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Wales Celebrates its Rock Star Poet During His Centenary Year
Additional Programs Announced
New York, May 21, 2014 The centenary celebration of Dylan Thomas’s birth (born Swansea: October 27, 1914; died New York City: November 9, 1953) - Dylan Thomas 100 – continues in Wales with news of additional multi-disciplinary events being added to the festival’s creative mix.
An inspiration for poet-musicians like Bob Dylan and John Lennon and actors like Richard Burton, Dylan Thomas was a bona-fide rock-star before there was such a thing – sometimes playing to crowds of 1,000 – especially in the USA. Welsh actor Matthew Rhys ( The Americans; Brothers and Sisters ) who has channeled the poet (in the film Edge of Love ) hopes you’ll join the festivities, “We’ve been celebrating Dylan Thomas in Wales for decades now. Come to Wales this year and celebrate his centenary.”
The eponymously named digital hub www.dylanthomas100.org makes it easy and fun to discover Dylan Thomas, explore places in Wales he is connected with, engage via social networking and locate festival events via a Timeline tab. The site americas.visitwales.com is a resource for planning your Dylan-themed trip to Wales and for downloading a full list of Dylan Thomas 100 events.
Here is a sampling of the inspired programs on tap during the second half of 2014:
- June 28–Dec 20: Dylan – National Library of Wales – www.dylanthomas100.org/llgc.org.uk :
A combination of dance, poetry and the visual arts will provide a fresh take on Dylan’s life and work. The event will enliven several of the Library’s gallery spaces in Aberystwyth and will include displays of personal items, providing a unique view of Dylan’s world.
- June 28: Dylanathon – 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea - www.dylanthomasbirthplace.com
Using a camera, smartphone or tablet, entrants are asked to use innovation over picture quality to interpret Dylan-related themes throughout the day.
- July 19: Dylan Thomas’ Swansea Hollywood: The Mummy and the Old Dark Horse – www.literaturewales.org
This Dylan odyssey visits three of Dylan’s childhood cinemas in Swansea with a talk in a secret space at a fourth. The evening culminates with Andrew Davies introducing a screening of his new film, “A Poet in New York,” starring Tom Hollander, followed by a Q & A session.
- Aug-Sept: Bedazzled - A Welshman in New York - www.ffotogallery.org
Celebrating Dylan’s special relationship with the USA, especially New York, a series of live events will “re-imagine” Dylan’s favorite watering hole – New York’s White Horse Tavern. Audiences will be transported to the bohemian world of 1950’s Greenwich Village where Dylan held court.
- Sept 5–Dec 24 Manuscripts Exhibition – Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea – www.dylanthomas.com
Infrequently exhibited items on loan from the University of Buffalo include poems, lists of rhyming words and black and white photographs.
- Oct 26-Oct 27 The Dylathon – The Swansea Grand Theatre – www.dylathon100.com
The Wales Theatre Company stages a non-stop 36 hour marathon reading of Dylan’s work. Performers include Sir Derek Jacobi, Jonathan Pryce, and many more acclaimed personalities together with schools, bands and choirs numbering in the hundreds.
- Oct 27-Nov 9 Dylan Thomas Festival – Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea – www.dylanthomas.com
This 17 th annual eclectic celebration will feature talks, exhibitions, workshops and performances.
Dylan Thomas 100 and www.dylanthomas100.org highlights Welsh locations closely associated with the poet-like his birthplace, Swansea, his old writing shed, and his home -The Boathouse - in the town of Laugharne. And the program ranges across all artistic disciplines – from literature, to opera, theatre and painting. From high profile exhibits and live performances to community-based educational programs.
Business and Tourism Minister Edwina Hart said: “Dylan Thomas is one of the literary giants of the last century.” … “These events will help contribute to a fitting legacy for Dylan’s life and work, but I also hope they will resurrect a passion for literature and inspire people of all ages to connect more actively with our rich cultural heritage. In the spirit of Dylan, it is an opportunity to showcase Wales as a land of artistic excellence to an international audience and raise further the iconic status of this great literary figure.”
To find out more about these landmark events visit www.dylanthoms100.org . To plan your itinerary in Wales and for a downloadable program of Dylan Thomas 100 events: americas.visitwales.com .
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....and the the many millions of Americans who claim Welsh descent. I refer of course to the following:-
Film inspired by Gareth Thomas relocated to Ireland as the US ‘won’t get Wales’
In my opinion the film will be trash as a consequence. This is a Welsh story which took place in Wales involving Welsh characters. Now of course everyone will be carrying shillaleghs and drinking Guiness and the whole thing will be turned into a pantomime farce. Who knows...perhaps there will be a few leprechauns thrown in as well for good measure? Personally I will be boycotting this travesty and I hope it flops
If you are reading this and you are similarly outraged please go to https://www.facebook.com/AmeriCymru?ref=hl and add your voice to the growing chorus of protest against this decision. The relevant post is pinned to the top of the feed......diolch 
Also please consider emailing Cargo Entertainment ( the production company ) to tell them what you think of them. This is their email address:- info@cargoentertainment.com
If you are on Twitter you can also tweet one of the Producers here @CostiganMichael
RE: 'STOLEN THUNDER'
To whom it may concern
Your claim that American cinema audiences will not 'get Wales' is every bit as absurd as it is insulting. Let's deal with the absurdity first:-
1. The President of the USA recently visited Wales for a NATO summit. He had no trouble finding it. Perhaps he had foreknowledge of its existence or maybe he used a map? Either way I contend that few people in the US, in the post Torchwood era, do not know what Wales is or where it is. Your claim to the contrary is both patronising and grossly insulting to American film audiences.
2. You are currently producing another movie called 'The Price'. I hope you won't object if I quote from the synopsis on this page:- http://www.cargoentertainment.com/the-price/
"Clare and her 5-year-old son Finn are in hiding in rural FRANCE after an ugly custody dispute with his father Liam. She wakes in the middle of the night to find Jonas, one of Liam’s cronies, kidnapping Finn. She tracks Liam down to BERLIN ....."
I don't know whether this movie will be produced on location in France and Germany but I note that you have not changed the setting to Dublin in order to avoid confusion. Wales is, if anything, a slightly less exotic venue than either of these two.
3. Assuming for a moment that you were correct and that US movie audiences do not 'get Wales' would this not make the film all the more interesting? What makes you think that people constantly want more of the same?
And so to the insult:-
1. This is a Welsh story which took place in Wales involving real Welsh people. Indeed Gareth Thomas is something of a sporting and cultural icon. Therefore, in my opinion, your use of his life story without reference either to him or Wales is an act of blatant cultural 'appropriation'. Perhaps appropriation is too mild a term?
2. It has been suggested that this film will help members of the gay community by highlighting the pain that they go through when 'coming out'. I sincerely hope it does. But I doubt that is your true goal. If so, It seems o dd that you would choose to dilute the impact of the movie by removing its true protagonist. It is also strange that you would seek to better the lot of one minority by viciously insulting another. The Welsh are a minority in the UK and some would claim that they are an oppressed minority also.
Please be aware that if you deign to respond, I may publicly reproduce all, or parts, of your reply.
Ceri Shaw
COMMENTS FROM THE OLD AMERICYMRU SITE
Hi Christopher
Many thanks for posting and of course you are entirely correct vis a vis the announcement in the Telegraph BUT if you go to this page you will plainly see that 'Irish Thunder' is still listed as a pre-production project:- http://www.cargoentertainment.com/irish-thunder/
SO...yes the Gareth Thomas movie has been cancelled BUT at the moment the massively insulting (imho ) 'replacement' project is still due to go ahead. No one would be happier than me to learn that the whole thing has been shelved BUT there is little indication of that on the Cargo Entertainment website.
What appears to be the case is that the Gareth Thomas biopic has been cancelled and a rather trashy exploitation flic has been substituted for it.
Christopher Benson April 19, 2015 at 2:35am
It tuns out that this is a false alarm. Yes it was a slight against Wales, but it is going no further. There will be no movie (or at least not THAT one). The following extract is from an article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph exactly two months ago on 18 February 2015. It is an interview with Gareth Thomas by Jasper Rees. I draw your attention to the last four words of the first paragraph below:
And yet there is no getting away from his story. The film world is naturally keen to get in on the act, and the first person to pop up was Mickey Rourke who, though 20 years Thomas’s senior, seemed eager to take the lead himself. The project fell through.
“It was like a car crash,” he says. Thomas is keen not to dwell on it, although he’s now working on a new film with another writer.
Jasper Rees, in the Culture Section of the Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2015.
The full Daily Telegraph article is here. My extract quoted above is around the 18th or 19th paragraph. On most browsers you can type Ctrl-F then rourke to find it). So the slight against Wales was small - very small by the usual historical distortions that emanate from Hollywood - just a slight slight against Wales, if you will.
But who is going to tell Fiona Audley of the Irish Post (Twitter @fifiaudley) that her 13 April 2015 is "all for naught"?
The Wikipedia article on Gareth Thomas has been reporting since 21 February 2015 that the Rourke film project was cancelled, and the Daily Telegraph reported it on 19 February.
It is obvious from the February 2015 article that the "coming out" aspect of the Gareth Thomas story was made into a play by the National Theatre Wales called "Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage" (Cymraeg). It was set to open that night for a scheduled 17 day run in Cardiff before Touring Wales and England that will end 121 days later near the end of June after a 32 day run in London.
There are no plans to take the Gareth Thomas play to Southern California - or Ireland for that matter.
Chris Benson.
gaabi April 19, 2015 at 10:26am
Only the Gareth Thomas part of the film is cancelled, Rourke IS still making a film about a gay rugby player but he'll now be a made-up Irish guy instead - THAT is the problem. If you look at the Cargo Entertainment page Ceri cited above, you'll see it, production is supposed to start in February 2016.
Christopher Benson April 20, 2015 at 1:02am
Yes Gaabi and Ceri, I agree that this is an affront to a respectable and respected Welshman, our national sport, and even to honesty. It is yet another example of Hollywood's litany of historical distortions, but most are more prominent than this one will be. The good news is that nobody goes to see movies that Cargo Entertainment are involved in.
As a fellow "Left Coast" resident of the States, I know that this kind of distortion of the facts is unnecessary and the supposed logic behind it does not reflect the average American.
This Hollywood aversion to the truth is so pervasive that I would almost feel insulted if the Welsh were not their occasional target like everyone else.
Now I find THIS insulting to the Welsh (at the 1:00 minute mark). It aired on HBO in North America on Sunday July 20, 2014.
As I posted to an American forum at the time:
The Welshman insulted at the 1:00 minute mark is twenty year old Rhys Jones from Pontypridd, Wales. He has cerebral palsy and he can run faster than you.
gaabi April 22, 2015 at 11:23pm
Good for you, Christopher!
And this especially made me happy: "...nobody goes to see movies that Cargo Entertainment are involved in." Yes, I recall their many nominations and box office boffo... wait, no..
The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society April 19, 2015 at 12:13am
It's a rather pathetic reason and one that doesn't make sense on any level. Trying to contact the producers and actors in the film, it's still in preproduction so there is a chance changes could be made.
Ceri Shaw April 19, 2015 at 10:23am
Gwych....will be doing likewise
Ceri Shaw April 18, 2015 at 11:20am
Looking forward to Mickey's next film 'Owain Seamus Glyndwr - The Great Irish Freedom Fighter'
Ceri Shaw April 17, 2015 at 6:25pm
I just read that the movie will be called 'Irish Thunder' ??????? Words fail me!
gaabi April 22, 2015 at 11:24pm
Poster coming soon....
AmeriCymru: Hi Bob and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about the history of the Welsh Festival?
Bob: “The Fredericksburg Welsh Festival ”, originally “A Little Welsh Festival”, was started back in 1989 by John Pearce, then the Director of the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg. John’s ancestry was Welsh and he had discovered that our fifth President, James Monroe’ s mother, Elizabeth Jones, was the daughter of a Welsh emigrant. While the Irish and the Scots have always been very successful at advertising the contributions of their Celtic ancestors, the Welsh have not. To remedy this, the first Welsh Festival was held in September 1989, in the garden of the James Monroe Museum, located on the site of James Monroe’s first law office. Entertainment was provided, among others, by Roslyn LaDrew, a professor of Celtic studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Welsh folk singer and Sian Frick, Welsh folk dance instructor. Both of these individuals are still performing for us today. After about ten years, the festival had grown and it was decided to change the name to “The Fredericksburg Welsh Festival”
AmeriCymru: There is a strong emphasis on traditional music at the Festival. Can you tell us a little about this years performers?
Bob: We have a strong group of performers this year. We seem to go from success to success. The entertainment will begin with the Stafford Regional Choral Society under the direction of Kevin Perry. Kevin is the music director at my church and also, along with his wife Barbara Perry, the director of the Choral society. We have had other choruses in the past: The Rehoboth Welsh Chorus and the Burry Port Male Chorus and the British School Chorus. I helped Kevin perform Calon Lan at our church and he loved the music, so we decided to have the Stafford Regional Choral Society perform for us. This will be their third year. They do a mixture of Welsh folk tunes as well as some Broadway and pop songs as done by choirs back in Wales. This year they will be adding the love duet between Blodwen and Hywel from Joseph Parry’s opera “Blodwen”. There are three bands featuring Welsh folk tunes and some venturing to other Brythonic lands such as Cornwall and Brittany. First folk group on the program will be a new Welsh folk group “DragonFyre” featuring Welsh- American folk singer Jodee James (guitar, lead vocals) and Dave Rich (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Deb Wenrich (fiddle, accordion, vocals), James Brown (guitar, bodhran, vocals) and Bob Roser (highland and small pipes). Iona, the top Celtic folk band in the Mid Atlantic area will return again featuring Barbara Ryan (guitar, bouzouki, bodhran, lead vocals) , Bernard Argent (wind instruments), Jim Queen (fiddle, banjo and vocals) and Chuck Lawhorn (bass guitar). Moch Pryderi, which got its start at the Welsh Festival, will feature Bill Reese(bouzouki and anything with strings and wind), Mary Triola (Celtic and Triple Harp, whistles, flute), Rik Rice (percussion), Paul Burgess (highland pipes, shuttle pipes and whistles) and Luke Gray (fiddle). Moch Pryderi also plays for the Fredericksburg Welsh Dancers who will finish up the main stage entertainment. Besides dancing for your enjoyment, there will be an audience participation set.
AmeriCymru: In addition to the music, there are many other attractions. Can you tell us some of the highlights?
Bob: We always have a full set of attractions and talks in Mrs. Monroe’s garden behind the Museum. Each year has had a slightly different lineup. This year we have the following thirty minutes programs in the Garden. Bill Reese and Mary Triola will discuss unusual Welsh musical instruments such as the pibgorn. Jay Harrison will portray Colonel James Monroe and discuss his life and times. Later he will also do a talk on James Monroe’s Revolutionary War service. Monroe was seriously wounded at the Battle of Trenton. Sian Frick will discuss Welsh customs. John Gwyn, who is the winner of our annual Festival Bard award, will do a program of Welsh hymns and folk songs on the guitar in a more intimate setting than the main stage. Trip Wiggins will discuss Welsh genealogy. Bob Roser will give a short Welsh language lesson. Prize winning Welsh storyteller Cindy Roser will present a program of Welsh folk tales. The Rappahannock Rugby Club will discuss rugby. In the past we have had a genuine Rhondda Valley rugby player, but Rowland Evans is not available this year. Roslyn LaDrew will discuss the Mabinogion. Chris Pugh who is a Middle Ages reenactor will discuss the Medieval long bow, which was a Welsh weapon. There will also be a Medieval Welsh display in the vendor area. There will be a number of vendors selling Welsh goods, Welsh books, and the Infamous Welsh Cookie Company will be here once again. The Honey Baked Ham store will appear for the first time this year. We have a Welsh information booth run by the Welsh Society and another with Cheryl Mitchell from the St. David’s Society of Washington, D.C. complete with brochures from the Welsh Tourist Board.
AmeriCymru: The Festival is organized by the Welsh Society of Fredericksburg Virginia. Please tell us a more about the society and its work?
Bob: The Welsh Society of Fredericksburg was formed at the first Welsh Festival in 1989. Last year was our 25 th Anniversary of both the Festival and the Society. Besides the Welsh Festival which takes a lot of effort, each year we have an annual picnic, a Christmas Noson Lawen, a St David’s Day pot luck, and six programs on Wales. We have given talks on Wales to organizations and schools in the Fredericksburg area including the University of Mary Washington. We have attended the University’s multicultural festival usually in conjunction with the Scottish Society. We have had a Welsh language course on several occasions. We have marched in the annual Christmas parade along with the Scottish Society and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. We publish a monthly newsletter, The Cambrian. The Welsh Society is very active and we are always ready to help spread the contributions of Wales to our community.
AmeriCymru: OK...so, when and where? Can you give us some directions?
Bob: We time the festival to be at the same time as the University Parents’ Day weekend. The Welsh Festival is on Saturday, September 19, 2015 from 11AM to 5PM. We used to start at noon, but the addition of more entertainment made us decide to add another hour for your enjoyment. The festival is held on the 900 block of Charles Street in front of the James Monroe Museum in the old town section of Fredericksburg. We close the street and have a massive Welsh block party. The Welsh Society has a website at www.welshfred.com and instructions will be posted. There will also be directional signage. The historic city of Fredericksburg is right off of Interstate 95.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Bob: If you are looking for an extended vacation there is none better than in Fredericksburg, VA. Within a ten mile radius were fought four of the largest battles of the American Civil War making this area the bloodiest in all of North America. Fredericksburg is one of only two cities in our country to experience door to door fighting (Gettysburg being the other) and you can still see the bullet holes from the battle. George Washington’s boyhood home is just across the Rappahannock River at Ferry Farm and Mount Vernon is not that far. Mary Ball Washington (the President’s mother) is buried here as well as other notables of our history. Washington, D.C. is about 45 miles away to the north while the Virginia capital of Richmond is about 50 miles in the other direction. There are Revolutionary War sites, such as the home and apothecary shop of General Mercer (killed at the Battle of Princeton and ancestor of Johnny Mercer and Colonial American historical sites as well.
