FREE ADMISSION Limited Seating ONE NIGHT ONLY Glamorgan Musical Theatre Wed 6 pm 30 May

Musical Theatre in the Rhondda -- It's outrageous, it's over-the-top camp, it's funny, beautiful music --it's Judy Garland, and more!

Wednesday 30 May 2007 6 pm
One Performance Only -- Admission is FREE
Call now for information -- Limited Seating
Theatr y Bont, Forest Grove, Treforest

A stunning new production of the acclaimed one woman musical play. Starring the beautiful and sexy musical comedianne Alex Alderton, winner of the Theatre in Wales's Best Female Perfomer Award (2006).

It's 1969: Alice Dell is rehearsing her Judy Garland 'tribute' cabaret act. Alice is the look-alike, who has spent her whole career waiting for a chance to impersonate Garland -- a chance that only comes with her death!

"A tribute to the lady, but one that does not shy away from the pain, the pills and the shattered marriages . . . the glory of Garland at her best." (The TIMES)

'Someone Else's Rainbow' just closed to sold-out audiences at Neath Little Theatre, but through special arrangement with the Faculty of CCI, you can see Alex Alderton one more time!

Call Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries (CCI) Now, for directions and information -- Theatr y Bont:

01443 480 480

Wednesday 30 May 2007 6 pm
One Performance Only -- Admission is FREE
Call now for information -- Limited Seating
Theatr y Bont, Forest Grove, Treforest

About the writer of 'Someone Else's Rainbow', Sam Boardman-Jacobs and Found Reality Theatre Company:

Sam has won awards for both design & direction . He was a founder member of the London Fringe designing for the Bush, Soho, Gate, Warehouse, Hampstead & Kings Head Theatres as well as designing for the Habima & Cameri Theatres of Israel, the Scottish Ballet, the Royal Court London, Teatro Modernes Munich, Theater am Goetheplatz Bremen and the Teatro Espanol Madrid.

He has directed his own plays, Play Federico for me & Passion for the Impossible, at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff. Play Federico was translated and published in Catalan and was selected as part of the official centenary celebrations for the birth of Federico Garcia Lorca. He worked for several years with Manchester Youth Theatre creating a series of award winning Holocaust Dramas including Sobol’s Ghetto, And “Fiddler” a radical reworking of Fiddler on the Roof, the European premiere of Paul Simon’s Capeman and co-devising Asylum at Manchester Royal Exchange with Laura Haughey.

Also with Laura he directed Julia Pascal’s The Dybbuk first at Chapter Arts in Cardiff then by invitation at the Huddersfield Festival of European Plays and then at the Edinburgh Festival.

Found Reality Theatre Company

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.

Pictured to the right, Salvation Army Cadet Wilma Jean Poorman Woods, the 'Heralds' class of 1947.

As the third day of January snow silently fell on the grey steel mill stacks in the valley below our wood-frame house in Youngstown, Ohio, out of my bedside transistor radio roared the rock band, Three Dog Night singing, ‘Joy to the World, All the boys and girls!’

It was 1971. I was a pimply and awkward adolescent with a high IQ and thick, industrial-strength geek glasses. Can you say ‘bully-target?’

My mother, the stern, under-nourished Salvation Army Officer, showed up at PTA meetings in a red cape and heels, looking like a character out of Guys and Dolls.

My older brother traded in his uniform and trumpet for leadership of the ghetto gang, the same year I decided it was safer in my family and neighbourhood to stay ‘in the closet’ for a few more years.

My plan was simple: I would wear nothing but hippie ‘Earth Shoes’ and blue jeans and get a macho, racing bike, to prove I was not a piano-playing, slide rule pushing gay-boy freak. I dropped subtle hints to my Mom, who was scrubbing floors by day and going to college by night, when she wasn’t leading prayer meetings.

The wintry day had arrived, my 12th birthday — I was sure I would get my bike. My Mom lead me into the tattered but immaculate, lace-covered living room, where my Welsh Grandma sat, next to the matriarchal sewing machine and family Bibles, to unveil my gift.

What’s this? Not an athletic, pump me up and make me butch bike? There, beside Grandma’s cane sat the Polish neighbour lady, Mrs. Szlowkowsky, sipping my Mom’s strong coffee, while smiling and extending her hand.

My church lady Mom and Mrs. Szlowkowsky waved their pasty white hands, like angels guarding the Biblical Arc of the Covenant, over a large, scratched case with broken brass snaps.

Barely breathing, I popped the snaps and caught a vivid vision of my inevitable years of coming persecution: A refurbished, 12-Bass ‘Festival’ Accordion.

The smell of musty billows and mouldy leather made me choke.

“Mrs. Szlowkowsky has agreed to give you lessons, if you agree to help her clean the choir loft at Saint Stanislaw’s Catholic Church on the corner of our street, once a week,” my mother said.

Mrs. Szlowkowsky smiled and offered me a plate of sliced walnut ‘placek’ (Polish coffee cake).

“It’s a ‘festival’ accordion; you’ll like that!” my Grandma said, as I thought to myself, “Whatever ‘festival’ means . . .”

"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.

“Thank you, Mrs. Szlowkowsky,” I heard myself saying, as I drifted away, not knowing this quirky, portable polka-playing keyboard was about to doom me to an adult life suspended somewhere between John Candy’s Rustbelt humour and Liberace’s Las Vegas tastes.

And since I mentioned ‘Candy’, have I told how I once knew this girl . . .

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Your Last Chance to see the Welsh One Woman Tour-de-Force Live on Stage: Alex Alderton is winner of Theatre in Wales Best Female Performer

Pictured Alex Alderton, Winner of Theatre in Wales' Best Female Performer, photograph courtesy

Equity Oriel Cardiff

Musical Theatre in the Rhondda -- It's outrageous, it's over-the-top camp, it's funny, beautiful music --it's Judy Garland, and more!

Wednesday 30 May 2007 6 pm
One Performance Only -- Admission is FREE
Call now for information -- Limited Seating
Theatr y Bont, Forest Grove, Treforest

A stunning new production of the acclaimed one woman musical play. Starring the beautiful and sexy musical comedianne Alex Alderton, winner of the Theatre in Wales's Best Female Perfomer Award (2006).

It's 1969: Alice Dell is rehearsing her Judy Garland 'tribute' cabaret act. Alice is the look-alike, who has spent her whole career waiting for a chance to impersonate Garland -- a chance that only comes with her death!

"A tribute to the lady, but one that does not shy away from the pain, the pills and the shattered marriages . . . the glory of Garland at her best." (The TIMES)

'Someone Else's Rainbow' just closed to sold-out audiences at Neath Little Theatre, but through special arrangement with the Faculty of CCI, you can see Alex Alderton one more time!

Call Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries (CCI) Now, for directions and information -- Theatr y Bont:

01443 480 480

Wednesday 30 May 2007 6 pm
One Performance Only -- Admission is FREE
Call now for information -- Limited Seating
Theatr y Bont, Forest Grove, Treforest

About the writer of 'Someone Else's Rainbow', Sam Boardman-Jacobs and Found Reality Theatre Company:

Sam has won awards for both design & direction . He was a founder member of the London Fringe designing for the Bush, Soho, Gate, Warehouse, Hampstead & Kings Head Theatres as well as designing for the Habima & Cameri Theatres of Israel, the Scottish Ballet, the Royal Court London, Teatro Modernes Munich, Theater am Goetheplatz Bremen and the Teatro Espanol Madrid.

He has directed his own plays, Play Federico for me & Passion for the Impossible, at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff. Play Federico was translated and published in Catalan and was selected as part of the official centenary celebrations for the birth of Federico Garcia Lorca. He worked for several years with Manchester Youth Theatre creating a series of award winning Holocaust Dramas including Sobol’s Ghetto, And “Fiddler” a radical reworking of Fiddler on the Roof, the European premiere of Paul Simon’s Capeman and co-devising Asylum at Manchester Royal Exchange with Laura Haughey.

Also with Laura he directed Julia Pascal’s The Dybbuk first at Chapter Arts in Cardiff then by invitation at the Huddersfield Festival of European Plays and then at the Edinburgh Festival.

Found Reality Theatre Company

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Welsh Director Russell T Davies wins 2007 Siân Phillips BAFTA Cymru award

According to the BBC:

"Doctor Who has won five awards at the Bafta Cymru awards in Cardiff. The hit TV series, made by BBC Wales, was shortlisted in 14 separate categories in the TV and film awards.

"It won the prizes for best drama series and best drama director, as well as awards for costume, make-up and photography direction.

"Producer Steve Robinson competed against himself with three nominations for best documentary - including Iolo Williams Flying with Kites, which won.

"Doctor Who's lead writer and executive producer Russell T Davies also won the Siân Phillips award for his outstanding contribution to network television.

"Christopher Eccleston, who starred in the first Doctor Who series to be produced for 16 years, and co-star Billie Piper were nominated in the best actor and actress categories.

"The series - now into its second run with the new Doctor David Tennant - has also been nominated as best drama in the Bafta awards, which will be held on 7 May in London.

""We are thrilled that the spectacular contribution made by Russell T Davies to television over the past few years has won him such a very special award,"" said BBC Wales head of English programmes Clare Hudson.

"As well as Doctor Who, Davies' writing credits include Casanova and Queer As Folk."

Read more about Russell Davies at BBC here

Visit BAFTA Cymru

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods