Blogs
NYC City Showcase for USA/Canadian grads held in NYC on Sept 26 at the Signature Theatre
By Bob Titley, 2016-09-28
Kate Burton & Matthew Rhys and the grads after their NYC Showcase on Sept 26.
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Welsh Diva Iris Williams Returns to New York City’s Metropolitan Room
So “Let the Music Begin” at the Metropolitan Room on October 22
New York, NY – September 28, 2016– International song stylist Iris Williams returns to the Metropolitan Room for one night only on October 22 at 7pm, direct from her performance interpreting Sondheim at the Cabaret Convention on October 19.
Since her Metropolitan Room debut in 2013, Iris has sold out at Birdland Jazz in NYC and won critical acclaim for performances at Catalina’s in Los Angeles. She is looking forward to returning to the Metropolitan Room, one of the few remaining cabaret rooms in America. Ms. Williams invites you to ”Let the Music Begin” as she interprets standards by the likes of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Nat King Cole, Carole King, Ashford & Simpson and Edith Piaf on October 22 at 7.00 pm. Metropolitan Room Buy Tickets .
To quote The New York Times’ Stephen Holden, “This demure Welsh singer has one of the most striking voices in all of cabaret...” The vivacious and elegant chanteuse, who always performs with a mischievous twinkle in her eye - ...” – says, “The Metropolitan Room’s coziness suits me down to the ground. It’ll let me keep the audience where I like them – up close – in a hug – or ‘cwtch’ as we say in Welsh.” Iris Williams sings “Dreams”
Ms. Williams’ rich, warm contralto impelled her far beyond the borders of her beloved homeland, Wales. A scholarship student at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, her classical training helped Iris to thrive when her honest and touching rendition of the pop classic “He Was Beautiful” went gold and then platinum, launching the already-accomplished singing actress on an international career.
Now based in New York, the much-loved songstress still performs frequently in Wales. Awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II for her musical accomplishments and her work with charity, Iris has performed at The Algonquin’s Oak Room, for President Gerald Ford and the British Royal Family, and with Tom Jones, Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney and many others. She is currently filming a British TV special.
Catch Iris Williams at The Metropolitan Room on October 22 at 7.00pm. www.themetropolitanroom.com ; 34 West 22 Street, New York City; 212 206 0440.
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Once again I'm organising a flash mob in Times Square for Monday the 24 October. Over 400 Welsh pupils will be singing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau on the steps in Times Square. Please can you highlight this event to your members.
Meet on the steps at 6.30 on the 24 October ang the singing will begin at 7.00 dewch yn llu Cymry America!
Diolch, Dr. Huw Griffiths
Matthew Rhys and grads from the Royal Welsh College after their NYC Showcase on Sept 26.
By Bob Titley, 2016-09-27
Terrific performances from the USA/Canadian grads at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama inaugural NYC Showcase on Sept 26th at the Signature Theater.
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The New Welsh Writing Awards 2017, run by New Welsh Review in association with Aberystwyth University and AmeriCymru, opens for entries on 26 September with two new categories, the Aberystwyth University Prize for Memoir and AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella.
Now in its third year, the Awards were set up to champion the best short-form writing in English and has previously run non-fiction categories with the WWF Cymru Prize for Writing on Nature, won by Eluned Gramich in 2015 and the University of South Wales Prize for Travel Writing, won by Mandy Sutter in June 2016.
This year sees the Awards open up to fiction and memoir, welcoming sponsorship from Aberystwyth University, the core sponsor and host of New Welsh Review, and US online magazine and social network AmeriCymru. The Awards are run in partnership with Curtis Brown, Gladstone’s Library and Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre.
New Welsh Review editor Gwen Davies will judge both categories with Welsh-American writer David Lloyd co-judging the Novella category. David is the author of nine books including poetry collections and novels, and directs the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.
Each category winner will receive £1,000 cash, e-publication by New Welsh Review on their New Welsh Rarebyte imprint and a positive critique by leading literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. Second prize for each category is a weeklong residential course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre in Gwynedd, north Wales and third prize is a weekend stay at Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire, north Wales. All six winners will also receive a one-year subscription to New Welsh Review. In addition New Welsh Review will consider the highly commended and shortlisted nominees for publication in a forthcoming edition of its creative magazine New Welsh Reader with an associated standard fee.
The Awards are open to all writers based in the UK and Ireland plus those who have been educated in Wales. The AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella is also open to writers based in the US and Canada. Entries close at midnight on 1 March 2017. Full details, including terms and conditions, can be found online at www.newwelshwritingawards.com .
The longlist will be announced online on 3 April 2017, with the shortlist announced at an event at Aberystwyth University on 4 May 2017 and the winner at an event at Hay Festival on 1 June 2017.
Gwen Davies , editor of New Welsh Review says: 'We are seeking evocative, succinct and authentic short book-length manuscripts in English. For the novella category they will be between 8,000 and 30,000 words. For the memoir, between 5,000 and 30,000. If your top drawer hides a novella with the punch of Animal Farm or the poignancy and dialect of Mihangel Morgan's Pan Oeddwn yn Fachgen ; or the bite, and visceral local feel of memoirs such as Mary Karr's The Liars' Club or the sheer cheek of Charles Nicholl's The Fruit Palace , we want to hear from you.'
Co-judge David Lloyd says ‘I am delighted to serve as co-judge for the AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella. Ever since writing a novella for my first book of fiction, I have loved the form, which combines the intensity of the short story with the expansiveness of the novel. It can be devoured in one sitting or put down and picked up for leisurely reading. Anyone who has read James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Café , or Kate Chopin’s The Awakening will know the pleasures of this genre in the hands of masters. I also very much value the international scope of this contest, which I hope will draw out authors from diverse backgrounds who write – or who are now inspired to try – the novella.’
Louise Marshall , Head of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with New Welsh Review to find the best writing talent in Wales and beyond. Memoirs are a fascinating and often surprising literary form and, just as these Awards have already celebrated Mandy Sutter’s and Eluned Gramich’s beautifully crafted and enthralling works, we are very much looking forward to discovering equally talented writers in the future.’
Ceri Shaw, co-founder of AmeriCymru, added, ‘AmerCymru is honored to be offered this opportunity to partner with the New Welsh Review and Aberystwyth University. We founded AmeriCymru to increase awareness of Wales and Welsh heritage and to bring Wales and its arts, including literature, to the attention of more people around the world. This competition provides voice and opportunity to new and upcoming writers, and we are excited to be able to contribute to this effort.’
The AmeriCymru Prize For The Novella 2017!! https://t.co/xC0JnppRDj #Wales #writing pic.twitter.com/HKGWqoEUGl
— americymru (@americymru) September 26, 2016
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His views come from the new updated edition of John Dawes: The Man who Changed the World of Rugby by Ross Reyburn in which Dawes and the late Carwyn James cite their views on what could be done to transform the modern game for the better.
Reyburn’s biography is the only first-hand account of the 1971 Lions in print backtracking the tour’s success to its birthplace at Old Deer Park where Dawes created the spectacular London Welsh side in the late 1960s. And it also provides as shrewd an analysis of the faults of modern rugby as you will find anywhere in The Legacy of the Dawes Era chapter.
Carwyn James and the late Daily Telegraph rugby correspondent John Reason in their book The World of Rugby – A History of Rugby Union Football published in 1979 with prophetic foresight attacked a new law allowing tackled players to pass the ball if they kept it off the ground wrote:
‘If the tackler is not rewarded with at least an interruption in the attacking side’s control of the ball ...he will stand up and maul for the ball, as they do in rugby league. Is that really what the International Board wants from rugby union football?
The changes in the tackle law ...have introduced the pile-up, as players seek to keep the ball off the ground and opponents seek to smother it. The solution is obvious. Return to the old law which required a player immediately to release the ball once he had been brought to the ground.’
John Dawes, who translated his vision of attacking 15-man rugby perfected at London Welsh to the 1971 Lions in his great partnership with James, echoed similar concerns telling Reyburn in 2013:
‘What the game has developed now is physicality. These days the first thing you look at in a player is how big he is, how strong he is. You don’t see the ball go down the line from set pieces. What you see is a mess. You would be penalized in our day for a pile-up. But now they just dive in jumping on each ther. I can’t understand how the referee allows it. Playing physically as they do now injuries will increase.’
Dawes’s injuries prediction has proved all too true and in April 2015 Prof Allyson Pollock argued the game was too dangerous in its existing form for schools. Reyburn argues backing the views of Carwyn James and John Dawes need not be complex. World Rugby needs to return to the old tackle law, ensure existing laws are strictly enforced so the straight scrum feed returns and solo clear-out charges are penalised and return rugby to its traditional role as a 15-man game cutting the substitutes bench to four players available only as blood or injury replacements.
It is now over 30 years since Carwyn James sadly died aged just 53 and John Dawes’s direct involvement in the game has passed. But rugby union’s debt to these two visionaries from the Welsh valleys need not have ended.
The updated edition of Ross Reyburn’s biography, The Man Who Changed the World of Rugby – John Dawes and the Legendary 1971 British Lions (Y Lolfa, paperback £9.99) is available now.
It includes articles by former Wales and Lions flanker John Taylor, the late Evening Standard sports editor JL Manning and former Birmingham Post rugby correspondent Michael Blair highlighting the debt the game owes Dawes.
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With Autumn closing in what better way pass the time than with a good book? For aficianados of crime fiction a good murder story is the ideal for whiling away the dark evening hours. Check out our selection of Welsh crime writers from Canada, the USA, Europe and Wales itself. Happy reading! 
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh crime fiction writer and roving guitarist Andrew Peters:-
" I was born in beautiful Barry on June 21st many years ago. That''s the longest day of the year ("Bloody felt like it too" Mrs GE Peters) so I have always yearned for the sun. After looking for it in vain in the UK, I toured the world as a guitarist and finally settled in Spain in 2004. "
Read our Interview with Peter here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Stephen and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What was the first thing you wrote and what attracted you to crime fiction writing?
Stephen: My first thing attempt at writing seriously was a general fiction novel. And my second novel was a political thriller based in London and Wales in the pre-devolution era. Luckily neither ever generated any interest from agents or publishers.
Read our Interview with Stephen here
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The Seedy Side Of Life In Rural Wales
''A friend is a good egg, even if they are slightly cracked - blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light''
Read our Interview with Delphine here ......
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Rhys Bowen is the award winning writer of the Constable Evans mysteries set in the Snowdonia Mountains of Wales. Apart from the Constable Evans series, Rhys has written many other novels and children's books, including many best-selling titles. She has also written some historical sagas and TV tie-ins. She currently resides in California and spends her winters in Arizona. AmeriCymru spoke to her about her work and future plans.
Read our Interview with Rhys here
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Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea, South Wales, worked for decades in marketing communications, and migrated to Canada in 2000. Bestselling author Ace is the 2015 winner of the Bony Blithe Award for Best Canadian Light Mystery (for The Corpse with the Platinum Hair). AmeriCymru spoke to Cathy about her life and writing.
Read our Interview with Cathy here
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5 Welsh Crime Writers - Americymru | https://t.co/OCZJ8vgCyw https://t.co/VfLqPmQqW9 via @sharethis
— americymru (@americymru) September 21, 2016
Kate Burton to open Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’s Inaugural Actors’ Showcase at the Signature Theater in New York on September 26, 2016
By Bob Titley, 2016-09-20
Kate Burton to open Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’s
Inaugural Actors’ Showcase at the Signature Theater
in New York on September 26, 2016
New York, New York – September 20, 2016 - With the increasing numbers of UK-trained actors on the major US media channels, the time is right for The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’s (RWCMD) inaugural US Actors Showcase in New York City. It will be held at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater in the Signature Theater complex on September 26, 2016. Obviously, the US broadcast and theater industries value training and technique and this event will provide its American and Canadian graduates with the opportunity to showcase the talents they’ve honed at RWCMD to US casting directors, agents and managers.
The Showcase will be introduced by Emmy and Tony Award nominee Kate Burton, daughter of the great Welsh actor Richard Burton.
"I have been associated with the College for a long time and have been very impressed by the quality of work I have seen, so much so that I offered to introduce them to the New York entertainment community,” says Kate Burton.
RWCMD was named by The Guardian University Guide as the top drama school in the UK twice in the last three years; the acting course delivers an intensive program that concentrates on the skills most valued by the theater and film industries in the UK and US.
RWCMD attracts talented acting students from all over the US, following rigorous auditions in New York, Chicago and LA. With just 22 undergraduate slots, the College is one of the most competitive drama schools in the UK. Its resident company of final year actors, The Richard Burton Company, stages fifteen productions each year, running the gamut from the classic to contemporary repertoire.
Leading agents and casting directors regularly attend the College’s productions and the Head of Casting from the Royal Shakespeare Company auditions every acting student. National Theatre’s (NT) Head of Casting, Wendy Spon, is also a frequent visitor, “it’s one of my favorite drama schools,” she says. “The standard of training is high and the NT consistently auditions and employs their graduates.”
The College is one of the UK’s leading schools “with a reputation for producing unusual and exciting well-trained actors that the industry is hungry for every year,” says Tony Award-winning theatre director Michael Grandage.
Christopher Farrar of the Hamilton Hodell Entertainment Agency says, “The Royal Welsh College is an outstanding school; their ability to produce fearless, curious and exciting actors is second to none and their showcases are consistently fresh and inventive... Hamilton Hodell is extremely proud to represent many of their alumni…”
Editors’ Notes:
- “We feel confident that our students will compare favourably with those training at the top US schools. So we are now putting on our first ever US Showcase at the Signature Theatre in New York. Our London Showcase is one of the best attended in the UK and we hope that that we can go from strength to strength and emulate that. It’s an adventure and we intend to enjoy it! “ David Bond, Head of Actor Training, RWCMD
- In 2011 Kate Burton opened the Royal Welsh College’s new multi-million dollar facilities in Cardiff, where she also unveiled a bust of her father. Elizabeth Taylor had presented the bust of her late husband to RWCMD Patron Prince Charles at a royal gala at Buckingham Palace. It now stands in front of the new RWCMD Richard Burton Theatre. Kate Burton is an International Associate of RWCMD and continues to assist the College with its advancement appeals in the US. She is a graduate and trustee of Brown University and a graduate and on the board of advisors of The Yale School of Drama.
- In 2013 on March1 (St David’s Day – the Feast of Wales’ patron saint), Welsh actor Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex), who is a Fellow and International Chair in Drama at the College, unveiled Richard Burton’s star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. With the College’s President, Lord Rowe-Beddoe, Michael then launched the College’s Scholarship Appeal in the US at a reception to celebrate Welsh talent.
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(from left to right, Gwenllian Jones (Office Manager), Carolyn Hodges (English language editor), a Robat Trefor (Welsh language copy editor)
Lolfa publishers have welcomed three new staff members this month.
Gwenllian Jones has been appointed Office Manager, Carolyn Hodges as English language editor and Robat Trefor as Welsh language copy editor.
Gwenllian Jones, the new Office Manager, is from Aberaeron originally and graduated from Aberystwyth University. She previously worked with Avanti in Cardiff before moving back to Ceredigion.
‘I’m glad to be back in Ceredigion and look forward to working for such a busy and colourful company!’ said Gwenllian.
The new Welsh language copy editor is Robat Trefor from Anglesey who will also be working part time at Ysgol y Gymraeg in Bangor university.
‘Its quite a responsibility but I’m very happy to be joining the team and returning to the world of books!’ said Robat Trefor.
Carolyn Hodges will be stepping in to the role of English editor – which is a new job at Y Lolfa.
Carolyn comes from Buckingham in England originally and began her editing career at Oxford University press where she worked for 14 years.
‘I learnt Welsh myself by using Say Something in Welsh and had always dreamed of moving to Wales to live and to be able to speak the language everyday,’ said Carolyn, ‘so I feel very lucky to be given this opportunity.’
Said Y Lolfa’s managing director, Garmon Gruffudd,
‘It is with great pleasure that we welcome Gwenllian, Robat and Carolyn to our team at Y Lolfa. All three are very experienced and will be a great asset to the company as Y Lolfa continue to publish new and exciting publications in Welsh and English.’
Y Lolfa will be celebrating their 50 th anniversary next year.
Recorded at the book launch event at the Dylan Thomas Center, Swansea on March 13th 2014.
