Tell us about yourself and your creative background
I’m an actor that grew up just outside of Caerphilly in South Wales and have recently graduated from the Guildford School of Acting. Before this, I studied drama at the University of Exeter, theatre at the University of Malta on an Erasmus year and became a PE teacher at a local primary school in the valleys.
Auditioning for drama school always felt somewhat distant from being plausible. I’d always heard these horror stories about the audition process, and if you were fortunate enough to get in, how much of a test of character the experience would be. I can’t speak for other people’s experiences, but I can definitely say that my experience at GSA was fantastic and has really helped shape my creative desires.
What is your Creative First?
As part of my final project at GSA, I began to develop a two-person piece titled ‘Mr. Jones’, which would be set around the 1966 spoil tip collapse in the small Welsh village Aberfan. The one-act play utilises poetry, verbatim and first-hand accounts of the disaster to memorialise the individuals whose lives were transformed by this harrowing event.
I initially wrote ‘Mr. Jones’ for a drama school assessment and performed it with my Welsh-American colleague Tanwen Stokes. When the piece was well-received, it left me feeling that I could expand on these characters we had created. So, I adapted it and extended it for an Off-West End debut at the Union Theatre in London this past January. I’m now excited to begin a tour of Wales, with its first performance on 15 March at the Theatr Soar in Merthyr Tydfil.
What was the biggest challenge you faced?
I’ve always been very aware of the responsibility that comes with the choice to create a piece that puts at the forefront such a poignant event in Welsh history. The Aberfan disaster of 1966 was a relatively unschooled point of my education in South Wales. A yearly acknowledgement of the disaster marking its anniversary, yes, but an absent feature of our historical criteria. I think it was only because I grew up so close to Aberfan that I was more aware of the disaster’s life-shaping effects due to the harrowing accounts from my elders that, admittedly, fell on less-than-receptive ears. It was only when I grew up that I realised it was necessary to shine a light on these stories, and I knew it was an endeavour that had to be embarked on with great sensitivity and care.
It was for these reasons that research was primarily built from gathering an array of personal perspectives. Instead of making a piece that depicts the disaster itself, I decided to use verbatim to inspire a fictional character’s journey through and following its wake. Stephen is a nineteen-year-old, partially Welsh speaking rugby prodigy who represents the typical Valleys boy. Though a stereotype, it’s one that’s verified by my own experience and those of my fathers, uncles, and all those I have conferred with in developing this piece. His surname, Jones, originated in Wales and remains the country’s most common surname to this day. Stephen is an everyman: a light-hearted individual with a big personality who is more than just a victim of disaster. Angharad offers an alternate perspective, being a nurse in a local hospital that was actioned by the disaster. Her story is constructed from the perspectives of individuals at St. Tydfil’s hospital on October 21st, 1966. Through Stephen and Angharad, we get a glimpse of a community whose stories remain largely untold.
Can you share tips for others who might be interested in your industry?
It feels pretty difficult to suggest tips for emerging actors and writers, because I’m very aware that I’m still figuring it all out myself! It’s fun, though, which I feel may be the key. I never considered myself much of a writer, and definitely see myself as an actor who like most is still trying to get their foot in whatever door reveals itself. I’m really enjoying it, though, even all of the uncertainty, the ‘no’s, the setbacks, and being ghosted on a daily basis—not because any of those things are fun, but because it feels like a necessary part of the process. Every day is so vastly different from the one before and I’m learning to really try and enjoy that.
Another thing me and my housemates also entering this industry keep reminding one another is that there’s no rush. I think that’s really important to remember. Enjoying the process is just as important as reaching the end goal, whatever of the billion things that could mean.
When making your own work, keeping on it is absolutely key. I don’t think that necessarily means everybody needs to be constantly writing plays, movies, shorts, making content, reaching out to other emerging artists and all of that stuff, but I definitely don’t think it doesn’t mean that, if that makes sense? Basically, keeping at whatever it is that you have decided to do, and finding ways of telling the stories that you feel connected to, in whatever form that may be – I think that’s the key. But again, I’m very much still figuring it all out, and that’s kind of the fun of it all.
Why choose South Wales for your creative first?
Before I wrote ‘Mr. Jones’, it was very important to me that we would bring the show to South Wales. I’m so excited to tour the show around the country, but beginning in Merthyr Tydfil on the 15th March just felt right. It’s a piece that attempts to highlight a community transformed by disaster; stories that have rarely slipped through the cracks of the South Wales valleys. Having the opportunity to bring this project to a community so close to the events of 1966 is a terrific honour, and something we hope speaks for the hundreds of lives that were forever changed.
