Between October and November 2014 Ffotogallery presented a series of live events in New Quay and Cardiff as part of Dylan Thomas 100 Festival. Audiences were invited to an evening at the famous White Horse Tavern, where Dylan Thomas and his American buddies transported them back to New York of the 1950’s.
Bedazzled celebrates the special relationship Dylan Thomas had with the United States, New York in particular, and the enduring influence of his life and work on both sides of the Atlantic. Audience members are transported back to the heady bohemian world of New York in the early 1950s, to the White Horse Tavern in Grenwich Village, where Dylan Thomas' charisma and dramatic and lyrical use of language left all around him spellbound. The audience are invited to pull up a stool, grab a pint and enjoy unexpected encounters with a diverse cast of characters representing the artists, writers, musicians, social misfits and outsiders who were in Dylan Thomas' orbit in the last years of his life.
The show continues to gather momentum and has now been booked by the STANza festival in St Andrews, Scotland, for a performance on 4 March 2015, as the opening night event for this major literary festival. We are currently fundraising to get the show up to the Edinburgh fringe festival, the largest arts festival in the world, please contact Ceri Murphy via ceriowainmurphy@gmail.com if you would like to contribute.
For more information on the 2014 tour, cast and crew please see below:
Arcadia Building
Glanmore Terrace
New Quay
Ceredigion
SA45 9PX
Corys Building
Bute Street (entrance at James Street corner)
Cardiff Bay
CF10 5AD
Bedazzled is a celebration of the special relationship Dylan Thomas had with the United States, New York in particular, and the enduring influence of his life and work on both sides of the Atlantic. In a series of events 're-imaging' his favourite watering hole The White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, audience members are invited to join Dylan for a drink and be transported back to the heady bohemian world of New York in the early 1950s where Thomas' charisma and dramatic and lyrical use of language left all around him spellbound.
Conceived by artistic director David Drake, writer Ben Gwalchmai and composer John Rea, an evening of immersive theatre, moving image and sound will provide audiences around the world with a glimpse into Dylan Thomas' life in New York and the surrounding cultural milieu.
| Ceri Murphy | Celebrity Thomas |
| Ben Gwalchmai | Welsh Thomas/EE cummings |
| Arthur Hughes | Solitary Thomas/Allen Ginsberg |
| Catriona James | Maya Deren/Djuna Barnes |
| Rhys Downing | William Burroughs/Barman |
| John Norton | Daniel Jones |
| David Drake | Artistic Director |
| Ben Gwalchmai | Writer/ Actor |
| John Rea | Composer/Sound Design |
| Anne Siegel | Digital Producer |
| Laura Sorvala | Illustrator/Designer |
| Huw Talfryn Walters | Cinematography |
| John Norton | Production Consultant |
| Dave Shepherd | Web Developer |
| Rhys Meyrick | Set Designer |
| Chantal Lee-Harrison | Production Manager |
| Felix Otaola | Audio Visual Technician |
| Dewi Jones | Lighting Designer |
David Drake has 35 years experience in the arts and media sector, since 2009 as Director of Ffotogallery, the national development agency for photography and lens-based media in Wales, and founder Director of the biennial Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography. His varied career has included extensive curatorial, publishing, and production experience for organisations as diverse as Watershed, Arts Council England, Picture This Moving Image, FIVE magazine, Pimlico Arts and Media and HP Labs. During the 1980s, he was an independent filmmaker and established and ran for ten years a groundbreaking media centre in London delivering photographic, television and design training programmes. More recently he was producer of Electric Pavilion, a three year online project showcasing creativity as found within the city of Bristol.
An actor, maker, and writer, Ben Gwalchmai is a nomadic sort - in both geography and discipline. He makes work in whatever medium and form fits the content best. Ben usually makes things with words however he has also made site-specific dance for the Greenwich Dances Festival, sculpture for the DeptfordX Festival, performance, opera, interactive experiences, and a storytelling app for smartphones.
John Rea left Cardiff University with an M.Mus. in composition under the guidance of Prof. Alun Hoddinott CBE, and following his early experiences sessioning, conducting and arranging for Dave Stewart’s Anxious Records, has developed a career composing for theatre, film, television, and concert platform. He enjoys experimenting with traditional instrumentation, sound, and studio technology.
His diverse collaborations include a site-specific installation/musical work ‘Atgyfodi’, with ‘St Fagans : National History Museum’ sound archive, performing and conducting his original filmscores live for the Swansea Festival, and playing piano for The Manic Street Preachers.
Anne Siegel is a creative with over ten years experience in producing art events, film projects and digital media content. She has a continued interest in photography and cinematography, having worked on Bafta nominated short films as a cinematographer and independent filmmaker and feels passionately about maximising the potential of the web, social media and digital technologies. As Ffotogallery’s Education & Creative Technology Manager she has developed a number of high profile digital projects and was recently selected for Arts Council of Wales Digital Producers lab, a programme developing Wales’ digital talent.
Laura Sorvala is interested in mapping stories and experiences into visual narratives. She often uses graphic recording as a tool to uncover underlying themes in conversations and highlight the meaningful shared experiences at events. Her illustrations offer snapshots and characters to articulate emotions and express opinions often in a humorous manner.
Her professional highlights include illustrating Creative Councils stories for Nesta, painting a public art installation inspired by stories from local people in Swansea and traveling in a caravan across Europe drawing cartoons of local issues and action groups.
Huw T. Walters is a cinematographer with over 18 years experience in creative filming. He has two Bafta Cymru awards to his name; the first for a documentary on Scott Gibbs commissioned by BBC Wales and the second for a feature film on Richard Burton for S4C. He's also nominated for a third for his work on the award winning SC4 documentary Gerallt. Huw is also a renowned photographer holding a Kodak Gallery award for his work on landscape photography in Nepal. Above all he loves to travel and his career has seen him shoot all forms of film across every corner of the globe.
Bedazzled - A Welshman in New York is a Ffotogallery initiative made possible through the generous support and partnership of a number of organisations and individuals. We would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support.
