TEAM Pembrokeshire
NTW TEAM has embarked on its biggest project to date – one that engages the communities of Pembrokeshire and Wrexham in a bespoke programme of empowerment, leadership, creative activism and intensive long-term engagement, leading to a full-scale NTW production in each location.
The community of Pembrokeshire decided that the NTW show made and staged there in 2021 should be on the subject of Climate Change & the Environment.
Read on to learn more about the story so far…
What’s happened so far?
Here are some of the highlights of the TEAM Pembrokeshire project so far (and below, a gallery of images and video from those events).
April 2018
Launch Party at Caffi Pura, Tenby
Featuring performances from poet-playwrights Louise Wallwein MBE and Ali Goolyad, a presentation by local legend Molara Awen and entertainment from talented Pembs musicians Lucy Jones and Gethin John with the brilliant Tomos Lewis.
May 2018
Festival of the Sea at Freshwater West
National Trust and Pembrokeshire Beach Food’s Festival of the Sea at Gupton Farm, near the iconic Freshwater West Beach, was the perfect place to spread the word about our project. Working with pupils from Pembrokeshire Learning Centre and in collaboration with Surfers Against Sewage, we created a drum kit made from plastics and other waste items washed up on the beaches of Pembs. At the festival, the amazing Nii Okai Tagoe played the kit, accompanying former Zion Train singer Molara Awen and Pembrokeshire musician Ben Mason.
July 2018
Poetry Workshop at Greenhill School, Tenby
Poet and Playwright Louise Wallwein MBE, writer of Tide Whisperer led a poetry workshop at Greenhill School and on South Beach. Louise had volunteered in Greece at the height of the migrant crisis, and remembers the unifying power of a game of football played on the beach between the local Greek and refugee children. The pupils at Greenhill enjoyed recreating this memory for Louise and subsequently went on to reproduce the scene in Tide Whisperer.
August 2018
Open Mic night with Span Arts at the Druidstone Hotel, Haverfordwest
An evening celebrating the awesome talent that Pembrokeshire has to offer; from surfing guitarists to sumptuous harmonies, from comedians to clowns, from poets to finger-picking brilliance.
September 2018
Tide Whisperer TEAM Choir
NTW’s Tide Whisperer, staged on the streets and shores of Tenby, called for a community choir. Last year’s Pembrokeshire TEAM Associate, Robbie Price, drew together participants from across the county to create a beautiful choir that became an integral part of the show. The choir is still going strong…
More than 200 people from across Pembrokeshire came to Tenby for an exclusive preview of Tide Whisperer. After the show, the audience were invited to hear live music at the Sand Bar in Tenby where they enjoyed a photography exhibition kindly donated by Amnesty International entitled I Welcome.
November 2018
Performance Party, Haverhub, Haverfordwest
A night of performance, discussion, food, drink and much more, to mark the end of the first year of our four-year programme in Pembrokeshire. It was at this event that the project’s local participants chose the theme of Climate Change for the final production.
April 2019
The Point workshop, Fishguard
The Point project aimed to work with the young people of the Point Youth Centre in Fishguard. Working with local artist, Pip Lewis, the children created fish head masks which they wore through Fishguard to an area known as the Cannons, overlooking Lower Town (where the original Under Milk Wood was filmed), to be photographed. Throughout the process we were able to generate conversations about their environment and the social isolation which they face living in a rural town.
May 2019
Festival of the Sea at Freshwater West
We were invited to perform at Festival of the Sea, a national parks festival celebrating the sea. It felt fitting that we should perform the story of Cantre Gwaelod. Using a mix of slapstick, clowning, storytelling and music, we created a piece working with local performers to be performed for audiences of all ages. Throughout the performance we were able to engage with the audience and bring the children up on stage to be part of it as the rushing sea.
July 2019
Open Mic night with Span Arts at the Druidstone Hotel, Haverfordwest
We had a brilliant night at The Druidstone Hotel on 4th July for our NTW TEAM Open Mic night with Span Arts. Such a wide variety of super-talented acts, all in celebration of the environment & what a perfect sunset to top it all off too! Thank you so much to all involved and a huge thanks to Jack Abbott for the fantastic video too.
September 2019
September Sessions: Stories & Stars, Manorbier
As part of Manorbier village’s September Session festival, and in celebration of Skrinkle’s status as one of the best stargazing sites in Wales, NTW TEAM hosted Stories and Stars, an afternoon of storytelling with local artist Phil Okwedy, alongside an exhibition of TEAM Panel member, Wayne Boucher’s Astrophotography.
October 2019
TEAM’s comedy night in The Meadow, St Davids was curated and compered by TEAM Panel member, Angharad Tudor-Price. What an amazing night of music and comedy by local comedians, Angharad Scourfield, Fire Donkey Productions, Owain Roach and Clare Ferguson-Walker, all supporting the wonderful Size of Wales charity!
A Restless Art: Talk by François Matarasso at Peppers, Fishguard
We were delighted to be able to host a talk on participatory art at Pepper’s Gallery in Fishguard, with renowned community artist, writer and consultant, François Matarasso.
November 2019
Ideas Sharing Session at The Hope Inn, Pembroke
An ideas sharing session gave the local community a chance to share ideas of what they’d like to see happening in the area and find out how they can get involved in the project.
TEAM Exchange at Y Gegin, Pembroke Dock
TEAM Exchange at Y Gegin was a night to remember! To coincide with the launch of Go Tell the Bees, we held a party for creatives, for those working in the environmental sector and for anyone interested in taking part in TEAM activity.
February 2020
The 25th Anniversary of the Sea Empress oil spill gave us an opportunity to reflect on a time of environmental disaster and the coming together of the community in its grief – a real-life Pembrokeshire story that encapsulates the themes we have been exploring throughout.
We conducted interviews with sea captains, hotel owners, surfers, community members, volunteers and clean up staff, historical news footage and photographs combined to create Sea Empress 25.
…And then Covid-19 hit. We were keen to let people know that this project was very much alive, and really wanted to find ways for people to contribute creatively to its development, as well as provide an opportunity for people to come together in solidarity, despite being kept apart.
Spring 2020
We decided to make a film!
We. took time to regroup and reimagine how this project would be shared with the people of Pembrokeshire. Having secured funding for an additional year it was time for a radical Plan B: we decided with the community that this work would take shape as a film, and began filming with actors in the communities. It was decided that the creation of a film would be the best way to most safely share the work, whilst still achieving the ambition of featuring as many people and places as initially hoped.
Taking the anniversary of the Sea Empress Disaster as its inspiration, Go Tell the Bees is the story of a young boy, Dryw, who is drawn to bring the community back together again to help share their stories with the bees in order to keep our planet alive.
Learning Hive
We created a hive of information, knowledge, activity and inspiration for young people to use as a springboard for learning.
Workshops in schools
We hosted a series of workshops online and in-person with primary schools to create artwork for the exhibition, using the Learning Hive pack as a basis for inspiration.
The Missions
With everyone confined to their homes, we wanted to provide an opportunity for creation and hope, based on themes of the show, so we created four missions.
Mission 1: Sunflowers
Mission 2: Phil Okwedy – Storytelling tasks
Mission 3: What will you tell the bees?
Mission 4: Simple Acts
Digital Procession
To provide moments of mass participation, we developed a digital procession to emulate the physical procession we’d hoped would’ve been a part of the real show. We showed a live performance of the procession, and the Zoom audience were encouraged to wave the sunflowers made during Mission 1 at key points in the show
May 2021
Our first screening!
Go Tell the Bees was shown on a large screen in the grounds of Manorbier Castle for the first time! Due to Covid-19 restrictions, a maximum of 30 audience members were allowed at each of the 6 screenings.
The installation created by over 500 schoolchildren and 35 artists accompanied the film and audience members could explore the exhibition before the screenings. Art and craft workshops were held throughout the weekend where visitors to the castle could create bunting to add to the exhibition
Hoody competition for Get The Boys a lift
Throughout our time in Pembrokeshire we worked with the excellent people at Get the Boys a Lift, based in Haverfordwest, who work extremely hard to improve mental health in their own communities. They threw themselves into Go Tell The Bees, culminating in some of them appearing in the film, and we wanted to give something back, so we ran a competition to design a limited run of hoodies to be sold, with all profits going to Get the Boys a Lift.
September 2021
Go Tell the Bees outdoor screenings!
We welcomed over 600 people to our screenings at Pembroke Castle, Pencarnan Farm and Bubbleton Farm. Each of our screening events began with a live performance, a chance to explore the accompanying exhibition and an introduction from storyteller and myth-maker, Phil Okwedy, who introduced each of our three screenings.
You can read Phil’s speech in full to find out more about TEAM’s journey in Pembrokeshire.
October 2021
Go Tell the Bees film streaming
We know many of you won’t have been able to make the journey to Pembrokeshire, so we were chuffed to be able to share this project for you to watch in the comfort of your home for the whole of October.
17 February 2022
TEAM Exchange
Our TEAM Exchange at Hwb, Narberth featured music, storytelling, spoken word performances and live art, all accompanied by delicious street food. We got to know more about the things you care about, want to see from us, and what you need more of in Pembrokeshire.
Working with young people at Pembrokeshire Learning Centre Pupil Referral Unit
TEAM has worked on projects with Pupil Referral Units in both Cardiff and Pembrokeshire and we’re always amazed by the positive impact this work has. Not only for pupils and staff, but for the wider school community too. In the spring term of 2022, we partnered with local Boxing Coach Mark Davies of Tenby Sharks, and filmmaker Wayne Boucher to collaborate with young people at Pembrokeshire Learning Centre in Pembroke Dock.
As part of this project, the students made a documentary. Taking part in every element of its creation – from storyboarding and interviewing to filming and editing – they were able to learn new skills and build confidence in a way that works for them. See the results of their hard work and watch their documentary here.
Well-being of Future Generations Act & Global Goals
We are committed to the Well-being of Future Generations Act. We will strive to achieve the 7 Well-being Goals through our work in Pembrokeshire: A Prosperous Wales; A Resilient Wales; A Healthier Wales; A More Equal Wales; A Wales of Cohesive Communities; A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language, and A Globally Responsible Wales. Learn more about how we are doing this.
Through the TEAM activity in Pembrokeshire, we can confidently commit to contributing towards almost all of the Global Goals.
Get involved
If you have any creative ideas about TEAM Pembrokeshire, especially on the subject of Climate Change and the environment, we would love to hear them. Get thinking about the beaches, the sea, the trees and the stars, then get in touch with Rachel at team@nationaltheatrewales.org, and of course, if you’d like to get involved we’d love to talk to you.
Keep an eye out for further announcements…
- on these web pages
- on Twitter (#ntwTEAM, and from our Pembrokeshire TEAM Associate @RachelJ_NTW)
- on the TEAM page
Background
In February 2018, National Theatre Wales TEAM was awarded a grant of £400,000 from Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF), one of the UK’s largest independent funders, to support two four-year projects; one in Pembrokeshire and one in Wrexham.
Both projects will close with an NTW show – in Pembrokeshire in 2021 and in Wrexham in 2022 – created in close collaboration with the community.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation was established by Paul Hamlyn in 1987. Upon his death in 2001, he left most of his estate to the Foundation, creating one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK. Its mission is to help people overcome disadvantage and lack of opportunity, so that they can realise their potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives. PHF have a particular interest in supporting young people and a strong belief in the importance of the arts.
