Ymarferion Estron, Janet Aethwy (Cyfarwyddwr / Director).  Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design.

Shwmai, Janet, mae’n dda cwrdd â chi. Allwch chi ddweud tipyn wrth ein darllenwyr am eich cefndir, os gwelwch chi’n dda?

Shwmai, Guy – dwi’n actor ac yn gyfarwyddwr sydd i’w gweld o bryd i’w gilydd ar yr opera sebon Pobol y Cwm, yn chwarae rhan ditectif lleol. Dwi wedi bod yn actio ers bron i ddeugain mlynedd, ond yn y bum mlynedd ddiwethaf dwi wedi troi at gyfarwyddo. Dwi’n gyfarwyddwr llais ar gyfresi animeiddiedig ar gyfer S4C ac yn gyfarwyddwr nifer o ddramâu un-person ar thema hanesyddol i’w perfformio mewn ysgolion.

Beth ysgogodd chi i gymryd diddordeb mewn Cyfarwyddo ac yn y Celfyddydau?

Yn 2013 cefais gyfle i fynd ar gwrs cyfarwyddo gydag Elen Bowman o’r cwmni Living Pictures, a rhoddodd hynny nifer o sgiliau a chyfleoedd gwerthfawr i mi. Cymerais ran mewn sawl gweithdy, yn amrywio o Meisner a Frantic Assembly i sesiynau sgrifennu gyda Mike Bartlett a Sacha Wares. Mae’r broses greadigol yn rhan annatod o unrhyw gymdeithas ffyniannus, ac mae datblygu sgiliau dramodwyr a llwyfannu eu gwaith yn fy ngalluogi i gyfrannu i’r swyddogaeth honno.

Un o gynlluniau newydd Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru yw Theatr Gen Creu, a fydd yn cefnogi talent, yn datblygu crefft y theatr, ac yn cynnig cyfleoedd unigryw i artistiaid yng Nghymru. Un elfen o’r fenter newydd hon yw darparu cefnogaeth i gyfarwyddwyr newydd. Pam, yn eich barn chi, mae’r fenter yn un bwysig?

Fel un sydd wedi cael budd fy hun o ddilyn cwrs arloesol ar gyfarwyddo, dwi’n llwyr gefnogi unrhyw gymorth sy’n cael ei roi i egin-gyfarwyddwyr.

Cafodd Estron ei llwyfannu’n wreiddiol yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2017. Fydd y cynhyrchiad hwn yn wahanol mewn unrhyw ffordd?

Gan ein bod wedi cael y cyfle hwn i deithio’r gwaith o amgylch Cymru, dydi’r cynhyrchiad yn ei hanfod ddim yn wahanol, ond mae o wedi esblygu, datblygu ac aeddfedu.

Enillodd y dramodydd, Hefin Robinson, y Fedal Ddrama am Estron yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2016. Fel rhywun a chanddi gysylltiad personol â’r gwaith hwn, beth yn eich barn chi oedd wedi apelio at y beirniaid?

Mae gwaith Hefin yn chwareus, yn llawn dychymyg, ac yn wreiddiol. Mae’n mynd i’r afael â gwirionedd anodd gyda chyffyrddiad ysgafn, doniol. Er ei fod yn delio â marwolaeth a cholled, mae’n gwneud hynny fel rhan o gontinwwm bywyd. Mae ei neges yn bositif ac yn ddyrchafol.

Ceri Elen (Han), Janet Aethwy (Cyfarwyddwr / Director). Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design

Bydd y cynhyrchiad yn cynnwys perfformiad mewn Iaith Arwyddion (BSL). Allwch chi ddweud rhagor wrthym am hyn, a pham eich bod o’r farn ei bod yn rhan bwysig o’r hyn rydych yn ei gynnig i gynulleidfaoedd? 

Mae Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru wedi ymrwymo i wneud eu cynyrchiadau’n hygyrch, ac mae darparu perfformiad BSL yn rhan o’r ymrwymiad hwnnw. Mae’r cwmni’n awyddus i sicrhau bod eu cynyrchiadau’n cyrraedd cynulleidfa mor eang â phosib, ac yn ceisio chwalu rhwystrau a allai atal pobl rhag mynychu. Maen nhw’n gweithio gydag arbenigwyr yn y maes – Cathryn McShane fel Dehonglydd Iaith Arwyddion Prydain (BSL) a Jonny Cotsen fel ymgynghorydd – i sicrhau bod y perfformiad arbennig hwn yn cwrdd ag anghenion y gynulleidfa.

Mae Get the Chance yn gweithio i gefnogi ystod eang o aelodau’r cyhoedd i’w galluogi i gael mynediad i ddarpariaeth ddiwylliannol. Ydych chi’n ymwybodol o unrhyw rwystrau i gydraddoldeb ac amrywiaeth sy’n bodoli yng nghyd-destun artistiaid Cymreig neu rai sydd wedi’u lleoli yng Nghymru? 

Rydyn ni’n croesawu’r cyfle i ymestyn ein gwaith i gynulleidfa mor eang ag sy’n bosib. Dylai’r theatr adlewyrchu cymdeithas yn ei holl amrywiaeth.

Pe byddech chi’n gallu ariannu un maes celfyddydol yng Nghymru, pa faes fyddai hwnnw a pham?

Hoffwn weld mwy o gefnogaeth ariannol ar gyfer digwyddiadau cerddoriaeth/celf/drama lleol yn ein cymunedau. Mae cefnogi digwyddiadau byw yn hyrwyddo busnesau bychan mewn trefi ac yn ysgogi teimladau llesol ym mhob un sy’n cymryd rhan.

Beth sy’n eich cyffroi chi ynghylch y celfyddydau yng Nghymru? 

Mae maes y celfyddydau yng Nghymru’n feithrinfa ar gyfer talent ifanc yn ogystal ag yn llwyfan ar gyfer perfformwyr profiadol a hyddysg o safon uchel.

Beth oedd yr un digwyddiad arbennig y gwnaethoch chi ei fwynhau’n ddiweddar, y byddech yn hoffi ei rannu gyda’n darllenwyr?

Yn ddiweddar, cefais bleser mawr yn gwylio Tudur Owen – comedïwr adnabyddus o sir Fôn – yn Theatr y Glowyr, Rhydaman. Dwi’n mawr obeithio y byddwch chithau’n mwynhau eich ymweliad i’r un theatr i weld Estron – sy’n cael ei chyfarwyddo gan Fonwysyn arall.

Diolch yn fawr i chi am eich amser.

Ar daith 19 Ebrill – 19 Mai 2018 On tour 19 April – 19 May 2018 Y Daith / The Tour: Theatr y Glowyr, Rhydaman / Miners’ Theatre, Ammanford: 19 + 20.4.18 Canolfan Garth Olwg / Garth Olwg Centre: 24.4.18 Neuadd Dwyfor, Pwllheli: 26.4.18 Y Stiwt, Rhosllannerchrugog: 1.5.18 Theatr Bro Alaw, Bodedern: 3.5.18 Theatr Felinfach: 5.5.18 Pontio, Bangor: 8.5.18 Canolfan Morlan, Aberystwyth: 9.5.18 Neuadd Gymunedol Maenclochog Community Hall: 11.5.18 Ffwrnes, Llanelli: 12.5.18 Chapter, Caerdydd / Cardiff: 14-16.5.18 Canolfan y Celfyddydau Taliesin Arts Centre, Abertawe / Swansea: 17.5.18 Galeri, Caernarfon: 19.5.18

 

Image credit Dave Daggers

Like theatre? Like sharing your opinions? Want a free ticket to everything in the Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival this year? Then read on…

Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival is working with Get the Chance to find a team of critics of all ages and backgrounds, with the aim of reviewing every event in this year’s festival.

Back for its third year this summer, the festival begins on 31st May and ends on 16th June. It aims to offer theatre that is affordable for the audience and the performers, and to provide opportunity for budding artists to grow. Get the Chance offers a platform for a diverse range of people to experience and respond to sport, arts, culture and live events. Both organisations share the belief that the arts should be for everyone. It is hoped that this collaboration will give new critics an opportunity to develop themselves and share their voices.

To be a CFTF Critic you will need to have good availability over the festival period so that you can see lots of performances and write a review of each one you see. Your reviews will be published on the Get The Chance website. You can choose what you want to see and review from the wide range of genres in the CFTF programme.

 

Anyone interested in becoming a CFTF Critic should contact Get theChance at this email getthechance1@gmail.com

If you are interested in this opportunity you need to check you are available to attend and review the productions that form the CFTF festival Please state why you are interested in this opportunity in your email

cardifffringetheatrefestival.co.uk

facebook.com/cardifffringetheatrefestival

twitter.com/Cardiff_Fringe

 

It may have been a rainy Monday night in 2018 Cardiff, but for everyone watching This Is Elvis at the New Theatre, it felt as though we had been transported back in time to watch the King shake, rattle and roll in the flesh. This new musical, presented by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield, adapts, and celebrates, Elvis’ 1968 comeback special and his 1970 Las Vegas show, and five decades later the songs remain indestructible, incredible, and utterly unforgettable.

The first thing we’re greeted with is a striking red screen onto which is emblazoned an image of the King himself; his features are only hinted at, half his face obscured in shadow, but he’s still strikingly recognisable. It’s so bold that when you close your eyes the face remains like a camera flash after-image, like a Rorschach test, like the holy face imprinted on Veronica’s veil. Instantly, the image and its lasting effect on the eyes wordlessly articulates Elvis’ legendary status; that we only get impressions of the man he was, shaped by our own perception, experience and memory.

Having been bombarded with that stunning visual, when the curtain lifts it’s not Elvis we see, but rather other people – his manager, his band mates – talking about him. The spectral presence of Elvis’ image lingers, so that when he does finally arrive on stage he hauls along with him the baggage of everyone’s individual and collective ideas of who Elvis was. But from the moment Steve Michaels swaggered onto the stage in that legendary black leather ensemble, he was Elvis Presley.

We’ve all of us probably risked a ‘thank you very much’ Elvis impression at some point in our lives. But Steve Michaels’ performance was not an evocation, or even an impersonation – it was a complete inhabiting of character from the first moment to the last. His every vocal intonation, every gesture, every step and every sound was Elvis – even his hair, from root to tip, was every bit the King’s! Each and every song was varied and vibrant, capturing the essence of Elvis like lightning in a bottle. It was so spot on it veered into the uncanny valley at times, as if this was some living hologram of the man himself, here to bring a little joy into the lives of us Cardiffians on that rainy night. From his first line – ‘if you’re looking for trouble, you came to the right place’ – to his last – ‘Goodnight everyone, I’ve been Tom Jones’ – Steve Michaels lived every second on stage like a man possessed, and when they announced at the end that Elvis had left the building, it felt as if we truly had lost the King all over again.

The first act portrays Elvis’ ’68 NBC comeback special, the emotional and professional aftermath of Elvis’ revived spirits and career, and his first (reluctant) foray into performing a Vegas show. Most tantalising of all, it humanises the King in a way I’d never seen before – who’d ever have though such an extraordinary man as Elvis Presley would feel anything as ordinary as nerves? Fear? Insecurity? Yet we get to see the legend shaking with anxiety at the thought of getting back on the stage after twelve years away from it. At the start, he seems as monumental as that striking image of him emblazoned on the red screen; but by the end of act 1, we realise that this was but one side of the man, magnified, writ large on history. Despite all the accoutrements of his iconic character, beneath it all he’s just a man; a gifted one, but one plagued with the same emotional turmoil that we mere mortals know only too well.

Though earnest and interesting, the first act felt a tad messy in parts, interspersing Elvis’ onstage performances with his offstage personal drama in a way which felt clumsy at times. But act 1 was rendered both necessary and fulfilling by the absolute beast of its second act, which solely, singularly recreates Elvis’ 1970 Vegas show (feat. the iconic white jumpsuit) from start to finish with nothing else in between. It roars along as both a riotous, self-contained concert experience, and as a personal and professional victory, a success of epic proportions that completes Elvis’ road to reviving his confidence and career.

The audience was responsive, raucous and often rowdy, dancing and singing and affectionately shouting out their love and appreciation for the tireless efforts of the performers. And who could blame us, with such iconic, incredible songs to soak up like ‘That’s All Right Mama’, ‘Viva Las Vegas’, ‘Suspicious Minds’ and ‘It’s Now or Never’ – to name but a very few. One of the highlights of act 1 wasn’t even an Elvis track but a stunning rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. ‘Love Me Tender’ was the only song which I felt fell a little flat, but it was sandwiched by such corkers as ‘All Shook Up’ and ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. As an avid, enthusiastic (if amateur) dancer myself, I was particularly enraptured by the more upbeat songs of the night, jiving away to the riotous tones of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘King Creole’. But even when they slowed it down for ballads like ‘In The Ghetto’,  ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’, everyone in that theatre was utterly transfixed. ‘Burning Love’ seemed to be a more fitting final song than ‘Jailhouse Rock’, and the crowd reacted to it as such; the latter is a classic, don’t get me wrong, it just felt unsuitable for the finale. Having said that, using it as the climactic piece makes for a moment of pure circularity where the Elvis at the end of his life calls back to the Elvis who was just starting out. Narratively, it makes sense; musically, less so.

I was amazed – and vicariously exhausted – to watch every performer maintain such high levels of energy and quality throughout what looked to be an exhilarating but exhausting set. You can’t beat live music, but I have to commend these performers in particular for being amongst the best I’ve had the privilege of seeing live. I want to shout out especially to Misha Malcolm, Melissa Brown-Taylor, Katrina May and Chevone Stewart who added stunningly beautiful harmonies throughout the show, and enhanced every song by adding a simultaneously contemporary and ethereal quality. Everyone was incredible, from the guitars to the drums, the brass section to the singers, but I have to shout out to two standouts in particular: Niall Kerrigan on the lead guitar, of whom Chuck Berry would have been proud; and Steve Geere, who performed the dual roles of conductor (not an unclear upbeat in sight) and keyboardist – he was shredding them keys something fierce.

Transcendent, resplendent, incandescent. Whether you love Elvis or have never heard of him, this show is a must-see.

Dirty Protest present a playful, dynamic and heartening journey from Pembroke Dock to Cardiff; from 1979 to 2014.

However, dirty their protest Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock is clear-cut and fast-paced.

All photographic credits Jorge Lizalde @studioCano1

Having the privilege of sitting in on rehearsals it became incredibly evident that the care and respect the cast held for one another – when moving set in rehearsals, common phrases overheard included ‘Lift with your knees!’ and ‘Watch you back!’ I assume that this kindness was integral as their process was so collaborative. The cast devised through play; following rules, such as they can only use a prop once and it cannot be used in the play as what it is in reality.

The theme of the intergenerational in the presentation of father/child relationships is key within Lightspeed. With Star Wars at the heart of the narrative and in the heart of Sam. The development of Sam’s passion, from 1979 in his childhood and his late night expedition to see the Millenium Falcon, to 2014 and his daughter, Lizzie’s wreckless expedition to the new Star Wars production company. Youthfulness play, drive and fearlessness is championed in this script partnered with a great empathy and love for fathers and their sacrificial nature.

Lightspeed From Pembroke Dock is not pro-creative industry/jobs, however, it is encouraging of the industry in Wales and its progression, as well as the self-fulfilment it offers its workers. A privilege of the arts that was certainly evident in the rehearsal room for Lightspeed as the group warm up with a exuberant and merciless round of an Eastenders themed game. Who doesn’t wish they could start their day at work screaming ‘Get out of my pub!’

Lightspeed From Pembroke Dock is an uplifting, loving and dynamic presentation of family, passion and creativity, and the creativity of the piece is infectious! I was so privileged to be able to watch such an incredibly talented, committed and caring creative team. Dirty Protest is a theatre company that everyone should be aware of!

Tour Dates:

Wed 4- Sat 7 April

Chapter, Cardiff

Tue 17 April

Soar Centre, Valleys Kids

Wed 18 April

Ffwrnes, Llanelli

Thu 19 April

Taliesin Arts Centre

Fri 21 April

Riverfront, Newport

Mon 23 April

Halliwell Theatre, Carmarthen

Tues 24 April

Pontardawe Arts Centre

Wed 25 April

Borough Theatre, Abergavenny

Thurs 26 April

Blackwood Miners Institute

Fri 27 April

Galeri, Caernarfon

Sat 28 May

Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Wed 2 May

Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon

Fri 4 – Sat 5 May

Torch Theatre, Milford Haven

Fio Theatre company at the frontline, in the fight for diversity and equality in the Welsh arts industry, opened its doors to fifteen performers, playwrights and directors in February for a week of masterclasses delivered by some excellent industry professionals followed by a creation week, a Declaration to the arts in Wales.

The first workshop was led by Abdul Shayek and Shane Nickels giving us a warm welcome into the Fio family. Before this masterclass we were set tasks based on our chosen practice, we explored different text and styles. Creating conversations between the groups about what is theatre and who should it effect. The biggest question being “What is Diversity in Theatre?”

As the week progressed masterclasses were delivered by Eric Ngalle Charles, Lisa Zahra, Cathy Tyson and Ryan Romain. All these masterclasses were invaluable to me, each one gave me something that would improve my learning as a performer. For me as an actor, I personally really enjoyed Lisa’s workshop, helping me tackle Shakespeare, unlocking my emotions simply and giving me exercises to have under my belt to help me at auditions.

After this week of masterclasses it was time to get into groups and create! I was lucky enough to have a splendid group made up of, Connor Allan as our incredible writer, Othniel Smith as our Director. I was lucky enough to perform alongside Kama Roberts and Aly Cruickshank. Connor’s play was a pleasure to explore during this week, an honest and resonating piece of writing written incredibly well for the performers in the piece. Our group spent a week exploring this text to create a final piece. The extract was called ‘3 Lost Souls. ‘ The final sharing of this work was incredibly successful for our group.

The aim of Declaration was to give diverse professionals a platform to create, I cannot stress how important that is! As a working class performer just breaking into the industry projects like this are a lifesaver.

Our theatre industry in Wales is very hard to access for someone who doesn’t fit certain criteria. Actors not getting paid, writers not having a platform to share their work, and audiences being of consistently one class. I believe it is time to change so, I think that everyone should ask them self “What is Diversity in Theatre?” It needs thought!

Hannah Lad