Mali a’r Môr / Mali and the Sea is a 40-min show for ages 3+ and their families, including storytelling, shadow puppetry, puppetry, and original songs, based on the popular series of “Molly” books by Malachy Doyle. The show has been created for libraries, school halls, festivals, and other small performance venues. The show has two performers storytelling bilingually in Welsh and English, puppeteering, and singing.
Following a successful research and development phase, and a mini-tour of Monmouthshire, Mali a’r Môr / Mali and the Sea will be embarking on an ambitious tour of library settings in South, East and Mid Wales between February and June/July 2025, funded by Arts Council Wales and supported by local library services.
We are now recruiting for a swing performer to join our team to support one of our performers with health-related access needs. It is our expectation that the swing performer will join us for the re-rehearsal process for Mali a’r Môr, and then will be contracted as-and-when performance support is needed during the tour. Please see further details regarding availability and working patterns below.
Performer breakdown:
Any age / gender
Role will include storytelling, singing, puppetry, and multi-roling “Mami” and “Dada”
Essential
Experience of performing for families and children
High level of fluency in Welsh (we will consider Welsh learners who can converse fluently and have some improvisational ability in Cymraeg)
Experience of working in community settings
Strong singer and ability to learn harmonies
Availability for rehearsals in February/March 2025
Flexibility for touring dates February-June/July 2025
Desirable
Experience of devising
Experience of storytelling
Experience of multi-roling
Experience of working with early years children
Puppetry/manipulation experience
A note on availability and working patterns:
- This role would be best suited to a performer who is keen to extend their professional experience of puppetry, devised theatre, working with early years audiences, and/or storytelling.
- The Mali a’r Môr team tends to work 2-3 days week due to childcare and healthcare needs. We are a close-knit two-person team (Tamar and Naomi) who have collaborated on many projects, and now want to bring in the right collaborator who will become a long-term member of the show’s team. Our ethos as a team is to work flexibly and with an understanding of each other’s access needs, and we will do the same with you.
- The tour planned is an extensive one, but we do not expect the swing performer to keep themselves available for it all, only to work flexibly with us to support our performer’s access needs.
- It is likely some performances will take place on weekends and during school holidays.
- Following this tour, it is likely that there will be future opportunities to perform Mali a’r Môr, including beyond Wales, and we would be keen to work with someone who has an interest in a long-term working relationship with us.
- We intend to re-rehearse the show during these weeks (3 days p/week): w/c 3rd February, w/c 10th February, w/c 17th February. It is anticipated that rehearsals will take place in Abergavenny. It is hoped that the swing performer will be able to join us for most of this time. We will consider different rehearsal dates for the right performer.
Fee: £1200.00 guaranteed to cover rehearsals (learning the role), subsequent performance days paid at £185.00 p/day (amount of days tbc).
To apply:
Please send a performance CV, short cover letter expressing your interest in this role, and a short (ideally less than 5-min) video of you telling a story (filmed on a phone is fine!) to tamarelunedwilliams@hotmail.co.uk. We would be grateful if you could use Cymraeg in your story. Deadline Friday 3rd January 5pm.
Due to the specialised nature of this role and our specific requirements, we are likely to organise quick Zoom chats with prospective collaborators as well as possibly inviting you to meet us in-person. These conversations will take place w/c 6th and 13th January.
If you have any questions or need clarification, please email tamarelunedwilliams@hotmail.co.uk. We are really happy to discuss the project further with anybody who is interested!
Project partners: Monmouthshire Libraries, Vale of Glamorgan Libraries, Powys Libraries, Awen Cultural Trust, Torfaen Libraries, Graffeg, Adverse Camber
With thanks to: Arts Council Wales