Shwmae! Hello!
During 2017, Light Ladd & Emberton are developing and testing a new work, based in Harlech, Gwynedd, north Wales. When we first began resarching back in 2016, we found a wonderful link between pioneer artist and leading suffragette Margaret Morris and Harlech, where she held summer schools on the beach in 1919 and 1921. Since then this piece has broadened out to include many different Harlech stories, in a dreamscape combining many characters and framed by Ellis Wynne's famous Welsh language poem...
"Daeth cwsg i gloi fy llygaid ar y traeth/ A chrwydrais wlad ryfeddol wedyn" Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (1703)
"Sleep came and locked my eyes/ And then I dreamed a marvellous world” Visions of the Sleeping Bard (1703)
We are sharing our findings in three free shows on the beach during Gwyl Gregynog Festival in July 2017. Although we have done the hard work of raising more than £40,000 for this large-scale outdoor work (with five performers and a crew of fifteen), this extra sum will mean every audience member can have their own chair, headset, and binoculars through which to view the production - your support will allow us to share the final version with even more people! Every pound really will make a huge difference. There is much more information on the production outlined below.
We leave you with this quote by Margaret Morris herself, from Creation in Dance & Life:
“If you contribute something to others and to yourself, you are living creatively.”
Diolch yn fawr iawn! Thank you very much! Eddie Ladd, Laura Drane, Deborah Light & Gwyn Emberton
Croesi Traeth | Crossing A Beach
gan/ by Light Ladd & Emberton
Traeth Harlech | Harlech Beach
Daeth cwsg i gloi fy llygaid ar y traeth/ A chrwydrais wlad ryfeddol wedyn
Perfformiad dawns ar draeth Harlech
Daeth y ddawnswraig Margaret Morris i Harlech ym 1919 er mwyn cynnal ysgol haf. Ym myd y freuddwyd ar y traeth, ymuna griw arall gyda hi, ac yn eu plith mae’r cyfarwyddwr ffilm Roman Polanski, a saethodd Macbeth ar draeth Morfa Bychan; ymgyrchwyr Meibion Glyndŵr; yr archangel Mihangel a gofodwyr eraill; ac Ellis Wynne, y Bardd Cwsc ei hun.
O’ch lle ar y tywod, cewch weled byd newydd, gyda chymorth clustffonau ac…ysbienddrych.
Sleep came and locked my eyes/ And then I dreamed a marvellous world
A dance performance on Harlech beach
Margaret Morris was a dancer and she came to Harlech in 1919 to hold a summer school. Others join her in the beach-dream, amongst them film director Roman Polanski, who shot Macbeth on Black Rock sands; Meibion Glyndŵr’s incendiaries; the archangel Michael and other intriguing flying objects; and Ellis Wynne, the sleeping poet himself.
From the sands, you will see a new world, with the help of headphones and…a spying glass.
21.00, 1/07/2017 (perfformiad: llanw isel | performance: low tide )
14.30, 2/07/2017 (perfformiad: llanw uchel | performance: high tide )
Am ddim | Free (Ticketed, and will accept "pay what you like" donations online here)
Mae’r sioe yn Gymraeg a Saesneg | The show is in Welsh and English
https://gwylgregynogfestival.org/harlech
Noddir gan Gronfa Loteri Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, Creu Cymru, Cronfa Partneriaeth Eryri, Ty Cerdd, Theatr Ardudwy a Gŵyl Gregynog | Supported by Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Funding, Creu Cymru, Snowdonia Partnership Fund, Ty Cerdd, Theatr Ardudwy and Gregynog Festival.
https://www.lightladdemberton.com/
PS This wonderful photo was taken back at the start of January, when we were bracing ourselves for the cold, working on Harlech beach for two weeks! We hope the summer is kind to us... Anyway, the picture shows the image Margaret Morris designed for the official Suffragette anthem by Ethel Smyth, The March of the Women in 1911.