Dylan Thomas Centre Programme May – August 2010 By the time you receive this brochure I will no longer be working at the Dylan Thomas Centre. After fifteen years I am moving on. I will still be organising the Dylan Thomas Festival however, and I hope to see all of you then. I would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who has supported the events programme over the years. I also think that the City & County of Swansea should be applauded for showing such a substantial commitment to literature for so long, and long may it continue. It will be continuing in the capable hands of Jo Furber, and I would like to say a special thank-you to Jo, and to everyone who has worked at the Dylan Thomas Centre over the years, and to all the many artists and writers who have worked with us in that time. You have helped us create something which has been very special for me, and I hope for you and many other people too. It’s been a lot of fun. David Woolley Thursday 6 May 7.30pm
Ilija Trojanow We welcome a Bulgarian born writer of travel, literary reportage and novels, who writes in German. In association with Swansea University German Dept, and introduced by the department’s Julian Preece. Tickets: Full Price £4-00 Concessions £2-80 Swansea PTL £1-60 Saturday 8 – Sunday 16 May
Swansea Bay Film Festival The Swansea Bay Film Festival 2010 promises an even greater mix of films and videos for its 5th year. An exciting and varied selection of films originating from across the globe will screen for FREE between 10am and 5pm daily. The festival, which runs from Saturday May 8th till Sunday May 16th, will also feature introductions and Q&A sessions by many of the film directors and producers featured in this year’s event. For listings see: www.swanseafilmfestival.com Malcolm Parr
Thursday 13 May 7.30pm
The Joy of Battered Seaweed – a good laugh is the best pesticide, An evening with Malcolm Parr Swansea poet, translator, lecturer and raconteur, Malcolm Parr will entertain, with a mix of tales, jokes and anecdotes in his own inimitable style. Tickets: £3-00
Thursday 20 May 7pm
Shadow Plays – Trinity College Carmarthen Creative Writing MA Launch Students from the College’s MA Course present work from their annual anthology. In association with Parthian Books. Tickets: Free entry & wine
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May - August 2010
Saturday 22 May – 2.30pm
Beth Mitchell For the love of the game Launch of Beth Mitchell’s exhibition of photographs from the Welsh Premier League Tickets: Free entry & wine Gwen Watkins
Wednesday 26 May 7pm
Dylan Thomas Society Event Gwen Watkins in conversation with Jeff Towns. A rare chance to hear Gwen – widow of Vernon, friend of Dylan, and scholar and writer in her own right – talking to bookseller and Dylan authority Jeff. Tickets: Full Price £5-00; Concessions £3-00 Wednesday 26 May 7.30pm
Science Café: The Deadly 2009 Wildfires near Melbourne: Unpredictable Catastrophe or Foreseeable Event? Stefan Doerr, Swansea University Tickets: Free entry Richard Gwyn
Patrick McGuinness
Thursday 27 May 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop
Patrick McGuinness and Richard Gwyn both launch their new collections – Richard’s Sad Giraffe Café (Arc) ‘is a collection of prose poems, which together form a shifting progressive narrative … treads an unerringly unsteady line along the borders between dream and vivid observation, between sensual and laconic, between prose and poetry’. (Philip Gross). Patrick’s Jilted City (Carcanet) is a Poetry Book Society Reccomendation. Plus open mic. Tickets: Full Price £4-00; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60 Friday 4 June 7.30pm
Blessing Nusariri
Zimbabwean Poets
Blessing Nusariri and Ethel Kwabato, two women writers from Zimbabwe on a tour sponsored by the British Council, Cinnamon Press and Academi. Blessing Musariri is an award -winning children’s author and poet. Ethel Kwabato is a poet and short story writer. Tickets: Full Price £4-00; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60
Ethel Kwabato
Tuesday and Wednesday 8 June - both start at 7.30pm
Rough Diamonds A range of exciting dramatic extracts presented over two nights from Swansea University’s MA Creative Writing students. Introduced by playwright and course tutor David Britton, and performed by Fluellen Theatre Company. All Tickets: £3
Literature Programme
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Friday 11 June - 7pm
Pursued by a Bear David Woolley David launches his latest poetry collection from Headland Press, with poems ranging from the personal elegy to the wry and witty observation to a sequence on paintings by Edward Hopper.
David Woolley
Tickets: Free entry & wine
Wednesday 16 June - 7pm
Gordon Stuart - Studies for Portraits Exhibition launch of studies by Swansea’s Canadian-born acclaimed Gordon Stuart of the many writers visiting the Dylan Thomas Centre whom Gordon has painted over the past 15 years, since his interest in painting writers began with the last portrait of Dylan Thomas shortly before the poet’s death. Tickets: Free entry & wine Thursday 24 June 7.30pm
Poets & Music in the Bookshop
Clare Potter
Dave Jones and friends with Clare Potter plus usual open mic Swansea pianist Dave launches his new CD which includes settings of poems by Blackwood poet Clare Potter. Tickets: £5-00 but £2-00 can be redeemed against the sale of the CD on the night. Wednesday 7 July 7pm
Terry Hetherington evening The third memorial evening for the late Neath poet and writer Terry Hetherington sees the publication of Cheval 3 – selected writing by and about Terry. There will be readings and tributes from his friends, and the award of the second Terry Hetherington Bursary to a promising young writer from Wales. Tickets: Free entry Friday 9 July – 7.30pm
The Shoeshine by Richard Lloyd The Shoeshine has manned his pitch for more than forty years at the Foyer of a Sussex Railway Station. He goes mostly unnoticed whilst observing every last detail of the passing world. People who visit him may find he knows more about them than they find comfortable. This two-act play by Swansea writer and actor Richard Lloyd is an extension of last November’s successful production, with Richard himself as the Shoeshine, and featuring Julie-Anne Grey, Cathy Morris and Rob Stradling. All Tickets: £5-00
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Richard Lloyd
May - August 2010
Saturday 24 July and Saturday 21 August Both start at 1pm
Saturday Lunchtime Theatre One State of Happiness - Fluellen Theatre Company One State Of Happiness is how Dylan Thomas described living in the Boat House in Laugharne. Fluellen returns with this look at the happiest – and last – years of the poet’s life through the words of his family, his friends and, of course, Dylan himself. All Tickets: £5-00 Thursday 29 July 7.30pm
Poets in the Bookshop – Joe Dunthorne Guest is multi-talented Swansea born Joe, whose debut novel Submarine was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize among others. Joe was also short-listed recently for the BBC Short Story Award, and will read tonight from his debut poetry collection from the Faber New Poets series. Tickets: Full Price £4-00; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60 Saturday 31 July 1pm
Saturday Lunchtime Theatre Throw away your bed socks Who is the best interpreter of poetry? The poet or the reader? Should poetry be read or heard? Using Dylan Thomas’ poems as a base, Adrian Metcalfe – most recently seen as Daniel Jones in the acclaimed Warmley - asks the question - is it better to be Mog Edwards than Eli Jenkins? All Tickets: £5-00
Adrian Metcalfe
Saturday 7 and 14 August - Both at 1pm
Saturday Lunchtime Theatre - The Tongue of the Wave - Fluellen Theatre Company Fluellen`s new glimpse into the life and work of Swansea’s other great poet Vernon Watkins, who was described by his friend Dylan Thomas as “the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English” All Tickets: £5-00 Saturday 28 August 1pm
Saturday Lunchtime Theatre Dylan in America – Peter Read
Peter Read
The only chance this year to see Peter’s stunning and ever-popular tragi-comic tour de force, as Dylan’s bitter-sweet tours of America take their ultimately fatal toll. All Tickets: £5-00
Literature Programme
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EXHIBITIONS 18 May – 13 June
Beth Mitchell – For the love of the game The focus of this exhibition of photographs is on the Welsh Premier League, exploring themes of community spirit, loyalty and the identity of Welsh people and landscapes. Football in Wales has a long tradition and a strong local flavour at each ground. Every club has its proud history, its own uniqueness and its own dedicated characters who travel relentlessly to stand in cold terraces with pie and Bovril in hand. 15 June – 11 July
Gordon Stuart - Studies For Portraits Gordon Stuart became artist in residence at the Dylan Thomas Centre in 1995. He has more portraits in international collections than any other living Welsh painter. The prices are staggeringly low in this exhibition and should not be missed. 13 July – 8 August
Valerie Ganz - Studies of Gower Festival Musicians ‘A chance remark I made last year, that I had worked for many years with Jazz, and expressed a wish to study Classical Musicians, led to an invitation to have access to rehearsals for the Gower Festival 2009. I spent a delightful two weeks studying the musicians as they were honing their concerts. This was a fascinating experience and I really appreciated their generosity for allowing such close contact while they worked’ Valerie Ganz 10 August – 5 September
Drawings by Alan Bicknell
22/23 May
Playwriting Course Swansea playwright, poet and actor Peter Read is running another of his popular two-day From Page to Stage Workshops on 22/23 May at the Dylan Thomas Centre. Cost £60. For more information contact Peter on 07931614180 or petersamread@hotmail.co.uk or send SAE to 14 Overland Road, Mumbles, Swansea, SA3 4LS.
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The Dylan Thomas Centre Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR 01792 463980 www.dylanthomas.com Whilst all effort is made to ensure that the details of this programme are accurate, the City and County of Swansea reserve the right to alter any part of the programme without notice.
Supported by: hybu llên literature promotion
CYNGOR LLYFRAU CYMRU WELSH BOOKS COUNCIL
May - August 2010
24222-10 Designprint
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