A National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
Humans move, and are moved.
Bringing together an integrated company of disabled and non-disabled dancers from Wales, Ethiopia, England and Spain, Humans Move will explore how we hold fast to our sense of self, when the world around us is so uncertain and shifting…
Welsh choreographer Jessie splits her time between Wales and Ethiopia, and brings people from both cultures together through her work. While they are separated – physically and geographically – Jessie and her performers will connect in movement through a digital space, expanding our horizons as we watch them move, allowing us to connect all our isolated worlds through the screen, and remember what fundamentally makes us human.
The successful artists in the first round of applications were Eddie Ladd, Emily Laurens, and Justin Teddy Cliffe. More information about those projects is available below.
Fy Ynys Las
by Eddie Ladd
A Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and National Theatre Wales production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
There’s no place like home. But how well do we really know this special place?
During the lockdown, acclaimed artist and performer Eddie Ladd has moved home to live with her mam on the farm where she grew up – Maesglas. In every nook and cranny of this wonderful spot – the farmhouse, the cowshed, the farmyard and the potato shed – Eddie revisits her family history, stories from the local community and memories of her own long and varied career.
Dream a Little Dream for Me
by Emily Laurens
A National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
Emily Laurens wants your lockdown dreams.
Within a tiny puppet booth, watch as dreams collected from you, the audience, are brought to life life – death defying chases, monstrous transmogrification and the warping of time and space – rendered with simple and beautiful paint, card and improvised live music and sound.
Life Coach
by Justin Teddy Cliffe
A National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru production in partnership with BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Arts
LIFE COACH is a new immersive, digital theatre experience, which takes a sardonic exploration through the modern pop-culture of online self-help gurus. Guided by three extraordinary Life Coaches, you are invited to play along live over a five-day course, or take your seat as an observer for the intro workshop and final live seminar, where the results of the guru’s promise of true, lifelong happiness and betterment play out…