“Promoting performing arts classes, groups and companies in South West Wales.” The STAR website offers an extensive directory of classes, groups and rehearsal spaces in the area as well as listings for plays etc coming soon across the city and county of Swansea. STAR has a website and offline booklet containing extensive details of all of the performance and rehearsal spaces available in Swansea and there relative costs. Please visit the website.
Performing Arts Courses
Counterpoint School of Performing Arts: “Founded by Sheila Cunliffe over 25 years ago, and now based in Swansea, UK, Counterpoint School of Performing Arts offers classes in Ballet, Tap, Modern and Jazz dance, Musical Theatre, Drama and Singing, and Gymnastic/Acrobatics - All aspects of the Performing Arts, for all ages!”
Gorseinon College: Offers a wide range of A-Level and BTEC performing arts courses.
Swansea Institute: “As well as our new degree programme in BA Honours Performing Arts and Theatre Studies we also offer an HND course in Technical Theatre. We have our own theatre space, the Townhill Theatre, which is a very flexible venue and allows us to stage a number of performances over the year. This year alone students have participated in no less than 10 different productions, ranging from devised group projects to performances directed by final year students themselves.”
The Opera School Wales: “In 2002 The Adelina Patti Theatre became the home of The Opera School Wales. Now in its 17th year, The Opera School Wales is a well-established, post-graduate training school for talented young artists.”
Location: The Adelina Patti Theatre, Craig Y Nos Castle, Pen Y Cae, Upper Swansea Valley.
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama: “The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is the National Conservatoire of Wales, providing specialist practical and performance-based training that enables students to enter and influence the music, theatre and related professions.”
Swansea College: Offers a range of performing art courses including B.A. in Theatre and Performing Arts, Diplomas and AS/A2 in Dance and Drama.
Location: Llwyn-y-Bryn Campus, Uplands, Swansea
Performance and Rehearsal Spaces
Elysium Gallery: A dynamic and contemporary artist-run venue for the visual arts. They provide a platform and vital stepping stone for artists, allowing them the opportunity and experience of showcasing their work in a city centre space. A unique, exciting and forward thinking gallery.
Location: Elysium Contemporary Art Space, 41 High Street, Swansea SA1 1LT.
Open: Launches in November 2007.
Tel: 01792 641313
Monkey Café: This quirky café-bar-club exhibits the work of local artists and photographers upon the walls and stages one-off art events that may include film, music, dance and performance. Salsa classes run every Tuesday 7.30pm-9.30pm for £4.
Location: Monkey Café, 13 Castle Street, Swansea, SA1 1JF
Open: Daily from coffee-time `til late
Tel: 01792 480 822
Taliesin Arts Centre: Based on campus at the University of Wales Swansea, this popular arthouse venue presents an innovative programme of dance and performance.
Location: Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PZ.
Open: Monday to Friday: 10am - 6pm, Saturday: 12 to 3pm & 3.30 - 6pm, Performance evenings: 6pm - late.
Tel: 01792 296883
Dylan Thomas Centre: A permanent exhibition on Dylan Thomas and his life, as well as a bookshop and cosy cafe stuffed with books, posters and memorabilia. The Centre is also home to many literary events throughout the year, including the annual Dylan Thomas Festival during October and November. It also has an excellent restaurant, and the beautifully refurbished building provides a great setting for weddings, functions and conferences.
Location: The Dylan Thomas Centre, Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR.
Open: Daily 10am to 4.30pm and evening performances, free.
Tel: 01792 463980
Dylan Thomas Theatre: Home of the Dylan Thomas Little Theatre.
Location: The Dylan Thomas Theatre, Dylan Thomas Square, The Marina, Swansea SA1 1TY.
Open: Varies.
Tel: 01792 473238
Grand Theatre: A venue for touring dance, theatre, musicals and comedy and exhibitions complete with arts wing.
Location: Swansea Grand Theatre, Singleton Street, Swansea SA1 3QJ
Open: Mon to Sat, 9.30am to 8pm, exhibitions are free, shows vary in cost.
Tel: 01792 475715
Ostreme Centre: It has been at the heart of Mumbles life for over a quarter of a century and offers a diverse range of classes, arts and craft activities, live performances and a regular craft fair.
Location: Newton Road, Mumbles, Swansea SA3 4BE
Open: Hours vary.
Tel: 01792 362444
Groups and Organisations
Framework: An artist collective based in Swansea. On the first Tuesday of every month they host the event `Framework Social' at St.James Social Club, Uplands, Swansea. It is a space for artists, arts related practitioners and people from the community to meet and socialise where they show a consistently high standard of experimental live art, performance work, spoken word, video work, installation, drawing and work by multi-disciplinary artists from Swansea, Cardiff and other parts of the UK.
Swansea MAS Carnival (SWICA): “SWICA is dedicated to celebrating the cultural diversity of the region through creating new arts opportunities to be enjoyed by people from a wide variety of backgrounds.” They organise the annual MAS carnival in the city including a month of FREE music, dance, costume and performance workshops for the people of Swansea.
Theatr na n'Og: “Formerly Theatre West Glamorgan until 2000, the company have been producing high quality theatre for young people in English and Welsh for twenty five years. Theatr na n'Og provide a first class Theatre-in-Education service to schools in Neath Port Talbot, Swansea and Bridgend. The company also tour productions to general audiences in venues across the UK. Theatr na n'Og are publicly funded by the Arts Council of Wales, the City and County of Swansea, the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot and the County Borough of Bridgend.”
The Wales Theatre Company: Based at Swansea Grand. “A principal aim is to raise the profile of Welsh theatre throughout Wales and beyond, providing a quality working environment for those many Welsh theatre practitioners working outside Wales who currently lack a platform on which to display their talents.” Artistic Director: Michael Bogdanov.
Volcano: “Volcano is an international touring company of 20 years' standing that has produced 25 professional shows and toured to 38 countries from Argentina to Azerbaijan. Our style is bold, exuberant and contemporary, and our mission is to make fearless and inspiring theatre for intelligent, imaginative people of all kinds in Wales, the UK and beyond. We have a reputation for energetic, unpredictable and arresting work that combines strong visual impact, physicality and intelligent text. Volcano's theatre is determinedly political, setting itself against the complacent, the orthodox, and the bland. The company's repertoire ranges from experimental new writing and devised work to iconoclastic reworkings or deconstructions of classics.”
The Stage: Long running weekly newspaper for theatre lovers and professionals.
Fluellen Theatre Company: “Fluellen Theatre Company, named after the pugnacious Welsh Captain in Shakespeare`s Henry V, was formed in 2000 to produce a wide repertoire of classic plays from world theatre. Productions have included acclaimed presentations of Macbeth, Ghosts, The Trojan Women, King Lear, The House of Bernarda Alba, Loot, Life of Galileo, The Cherry Orchard, Othello, The Duchess of Malfi, The Master Builder, The Comedy of Errors, Oedipus The King, A Midsummer Night`s Dream, Maria Marten or The Murder In The Red Barn, Measure For Measure, The Caretaker, Toshack Or Me! ,Twelfth Night, Mother Courage And Her Children and The Taming Of The Shrew. All productions are premiered at the Grand Theatre Arts Wing in Swansea before touring.”
Creative Industries Research and Innovation Centre (CIRIC): CIRIC is funded by The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), Swansea Institute and private sector finance to re-invigorate the creative industries sector within Wales. For too long creative practitioners have been forced to leave Wales to gain access to the necessary resources that are needed to further their careers.
ACT Swansea: “The "Wednesday Playoff" is a monthly opportunity for authors to have rehearsed readings of their play performed in front of a live audience. 15-minute extracts will be performed from up to 5 new plays at each Play Off event. They are reviewed by an invited panel of judges. Both the audience and the judges decide which was their favourite piece. The authors of the winning plays are then invited to submit a second extract from their play the 'final round' where they compete against other heat winners.”
Arts Council Wales: Their new look website offers a complete overview of the Arts Council of Wales' work, funding information and also a comprehensive arts database featuring some of Wales' foremost arts organisations and practitioners.
BAFTA Cymru: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts in Wales.
Drama Association of Wales: “Founded in 1934 and a registered charity since 1973, the Association offers a wide and varied range of services to Community Drama. Among others, members include amateur and professional theatre practitioners, educationalists and playwrights.”
Theatre Wales: “Welcome to the only comprehensive welsh theatre and performance web site.” They don't lie, this website is an incredibly useful resource. With directories of performers, companies and venues alongside opportunities, listings and reviews it is simply fantastic.
Equity: “Equity is the UK Trade Union representing professional performers and other creative workers from across the spectrum of the entertainment, creative and cultural industries.”
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