July 2010

On 26th June 2010, The Unknown Theatre Company represented Wales at the British Final Festival of One-Act Plays, following our recent success at the Wales Final Festival.

As was to be expected, the competition was fierce, but the Cotton Girls cast - Ellis Morgan, Kim Littlechild and Lorun Roberts - gave the performance of their lives, and brought the house down at the Village Theatre in East Kilbride, where the festival was being hosted by the Scottish Community Drama Association. Wales had every reason to be proud of the team - including technical/props supremos Martin Davies and Laizan Fung - but on the night, it was Ireland's turn to win, with an excellent production of Melody by Deirdre Kinahan from Lurig Drama Group.

The festival was a joyous celebration of community drama, and unusual in the number of young performers it welcomed this year: both the Scottish and English casts were also almost all under 25, which is highly unusual for the British Final, where extensive experience usually counts for so much. But it meant that the energy and enthusiasm at the festival were also much higher than usual, and the whole event was enlivened and rejuvenated.

More details, and photos, to follow soon on a special British Festival page.

June 2010

Once more, The Unknown Theatre Company gleaned a series of awards at the 2010 Glammies awards in Penarth on June 12th. A full list of our awards is available on the Awards page. Congratulations to all our winners, and commiserations to our losers: it would have had to be close in all the categories this year. The full story, including photos, will be available soon on our Glammies 2010 page.

May 2010 updated 6 June

For the second year in succession, The Unknown Theatre Company went to the Wales Final Festival of One-Act Plays. The adjudicator, Ian Sarginson GODA, completed the seven regional rounds across Wales, totalled up the marks, and the productions with the top 6 marks were invited to perform at the Wales Final Festival of One-Act plays in Swansea on 4 & 5 June. Youth companies at the final round are rare, but Unknown has now made it two in a row with our production of Scott Tobin's Cotton Girls! Our performance was on Friday 4th June, at the Taliesin Theatre, in Swansea. The adjudicator was Russell Whiteley, GODA.

And we WON! All the girls were shortlisted for the acting award, we were shorlisted for presentation, but in the end we were awarded The Maynard Cup - for the overall Best Production at the Festival. This means that The Unknown Theatre Company will be representing Wales at the British Final Festival in East Kilbride on 26 June. We are, apparently, the first youth company from Wales to reach the British Final.

We also took Cotton Girls to the Llandrindod Festival in May, where we were delighted to receive the Adjudicator's Award. Adjudicator for the evening was Sandra Wynne, GODA.

May 2010

updated June 2010

The presentation evening for the Glamorgan Drama League's annual Glammies awards has now past, held at the Paget Rooms Penarth on Saturday 12th June . The Unknown Theatre Company has an outstanding record at the awards, and has maintained this standard this year.

The full details of the awards will be posted soon, but in the meantime, here's the list of the acting nominations received by The Unknown Theatre Company:

In a musical

In a Play

The full list of nominations, including for the adult entries, can be found on the GDL's website. Good luck, UTC!

May 2010

Congratulations to Andrew Machin, the recipient of this year's prestigious Bob McTurk Bursary. Andrew receives a full bursary to the 2010 Drama Association of Wales Theatre Summer School. The bursary is awarded to a young actor (aged 18-25 years) who shows the most promise in the first round of the National Festival of Community Theatre in Wales (otherwise known as the regional one act festivals). This year's adjudicator, Ian Sarginson GODA, decided that Andrew would be the recipient after seeing him as Brian in The Unknown Theatre Company's production of Deoxyribonucleic Acid in the Glamorgan Drama League One Act Festival last month.

Well done, Andrew!

April 2010

After seeing our entries at the 2010 Glamorgan One-Act Play Festival, honorary festival guest Huw Dylan Ellis (grandson of Dylan Thomas) has kindly agreed to become Honorary Patron of The Unknown Theatre Company. We're delighted to welcome him to the team!

April 2010

Two members of the Unknown YoYos have been selected from applicants across the country to be the Wales contingent at the first ever World Children's Theatre Ensemble to be held in London in September 2010. Children from countries across the world will join in an ensemble to make a very special piece of theatre, incorporating acting, singing and dance. The project culminates in a public performance at the Albert Hall in London.