Thanks Simon!

Although literally 100's of you have been sharing and tweeting about #thedragontree for me, for which I bless you and send you much love ... the other person in addition to Mark Jones in my last blog, who has been so wonderfully supportive, tweeting and asking his connections to re-tweet #thedragon tree is the actor who is in the clip:  the very beautiful, Simon Morgan- Thomas.

 

When he smiles, he lights up the room!

 

I met Simon at Mess up the Mess, which is a youth theatre company in Carmarthenshire. I was doing song writing workshops and he was an actor doing african drumming with the young people. We clicked straight away. Well, anyone with a room full of african drums is hard not to like!

 

So, I asked Simon if he would be Dafydd, the main character in The Dragon Tree, but he wasn't available for the whole of the shoot schedule. This led me to the idea of having many incarnations of Dafydd, linked by wearing the same hat, scarf and braces. Infact, it was Simon who inspired me to write The Dragon Tree book by asking me the back story of the character.

 

Simon was fabulous! I went to see him perform at Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea and was blown away. I met his parents and what a lovely family they are.

 

I chose the Mad Man clip as a show reel because it is one of my favourite clips from the 50 minute film. I had no idea that Simon would get right behind it and work so hard helping to get it out there!

 

He managed to get the likes of Karen Price from Media Wales on board tweeting, Chapter Arts Centre and even The Film Agency for Wales ... for which I am so grateful!

 

If you need an actor who not only is creative, imaginative, daring and lovely to be with, but committed to supporting the arts and helping others ... then look no further than ...

 

 Simon Morgan-Thomas!

 

Here's his equity details ...

Equity No. 322 839

Spotlight Pin. 2610-1275-5430

 

Mutual Inspiration of Artists: Dafydd's back story

 

 

Photo from The Tin Shed Experience

 

I'm back in the studio today and preparing for a visit from 5 members of the Swansea Ukulele Group who will be learning some of the songs from the production to perform live on the tour which starts in January 2013.

 

But somethings is playing on my mind ...

 

 

 

When professional actor Simon Morgan Thomas came to do the film shoot in St.David's he asked me for the back story of the character Dafydd.

 

He wanted to get inside the character's life .. and I immediately gave him a back story that I didn't know was in my head!

 

Simon kindly wrote to me after the shoot to say it he had found it 'an inspirational day' .. and yes, it was,  (mutually so thanks Simon) as he has inspired me to think about Dafydd the person in a much wider context ...

 

Dafydd is married to his childhood sweetheart, Bethan ... she is a comely rounded woman, wearing a floral knee length dress, her faded redded blonde hair is worn loosely up, with fine and curled whisps forever falling; her cheeks round and ruddy, her shoes worn and flat.

 

She smiles without frown and loves to bake. She wears  an apron, contrasting floral to her dress.

 

 

 

Her kitchen is like the one in the Dylan Thomas Birth house but with a big old pine table in the middle, that use to be her grandmother's.

 

They have a son ... possibly Ollie from the Tin Shed and Gwilli train shoot ... he loves the outdoors. They have chickens and a barn with a cow and Ollie milks Daisy for breakfast early in the mornings.

 

 

 

They can see the sea in the distance from their upstairs windows (or maybe they live in the little white cottage on the front of Llangrannog which is always boarded up with window shutters these days) and Ollie gazes from his bedroom at the waves, watching the boats dance, much in the way Dylan Thomas watched the boats from the hidden window in his bedroom ... (see earlier blog)

 

On the morning before Guinivere and the Mermaids bring the floods, Dafydd kisses Bethan goodbye on her cheek making her blush as she does regularly ... she is busy steeping dried fruit in cold tea ready for her Bara Brith ...

 

'Hwyl fawr BB Cariad.'

'Goodbye Sweetheart BB.'

 

Aside: Dafydd's knick name for her is  Bara Brith Bethan ... 'BB'

 

 

He walks, as he always does, to his little fishing boat to make his catch of the day, winding down the narrow pathway in the hills .. like the one at Morfa Isaf leading to the beach where we will film the dancers in October ...

 

 

His little boat is a large coracle painted over the bitumen, faded blue and dirty white and his nets were passed to him from his father who was also a fisherman in West Wales.

 

He is a quiet man who keeps himself to himself  but still everyone knows him and him them, such as it is in a village where you have lived all your life ...

 

So all this had formulated in my mind without me knowing or expressing it and now ...

 

Now I must decide whether or not this back story features in the production? Whether to hint at it or make it explicit as an introduction ...

 

I will reflect on this when I go on writing retreat next weekend and keep ya posted ...

 

A 'Mad Man' in St.David's?

 

Simon Morgan Thomas is a bright young actor from Cardiff. He came up on the train and we shot off to St.David's make the most of the sunshine.

 

This is the Tower at Oriel Y Parc in St.David's , a beautiful Gallery and National Park Centre including Amgueddfa Cymru -

National Museum Wales Gallery, Shop, Cafe and Information Centre.

 

Simon represents the character Dafydd washed up on the shore at Newgale and heads down to St.David's.

 

When he gets there, people ignore him, judge him, dismissing him as a 'Mad Man'

 

 

The filmscape is for the track 'Mad Man' from the production which is a social criticism of sterotypes regarding metal health.

 

 

I didn't have a budget for extra's and part of my Arts Council of Wales Individual Mainline Grant target is to consult with members of the community, so I asked people on the streets of St.David's if they would like to be in a film.

 

They all agreed and we had a total of 16 people.

 

The interesting thing is that they were all uncomfortable in being negative towards the character. I found this so interesting because when I wrote the song, it was based on a real situation I encountered when travelling around West Wales earlier this year formulating ideas for songs.

 

It was really quite touching how people reacted to the character and pleasing to hear a wealth of positive discussion regarding mental health.

 

 

We had 2 elderly gentleman, a bike shop owner, 2 school children, 4 American tourists, a couple on holiday, A hotelier and guest, A family of 2 adults and 2 smaller children ...

and the reaction was the same every time.

 

 

 

 

We then did a film shoot in the Bishop's Palace before heading down to Newgale to get very wet .. well, Simon, not me!

 

Bless him, he was completely submerged, fully dressed in the sea!

 

 

Got to tell ya folks, Simon is an absolute joy to work with! We had such good fun and yet stayed completely focussed and got so many great shots it will be difficult to choose!

 

Simon is multi-gifted. He is an actor, a percussionist and also a brilliant community artist.

 

He is an equity member and his details are all on Spotlight if you would like to work with him too.

 

Here are the links to Simon's details folks ...

 

 

Simon Morgan-Thomas Member of Equity.
Spotlight: http://www.spotlight.com/2610-1275-5430
 

For news & reviews of Simon's work:
http://www.twitter.com/Si_MorganThomas
http://www.facebook.com/simonmorganthomas