Here's a fascinating and personal insight into Rebecca Wilson’s creative journey with us over the last couple of years.

The Dinorwig born freelance artist shares her experiences of working on a range of projects, providing a unique glimpse into the collaborative magic that brings our shows to life.

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It’s been lush to write about all of the amazing experiences I’ve had with Frân Wen.

Throughout my career people have told me to ‘pick a lane’, so I’m so grateful Frân Wen is a company who are willing to support me as an artist - whether that be acting, directing, fight directing, choreographing or writing!

So here I’m going to share my journey, starting with Imrie in 2023.

Imrie

I worked as an actor on Nia Morais’ debut play Imrie in the 2023 Spring/Summer. This was an exciting collaboration between Frân Wen and Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. I played the character of Josie who discovers she is a siren and follows Imrie into the sea where she discovers a whole new magical world. A world in which she finally belongs. It was a beautiful coming of age tale about growing up feeling different. I found this relatable having grown up Jewish in North Wales.

For much of the play Josie is underwater, so as an actor there was a lot of fun physical exploration. The play was all in the Welsh language so as a second language Welsh speaker this was definitely challenging at points, but Gethin Evans was a wonderfully supportive director. Then once I got into the rhythm of the language and the narrative form of the piece, I found I was able to emotionally connect to the character of Josie more easily than any previous performances I’d done in the English language. I found this really exciting to discover as an actor.

Elan Davies was my amazing co-star and we played sisters. For most of the play we worked in monologue form until the last few scenes when we united and worked in dialogue form. Elan and I soon became like sisters off stage too as we really had to trust one another, especially during the fight sequence!

Elan went on to win The Stage Debut Award for her brilliant professional debut performance! It was an unforgettable night. When Callum Scott Howells presented her award it felt like a huge win not only for all of her hard work, but also for the entire creative team who worked tirelessly on the project, and truthfully, for Welsh language theatre all over Wales too.

Deian a Loli: Y Ribidirew Olaf

In April 2024 I worked as movement director on Deian a Loli: Y Ribidirew Olaf.

It was a joy to support Mali Tudno Jones’ transformation into a ‘Pry Cop’, a spider who needed to be scary, but not too scary! And Rhian Blythe became ‘Jaci yn y Bocs’, a Jack-in-the-box who’d been waiting for Deian a Loli for years. It was a fun challenge to imagine how a toy would move. And finally Rhys Parry Jones becoming ‘Capten’, an imaginary friend, who enters the show in a fully choreographed song!

I worked with the cast and creative to create many adventures and we even got them to fly!

The production team did an incredible job of getting a massive platform to move around the stage (we actually named her Bertha as she was essentially an additional cast member within the choreography world!)

Casi, Gwenni, Jack and Ifan created such a playful energy in the rehearsal room and it was a privilege to see them develop as professional actors over the rehearsals.

People in the industry often say never worked with children or animals, but I wholeheartedly disagree!

Colab with Mared

During the Summer of 2024 I began to develop and co-write a new bilingual musical with the Welsh singer/songwriter Mared Williams. She of course led on the music composition and lyrics and I mainly worked on the book. We were shortlisted for Burnt Lemon Theatre’s Overture musical fund in 2023 for our idea. Then with the support of Frân Wen, who offered us rehearsal space in Nyth, we were able to put together a successful Arts Council Wales application. This allowed us 3 weeks to write, share and develop our idea.

The musical is a fictional story based on multiple true stories. It centres around Nain, a Grandmother suffering with dementia who returns to her mother-tongue, Welsh, and her relationship with her Granddaughter, Alaw, who becomes her carer. We follow Alaw on her journey as she tries to learn Welsh and her personal creative journey as she moves back home to Wales after living in London to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter. In the story we will be exploring the effect music can have on one’s memory alongside discovering the many connections and disconnections female-identifying people in our generation often have with their Grandparents.

We also worked with Theatr Clwyd’s ‘Arts from the Armchair’, a group which brings people living with dementia and early on-set memory loss and their carers together.

We are looking forward to continuing our journey with the show soon.

OLION

Where to start!? Olion was a mammoth theatre trilogy that I was so proud to be a part of. I wore several hats on this big collaborative project and lost count of the number of lessons I learnt throughout.

I was Associate Director on Part 2 which meant I worked closely with the brilliant Marc Rees and Elis Pari as well as with our incredible community cast. We devised and created promenade scenes around Bangor which included creating wonderful characters inspired by the local community as well as lots of movement work ranging from dancing to skateboarding to fighting!

I was also the Fight Director on the project. I love fight directing and it was great to work with fellow East 15 Acting School Acting and Stage Combat graduate Owain Gwynn.

I loved having the opportunity to share these specialised skills with the whole cast - it allowed them a new way to express their characters through their body.

Anthony Matsena and Gethin Evans had worked incredibly hard to create an incredibly dynamic and physically open rehearsal space which created a great working environment where as artists we could be brave and daring.

I was also the Community Choreographer which involved leading multiple movement workshops for schools and colleges in the local area. Having worked with lots of young people post-Covid I noticed a marked difference in how they hold themselves physically. Whether this is due to socialising mainly through social media or confidence being knocked in skills and a lack of motivation but during the course of the workshops I began to see their confidence grow, their shoulders roll back and their energy soar!

A highlight for me was a finale rehearsal in Pontio a week before the live show which involved around 100 participants from schools, colleges and our community cast. The energy was electric and I must admit a tear was shed. I was so proud of the journey we’d been on.

Diolch o galon for reading my first blog x

Follow me on X @Beccawilson_97 or on Instagram @bexfightsandwrites