This year, Swansea's Grand Theatre celebrated its 125th birthday with a gala evening featuring an array of world-class homegrown artists performing alongside some of the city's emerging talent. The event was produced by Grand Ambition (GA), a new creative collective recently established at the theatre. Swansea Council and Swansea-based professional artists Richard Mylan, Steve Balsamo, Michelle McTernan and Christian Patterson have come together to add to the city's existing vibrant and eclectic arts scene and establish the theatre as a world-class producing house.
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‘Our initial meeting with Swansea Council saw us pitch the idea of establishing a theatre company that could add to the ecology of the city's venues, as well as enabling us to lend our own expertise back into Swansea,’ Mylan explains. ‘With the four of us at GA having accrued over 100 years’ worth of experience in our various niches within the business – as actors, musicians and writers – we felt well equipped to establish this initiative. We want to work with local freelancers and organisations passionate about celebrating Swansea's history, as well as carving out an exciting and ambitious future. Fortunately, the council understood our vision and is excited about supporting our development and growth.’
Being based at the Swansea Grand is a dream for a company wanting to establish itself in a small city venue. ‘This venue is so important to all of us,’ says Mylan. ‘We are keen to add value to an already vibrant building with lots of in-house arts partners. With new management at the theatre, too, all our stars appear to be in alignment, timing-wise.’ Balsamo adds, ‘We all have a story of our beginnings with the theatre; it's always been an amazing place to be.’
GA focuses on capturing the arts through the Swansea lens – ‘Swansea stories told by Swansea people’ – with a commitment to the city's diverse cultural communities, championing the unheard voices of its people, and nurturing and supporting established and emerging artists. As Wales's second most multicultural city, the company aims to include Swansea's entire community so that all its people are reflected and elevated, and new audiences are introduced to the theatre.
‘Swansea is a city of sanctuary, making it so culturally diverse,’ says Balsamo. ‘We prioritise engaging with its different communities in order to provide a platform for their stories about their place in Swansea. There's huge opportunity to cross-pollinate across different cultures, especially musically. With a music background myself, I'm excited to witness what happens when we bring different communities together, tapping into their rich musical heritages.’
New productions
The company is taking great strides towards producing brand new plays and musicals, as well as reimagining the classics. This is something that's been possible thanks to recent funding, which has allowed Mylan and his team to consider its output. ‘We're currently developing a play called Sorter, in which I perform alongside Sophie Melville,’ he says. ‘Steve Balsamo has created its soundscape which will, hopefully, lead to a concept album. We're all involved in some exciting projects at the moment. Watch this space!’
Balsamo praises the contributions of the council, which, he says, has been ‘extremely forward thinking’ by placing theatre, music and art at the centre of its priorities. ‘Within the next 10 years they want to make Swansea a cultural destination. We already have the talent in Swansea – it's always been an artistic city for writers, poets, and singers. With an existing rich cultural heritage, we believe that Swansea can begin to produce world-class theatrical output.’
Broadening accessibility
Education is central to GA's plans, prioritising early theatre experiences for young people. A recent GA workshop at a local primary school was followed by a school visit to the theatre. Plans are afoot to roll such experiences out to schools throughout the city.
Mylan considers this to be a central tenet of GA's work. ‘We want schools and colleges to be with us on our educational journey. In terms of secondary schools, we aim to deliver a classic text, chosen by the schools themselves, in the main theatre. We're really excited to work with Gower College Swansea, a primary partner. Their Level 4 Professional Diploma in Performance courses are based at the Grand on one of their teaching days, and their productions are staged here. This immerses the students in a working theatre alongside other resident creatives.’
Prompted by the pandemic, GA is keen to consider theatre's accessibility and how they may mitigate against the similarly damaging impact on live theatre in future. ‘We need to be prepared for anything closing our industry again,’ says Mylan. ‘How do we ensure our output is accessible in order to futureproof it? We're exploring hybrid theatre, AR and VR experiences. Society is changing, so theatre changes. We need to change too.’
The last two years have been extremely difficult for venues and freelancers across the globe. Now more than ever, there is a need to further support and connect the arts to society to ensure its prosperity. Like all cities, Swansea's cultural landscape is changing. GA is part of that change during an exciting time of regeneration and reimagination, while also maintaining the Grand as Swansea's premier theatre.