Five Minutes With…

Theatr Clwyd’s Emyr John, creative engagement associate

Emyr writes and directs Theatr Clwyd’s Welsh language Christmas production, and this year will be writing and directing The Ice Witch/Gwrach yr Iâ. Emyr lives in Ruthin and has worked at Theatr Clwyd since 2006.

What is your role at the theatre?

I mainly deal with applied theatre. This means I create shows and workshops programmes that are targeted at schools and communities.

What does theatre mean to you?

Theatre is something I just love to watch, perform in, direct or write for. It is a magical world I feel comfortable and at ease with. It has been in my blood now for over 30 years, and it never gets tired.

What’s the best part of the job?

Theatre is not something you can do on your own and being part of the Theatr Clwyd team feels like working with your friends every day.

Everyone is so dedicated and is striving for the same goal, to make what we do, the best that it can be. It raises your game. So, in short, it’s the people I work with!

Why is it important to make great theatre for children and young people?

Children are trying to understand the world around them as they grow. They do it through play, through pretend, through games and stories.

Great theatre for children helps them to share emotions, process their own thoughts and ask questions of the world around them. It’s also great fun!

You are passionate about creating Welsh language theatre, can you tell us more about that? Why is it so important?

I think it’s great for children, if they are fluent Welsh speakers or learners to see and hear the language used on stage.

I hope it will encourage them to see that language is not just for the classroom but can be used in any setting.

To make them proud of learning it, hearing it and using it. It is, after all, their inheritance.

You have written and directed a new Christmas production for Theatr Clwyd this year. Does it follow on from your previous trilogy? What can we expect?

This story does follow on, but stands on its own two feet, so don’t worry if you didn’t see the other two.

Gwrach Yr Ia finds our intrepid storytellers fighting a losing battle. The stories they have collected and told over the years are starting to fade.

They are searching for a way of keeping and sharing the stories before they are gone forever. They believe the answer to the problem is contained in the one story they have not told, a story they are a little afraid to tell, the story of the Ice Witch. So, they decide to tell the tale…

You also do a lot of educational work in schools, why is that important?

Theatre can tackle subjects and bring them to life for students and pupils and can be used to develop us academically as well as emotionally.

Theatre can be used to help young people question choices and decisions, to teach consequential thinking, as well as making even the dullest of subjects fun, colourful and interesting.

What has been your favourite Theatr Clwyd production and why?

I can’t just point my finger at one, because there have been so many. Each one just takes you away for a few hours, and with today’s problems, I think that makes those productions more valuable than ever. So, I’m going to say all of them, I hate to offend!

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