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NEW ’22: From Cardiff to London

The College’s innovative NEW ’22 season returns in its full glory, with our students performing the premieres in Cardiff before taking the shows to London’s Yard Theatre, for the first time in three years.

This annual new writing festival brings together four brand new plays, commissioned especially for the season, and performed by our own Richard Burton Theatre Company.

NEW ’22 also includes two RWCMD commissions, Freedeom (March on Selma) by Writer in Residence Roy Williams and directed by Tom Bellerby, and  REALLY BAD, written and directed by Louise Orwin. Jungle Green is produced in collaboration with Sherman Theatre, written by Jacob Hodgkinson and directed by Matthew Holmquist, and Moon Licks by Charlie Josephine is and directed by Sean Linnen, in collaboration with Paines Plough.

We spoke to the directors and writers to find out more about this exciting season:

Freedom (March on Selma)

In director Tom’s words, the play ‘explores and celebrates protest’s role in the fight for racial equality.’

‘Roy is one of the leading Black voices in the country and a world-leading playwright. We’re honoured to have him with us at the Royal Welsh College,’ said Jonathan Munby, Director of Drama Performance.

Moon Licks

Writer Charlie Josephine introduces her play in the TikTok below:

@rwcmdofficial

♬ original sound – RWCMD

Sean Linnen directed Moon Licks and explained how much he enjoys working with our Richard Burton Theatre Company, just as they are getting ready to graduate and enter the industry.

‘It feels so exciting to work with them while they’re on the precipice of this huge thing, entering into a career as artists and stage managers and designers.’

The design students’ challenge when working on NEW is to create sets that are not only simple enough to travel and set up quickly, but can also work for two of the season’s shows. Below is a timelapse of the set for Moon Licks transforming into the set for Freedom (March on Selma.)

Jungle Green

Director Matthew Holmquist described Jungle Green as a play that ‘touches on a human part of living, knowing that you need to grow up and leave things behind, but that that’s not necessarily being a bad thing.’

REALLY BAD

Louise Orwin, writer of RWCMD commissioned REALLY BAD, described it as ‘kind of a take on coming of age movies. It looks at what it feels like to be living through the apocalypse. It also looks a bit at celebrity culture and what it’s like to grow up in such a media-tired society.’

Louise said that her approach to creating the play was to ‘get it up on its feet as soon as possible. I really love discovering what the heart of the play is with the performers in the space, and having that co-creator, collaborative process. It’s been such a joy to work with these students.’

Photos by Kirsten McTernan.

New ‘22:

Freedom (March on Selma)

By Roy Williams (RWCMD Writer in Residence)
Director: Tom Bellerby

Moon Licks

By Charlie Josephine
Director: Sean Linnen

Jungle Green

By Jacob Hodgkinson
Director: Matthew Holmquist

REALLY BAD

By Louise Orwin
Director: Louise Orwin

 

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