THEATR CLWYD ANNOUNCES
CHRISTMAS PRODUCTIONS FOR 2020
Tamara Harvey, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd today announces the company’s reimagined Christmas season. Commencing on 5 December, the season includes the immersive family experience Once Upon A Christmas; Christian Patterson’s The Panto That Nearly Never Was! directed by Harvey; and the bilingual family show Gwrach yr Iâ / The Ice Witch, in co-production with Pontio Arts,written and directed by Emyr John. If theatres in Wales continue to be unable to open under Covid restrictions, The Panto That Nearly Never Was and The Ice Witch will be streamed into audiences’ homes, whilst Once Upon A Christmas – three brand new pre-recorded Christmas stories told in three immersive worlds – is able to take place under such restrictions.
Tamara Harvey today said, “Despite the obvious challenges 2020 has brought, it felt vital to us as a company to deliver on the commitment we make to audiences at Christmas, and find a way to share this time with them. Every year we bring three different events to our building to cater for audiences of all ages, and we will do so again this year with the immersive production Once Upon a Christmas, our annual bilingual family production Gwrach yr Iâ / The Ice Witch and of course our beloved pantomime The Panto That Nearly Never Was. Although we can’t share the festive magic in the way we usually would, we have found a way forward to bring music, joy and laughter to our audiences – whether they are joining us in person or from afar.”
For Once Upon A Christmas,TheatrClwydhas commissioned three playwrights, Robert Evans, Diana Nneka Atuona and Rebecca Wilson to write new festive stories, which have then been recorded by the panto company. Design team Jacob Hughes, Lucy Carter and Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, with directors Francesca Goodridge and Eleri Jones (Theatr Clwyd Carne Trainee Directors) have created three magical worlds in Theatr Clwyd’s gallery and cinema, inspired by the stories. As the audience, one household at a time, step into each space, the stories ring out with sound, music and lighting transporting them to each new world.
Inspired by the Theatr Clwyd team’s sadness at having to cancel Beauty and the Beast and penned by award-winning panto playwright Christian Patterson, The Panto That Nearly Never Was follows Bella Trix the Witch as she realises that she doesn’t have a job and so enlists the help of Dame, sidekick, fairy and wizard to try and save panto.
The Ice Witch / Gwrach yr Iâis the third in the trilogy of family Christmas plays created by Theatr Clwyd’s Creative Engagement Associate, Emyr John, in co-production with Pontio Arts. Combining music, storytelling and dance, it will play in both venues and, for the first time this year, be offered to Theatr Clwyd’s audience in English as well as Welsh.
This Christmas season continues Theatr Clwyd’s ongoing support and entertainment for their local community throughout theatre closures this year – encouraging creativity in young and old and those most isolated through the online Together programme, hosting blood donation sessions for the Welsh Blood Service, distributing food and creative packages to vulnerable families, leading digital dance workshops for those with Parkinson’s, running a Creative Hub for at-risk young people, and more. The company also established the Micro-Bursaries for Freelancers initiative, financially and creatively supporting creative industry freelancers across Wales and the UK.
ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS
By Robert Evans, Diana Nneka Atuona and Rebecca Wilson
5 Dec 2020 – 3 Jan 2021
Over snow-covered mountains, past frozen lakes, round a warming fire, stories are made…
Step through a magical doorway into three magical worlds filled with festive stories of joy and hope.
For ages 4 to 10 years this family immersive experience is a fun, calm, physically distanced installation.
THE PANTO THAT NEARLY NEVER WAS!
By Christian Patterson
Directed by Tamara Harvey
17 December 2020 – 3 January 2021
The Wicked Witch has won!
What’ll we do for festive fun?
Pantoland is silent – it’s all locked down…
But the good get on up when they’re knocked down…
An hour-long, rock ’n’ roll, panto-esque show before panto returns with Beauty and the Beast in 2021.
Christian Patterson is an Associate at Theatr Clwyd. He has scripted the company’s previous two pantomimes, Dick Whittington and Jack and the Beanstalk,having written award-winning pantomimes at other venues across the UK, and also directed Wave Me Goodbye. As an actor his credits for the company include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Insignificance, All My Sons and Under Milk Wood. Other credits include The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), My Country (National Theatre), Blackbird (The Other Room) and Plays in a Bag – The Knowledge (Royal Court Theatre). His television credits include My Country, Ellen and Mr Selfridge; and for film, Pride and Malice in Wonderland. He won the Best Actor honour at the Wales Theatre Awards in 2016.
Tamara Harvey has been Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd since August 2015. Most recently she directed Orpheus Descending, and the world premières of Pavilion,and Home I’m Darling by Laura Wade – which was nominated for UK Theatre and Evening Standard Awards, as well as five Olivier Awards, winning the Olivier for Best New Comedy. Also for the company she has directed Much Ado About Nothing, the première of Elinor Cook’s award-winning play, Pilgrims, Skylight by David Hare and the première of Peter Gill’s version of Uncle Vanya (Best Production, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director in the English Language at the Wales Theatre Awards). She has directed in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Her previous credits include the world premières of From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), Breeders (St James Theatre), The Kitchen Sink, The Contingency Plan, Sixty-Six Books and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), In the Vale of Health (a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray), Elephants and Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre), Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre & West End). Other theatre includes Kreutzer vs Kreutzer (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse/Royal Festival Hall), Bash (Trafalgar Studios), Whipping It Up (New Ambassadors), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Gielgud & Garrick Theatres), Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Bath), the UK première of Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Theatres).
THE ICE WITCH | GWRACH YR IÂ
Written and directed by Emyr John
22 – 29 December 2020
Vasilisa is kidnapped by the Ice Witch. To escape she’ll need all her courage, a talking mirror, and a teddy bear.
A family story with shows in Welsh and English.
Guidance: aged 5+
Emyr John is from North Wales and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He worked regularly for 15 years for a number of theatre companies including, Theatr West Glamorgan, Theatr Iolo, Hijinx Theatre, Gwent Theatre and Cwmni Theatr Gwynedd. He has worked at Theatr Clwyd for the past 12 years, and is currently a Creative Engagement Associate, where his responsibilities include workshop leading and directing numerous theatre in education projects, Justice in a Day, Bright Sparks, Connor’s Time, High Voltage, as well as writing and directing previous Christmas productions, Llew a’r Crydd, and Y Trol Wnaeth Ddwyn y ‘Dolig
Theatr Clwyd Listings
Raikes Lane, Mold CH7 1YA
Box Office: 01352 701521 www.theatrclwyd.com/en/
ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS
5 Dec 2020 – 3 Jan 2021
THE PANTO THAT NEARLY NEVER WAS!
17 December 2020 – 3 January 2021
THE ICE WITCH | GWRACH YR IÂ
22 – 29 December 2020
ABOUT THEATR CLWYD
The award-winning Theatr Clwyd is Wales’ biggest producing theatre. Since 1976 Theatr Clwyd has created exceptional theatre from its home in Flintshire, North Wales. Driven by the vision and dynamism of award-winning Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford, Theatr Clwyd pushes theatrical boundaries creating world-class productions.
Theatr Clwyd’s recent partnership with the National Theatre led to the creation of Home, I’m Darling which won Best New Comedy at the Olivier Awards and was nominated in five categories including Best Set Design and Best Costume Design. Other projects of note include the UK Theatre Award-winning musical The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, the site specific, immersive Great Gatsby and the Menier Chocolate Factory co-production of Orpheus Descending.
Theatr Clwyd is one of only four theatres in the UK to build sets and props, make costumes and paint scenery in-house. Their impressive team of workshop, wardrobe and scenic artists, props makers and technicians ensure the skills vital to a vibrant theatre industry are nurtured right in the heart of Wales, developing the theatre makers of the future. In addition to this, Theatr Clwyd hosts an artist development programme, trainee technicians’ scheme and an eighteen month traineeship for directors, to develop the Artistic Directors of the future.
Theatr Clwyd works in the community across all art forms and is recognised as a cultural leader for its cross generational theatre groups, work in youth justice and diverse programme of arts, health and wellbeing. Award-winning Community Engagement projects include Arts from the Armchair, in partnership with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which uses theatrical making skills to help people with early onset memory loss and their carers, and Justice In A Day, working in schools and the law courts to help at risk children to realise the consequences of crime.
Theatr Clwyd has completed the public consultation period for a major Capital Redevelopment Project which will reimagine the theatre’s public spaces and create a greener, more efficient and sustainable building where world-class art can thrive and social action is rooted for generations to come.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the theatre has been active in helping its community, from hosting blood donation sessions and distributing food to vulnerable families to creating digital dance workshops for those with Parkinson’s and sharing creative packages and activities with those most isolated.
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