R&D Development: Pitch Pot Grant

Well, it’s been a busy couple of months! In March I was lucky to have won a Pitch Pot grant from RCT cultural services to develop my Arts Council Research and Development project further. The original R&D looked at pushing the boundaries of Welsh Folk Music and going back to my theatrical roots (I originally trained as an actor at RWCMD). Over 10 days, I worked with Theatre Director Angharad Lee to develop the piece. She gave me a series of writing prompts, where we explored my inner and outer world regarding my connection to my Welsh cultural identity. We had lots of fun, and the process culminated in sharing some of the work that we had been exploring, to a packed audience in the studio at the Parc and Dare, Treorchy. It wasn’t a polished performance by far, as the piece is in its infancy – but the raw sharing of the work was well received and saw me pushing my boundaries again in terms of performing – doing a bit of acting (after a break of many years), clogging and playing the harp at the same time (I do like a challenge!!) as well as sharing a song I had written based on a love letter to my harp, and some spoken word with harp looping. It seemed to develop naturally into a bilingual piece. I’m waiting to hear if the show has been successful in securing more funding from RCT to go on to the next stage of development. Watch this space!