NATIONAL THEATRE WALES is a new English language-theatre company producing world class work across Wales. This production is #02 of the launch year programme –12 shows over 12 months, one a month, plus one spectacular finale – in amazing places and unique spaces across Wales.
VOLCANO is an original voice in theatre, and an internationally-renowned touring company of 20 years’ standing that has toured to 38 countries from Argentina to Azerbaijan.
Welsh National Opera believes that opera is a living, dynamic and creative art form, which inspires emotions, challenges perceptions and touches lives. WNO MAX connects company and community, offering a wealth of different opportunities to get involved with Welsh National Opera. If you would like to know more about WNO MAX please visit wno.org.uk/getinvolved
sHELF LIFE / 6—25 April 2010 THe Old Library / Swansea
Welcome to Shelf Life. We start the performance in the Courtyard, between what was the Police Station and the Central Library. We then move into the Stacks below the building before finally reaching the Reading Room itself. The library was opened in 1887 by the former (and future) Prime Minister William Gladstone, and closed without fanfare in 2007. For more than 100 years it served as a storehouse of knowledge. Fact and fiction, gossip and wisdom — it was all collected here. It even housed the bodies of people who lost their lives in the blitz. You could find all kinds of things in the library. For three weeks we are re-opening this grand old building. Dusting off the shelves, opening the books, telling the stories. We have imagined one last meeting of the custodians of the library — ghosts or angels, or mortals like us. Opinions, arguments, vanities and hopes: the Old Library hears them all and it trusts that you, our readers, will enjoy the experience...
THE CREATIVE TEAM Nigel Barrett is a Cardiff-born actor who works regularly at the National Theatre in London and is an Associate Artist with Shunt. With George Tomlinson and Louise Mari he has been creating arresting performances which take place, unannounced, amongst people drinking late at night in the Shunt lounge and in other unsuspecting crowds. Gerard Bell has a range of work with such innovative companies as Pina Bausch, Stan’s Café, PunchDrunk and David Gale to his credit, and has recently appeared in Chris Goode’s acclaimed King Pelican at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. Catherine Bennett trained at the Rambert School and has worked with Matthew Hawkins’ Fresh Dances Group, Random Dance Company, Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera, Siobhan Davies, Carol Brown Dances and Walker Dance Park Music. She recently directed her first short film, Witness, and is a Volcano Associate Arist. Anna Bjerre Larsen has worked with choreographers and companies including Arts Alliance, Aletta Collins, Gary Clarke’s Pit Fleur Company, State of Flux, Tom Roden, Jan De Schynkel and Cher Geurtze. She has recently been working as assistant choreographer and dancer for Malmo Opera. Lindsey Butcher has worked with numerous dance, opera, physical theatre and circus companies as a dancer, aerialist and choreographer over the past 25 years. In 2003 she founded her own aerial dance company Gravity & Levity who have to date toured two major productions: Takinag Flight and Shift, and this summer will premiere an outdoor aerial dance production, Re-Flex. Paul Clay is a visual artist whose work spans many different fields and an award-winning theatre designer whose projects include the set for the Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway musical Rent, 1997. Theo Clinkard is a Brighton-based dance artist. As well as working with many of the UK’s leading choreographers, including Siobhan Davies, Matthew Bourne, and Wayne McGregor, he has also choreographed for Kylie Minogue and danced in pop promos for Lily Allen, The Kills, and Lulu. He is a founding member of Probe Dance Company. Paul Davies is Artistic Director of Volcano, and one of the founding members. He has performed in many of their shows, written three plays and directed a number of others. He has also directed work in Montreal and Croatia and taught in numerous academies around the world. Jane Guernier has worked extensively with Told By An Idiot theatre company, in such productions as Beauty and the Beast, A Little Fantasy and An Evening With the Bondress, while her other credits include Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic) and The Unconquered (Traverse, Scarborough, London). Peter Swaffer Reynolds is a composer who has worked with circus, silent movies, theatre, dance, and site-specific events since the mid1980s. In 1995 he collaborated with NoFit State Circus, and has been their composer-in-residence ever since. He has worked with WNO on various projects, the most recent being Boxing Beats.
STAFF TEAMS Directed by Catherine Bennett & Paul Davies Music by Peter Swaffer Reynolds Design by Paul Clay Assistant Designer Chang Jin Dramaturg DJ Britton Cast Nigel Barrett / Gerard Bell / ANNA BJERRE LARSEN / Lindsey Butcher Theo Clinkard / Jane Guernier Chorus Master Kate Woolveridge Assistant Chorus Master Dan Perkin Choir Manager Darren Fellows Flutes Tina Hitchens Production Manager Peter Webb Stage Manager Fiona Curtis Lighting Technician David Abra Assistant Stage Manager Jenny Skivens Front of House Co-ordinators Alayne Jenkins Debra Jones-Gammon Taliesin Marketing Stella Patrick / Nia Mills Box Office Manager Mair Howells Aerial Artist Rigger Jonathan Campbell Carpenter Mathew Thomas Costume DesignER Frances Morris Head OF Props Daniella Callow Design assistants Eleri Lloyd / Stacey Lloyd Lewis Watkins / Carys Watkins
NATIONAL THEATRE WALES Producer Lucy Davies Finance Manager Rhiannon Davis Team Coordinator Devinda De Silva Administrator Rhian Jones Communications Director Matthew Lawton Creative Associate Mathilde Lopez Artistic Director John McGrath Creative Associate Catherine Paskell Media Officer Catrin Rogers Company Assistant Michael Salmon Associate Producer Carys Shannon UK & International PR The Corner Shop / 020 7494 3665 VOLCANO Administration Kay Denyer Marketing Claudine Conway WELSH NATIONAL OPERA WNO MAX Director Rhian Hutchings WNO MAX Producer Sarah Teagle Marketing Siobhan Neil Press Ruth Greenwood Produced in partnership with Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea Metropolitan University and Grwˆp Gwalia Cyf
Sound Operators Cassie Broom / Cairn Newton
THANK YOU
Lighting Operators Wynne Seaborne Sarah Buchan-Terrey
Celfi Gallery / Claire Abrahams / Claire Millar / Chris Bird-Jones / Charlie Cable / Citizens Advice / Bureau / Cowlin Construction / Gareth Clark / James Clarke / Sybil Crouch / Stephen Donnelly / Lesa Dryburgh / Andy Elliott / Ros Evans / Glyn Vivian Gallery / Beth Jones / Richard Knapp / Bella Kerr / Bob Lewis / Tracey Mellor / Jon Morgan / David OvermenT / Oxfam Book Shop: Castle Street / Kevin Sivyer / Tim Stokes / Sian Stuttard / Erich Talbot / Rob Thomas / Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama – Design Department / Helen Tucker / Ian Walsh / Amy Witherspoon / Craig Yates / Yeng Ho Kit.
AV Operator John Rees Creative Writing Placement Liz Wride WELSH NATIONAL OPERA SHELF LIFE COMMUNITY CHOIR Ralph Allemano / Marja Bego / Jennifer Burridge / Sarah Coates / Kirsten Collier / Jan Cooper / Sarah Cross / Geraldine Davies / Rachel Davies Jones / Claire Densham / Mike Densham / Barbara Du Randt / Juli-Ann Grey / Gordon Patrick Griffin / Brian Grinter / Amanda Hall / Sarah Harrowing / Catherine Heard / Julie Hendy / Marilyn Higgins / Kimberley Hill / Leanne Holland / Ruth Howe / Tim Hughes / Sarah Huws-Davies / Emma Irons / Huw James / Gail John / Sue Johnson / Emma Jones / Liz Herbert McAvoy / Marlene McGairl / Jacques Maison Jones / Geraint Morgan / Margot Morgan / Marilyn Morgan / Caroline Morris / Christine Nutt / Marigold Oakley / Lynda Quint / Eleanor Shaw / Mike Shaw / Mary Sherwood / Teresa Stevens / Clifford Traylor / Sylvia Traylor / Jeff Walters / Teresa Walters / Christine Watkins / James Watkins / Steve Williams / Gill Zeiner.
We thank Tony Curtis for permission to perform his poem “Singleton”. Shelf Life also quotes material from “Labyrinths” by Jorge Luis Borges (Penguin Modern Classics).
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We are looking for 20 TEAM members for each show, to help run events, share your ideas and spread the word. In exchange we offer you the chance to get behind the curtain, take part in building the shows from start to finish and we’ll even throw in a ticket. We are looking for TEAM members in all areas but especially at our 2010/2011 show locations: South Wales Valleys, Swansea, Cardiff, Barmouth, North Wales, Brecon Beacons, Bridgend, Newport, Snowdonia, Aberystwyth, Milford Haven, Port Talbot… and beyond.