Dirty Protest Theatre

Dirty Protest Theatre is a Welsh theatre company which specialises in putting writers on the same stage.

Dirty Protest was founded by Bafta Cymru nominated writer Tim Price, journalist Claire Hill and director/assistant producer Catrin Rees in August 2007. Based in Cardiff the trio wanted to see their peers at theatre nights and decided the only way to do that was to make plays more attractive to the MySpace generation. That meant going to the bars and clubs that young people frequented, keeping the ticket price either free or the price of a pint and advertising it all on social networking sites.

The first Dirty Protest night was held in the Yurt in Milgi, Cardiff. Five established writers and a novice were given the same topic, a four week deadline and were told to write a new play no less than three minutes long and no more than 10 minutes. Multi award winning writer Ed Thomas was one of the writers to take up the challenge. Starring actors Alys Thomas, Siwan Morris and Lee Mengo, the night was a sell out.^{[citation needed]} Kit Lambert's play was then commissioned to be turned into a short film and newcomer Rhiannon Boyle won an official theatre commission after the night

After sell out nights in December and January, the company welcomed director/actress Mared Swain and stage manager Ellie Carter into the company and brought three fully staged plays to the Sherman Cymru as part of the Springboard Festival. Plays The Whole Truth - Tim Price, In The River - Samuel Bees and Carnival - Colette Kane were staged

In May, 2008 they borrowed Phil Porter's play Repeat (commissioned by London new writing company DryWrite) and gave six Welsh directors the freedom to interpret the short piece by any means necessary. The night was staged in Cardiff nightclub TenFeetTall

In July 2008 the company will take three plays to Latitude Festival in Suffolk to perform In The Woods. The play is The Whole Truth. The first part of the play (Friends) was written by Tim Price and staged at the Sherman. Dirty Protest then asked for submissions from writers for Part Two (Lovers) and Part Three (Killers). The best two will be taken to Latitude.

Upcoming events include a Welsh language new writing night for Cardiff's Eisteddfod to be held in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on August 8–9.^[when?]

The students from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama have started their own spin-off night. Dirty Student Protest, using three plays from previous Dirty Protest events and three brand new plays penned by students.

External links

• British Theatre Guide on Dirty Directors
• The Western Mail on Dirty Directors
• The Western Mail review of Dirty Protest @ Sherman Cymru
• Theatre In Wales article
• British Theatre Guide review of Dirty Protest @ Sherman Cymru