July 2008

updated August 2008

For the fifth time in its eleven-year history, The Unknown Theatre Company has taken a production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

We performed at Venue 13, Lochend Close, Canongate. Shows ran daily between 1-9 August 2008, starting at 4pm.

The show, Rumplestiltskin, was written by Lesley Ross and James Williams, and was very well received both by audiences and critics. We received two 4-star reviews, and a number of other good reviews from publications who don't award stars.

Another success! Well done to everyone involved.

May 2008

The Unknown Theatre Company went to the 2008 Youth Glammies, and came home loaded with trophies. After a company performance of some songs from Return to the Forbidden Planet, award after award once again came our way.

Some information (including nominations lists and with photos to follow soon, along with the rest of the story of the evening) can be found on the Glammies 2008 page, but congratulations to those members who were chosen for the awards:

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE - MUSICAL
Melissa Moore: Miranda (Return to the Forbidden Planet)
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE - MUSICAL
Adam King: Ariel (Return to the Forbidden Planet)
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE DRAMA
Andrew Machin : A (Crave)
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE DRAMA
Rhianna Davies: (This Property is Condemned)
BEST YOUTH DRAMA PRODUCTION
Crave
BEST YOUTH MUSICAL PRODUCTION
Return to the Forbidden Planet

Congratulations are due to everyone involved in the productions. Again. It's the teamwork that does it, you know. Well, that and hard work. Well done, everyone.

Additional information, including the adult awards, are now available on the Glamorgan Drama League's website www.glamorgandrama.org (21.05.08)

April 2008

Following successes in the last two years, The Unknown Theatre Company has continued the tradition and once again scooped the Youth Award at the Glamorgan Drama League One-Act Play Festival, which was once again held in Swansea's Dylan Thomas Theatre, running 17-19 April. There were entries from 4 other groups from the GDL area: making a total of 8 plays entered across the 3 nights. Alongside Unknown's 2 entries, there were two other youth entries, one from Cardiff, the other from Swansea.

The Unknown Theatre Company performed Crave on Friday 18 April, and This Property is Condemned on the Saturday. The Adjudicator gave a warm response to both, offering a number of extremely useful tips and ideas which will be very useful if we do the plays again in the future.

The casts really gave their all and we're all really proud of everyone that took part. Thanks are due too to the technical team at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Theatre who were so helpful - as always.

Members of the company also performed some songs from Return to the Forbidden Planet on the final night of the festival to keep the audience entertained while the GODA Adjudicator, David Hedley Williams, totted up his marks. For further information about the festival, see the GDL's website www.glamorgandrama.org. updated 15.05.08

The families we stayed with in St Avertin in 2006 have returned the compliment and visted us in February. They arrived on Feb 11th and headed home on the 14th. While they were with us, we hosted a joint performance with them at Rhiwbina Memorial Hall on 13th February where they delighted us and the rest of the audience with their skill and imagination. It was a great pleasure to welcome them all to Cardiff. A bientot!

A big thank you to the Drama Association of Wales who helped support the exchange visit. (03.03.08 updated 23.03.08)

We've been back to the La Guardia High School (the School for the Performing Arts in Fame). Following our useful and exciting company visit in October 2004, a small number of company members attended the school, meeting students and teachers and observing classes. It is hoped that further trips will be made to La Guardia in the future. (19.11.07)