I’m an actor, director, producer and the founder of ‘The Performance Factory’, and my love for the theatre started when I visited the Grand as a child to watch the pantomimes.
I then did Performing Arts in college and I was trained as a professional actor in London. I worked in London professionally on and off for about 11 years and 15 years ago I returned to Swansea and I decided to stay.
I think what’s lovely about Swansea and the Welsh community is that draw on you. It was my family that drew me back. I had no intention of staying but I did and that’s because of what Swansea has to offer and the theatre is part of that.
I remember when I first came back to Swansea a year or two in I got a bunch of friends together who were all professional or semi-professional actors and I put together a production of ‘Company’ by Stephen Sondheim. He wrote this play about a guy called Bobby who is hitting 30 and is analysing what he’s got in life. All his friends had settled down, had children and got mortgages, and on the contrary, Bobby was dating three women, still single, didn’t want companionship and didn’t want his daily routine to be altered.
It was a really magical show and it was really well received. I brought people from all different aspects of my life together. We packed two performances in one day and even though Sondheim is one of the most commercially orientated musical theatre writers, the audience absolutely lapped it up.
I played Bobby in that production and it was so special because I think when I came back to Swansea after 11 years in London, that character of Bobby was me in a way.
