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Showing Tag: "thomas" (Show all posts)

Don't understand Shakespeare? You need Dylan Thomas Day!

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, In : Nick Hennegan 


Dylan Day - a celebration of the work of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas - is a great idea for a number of reasons.  Firstly it's always a good idea to celebrate art and literature.  In a world full of Trump, May, Brexit, Syria and conflict, it's a very good idea to remind ourselves of the real reason we are all really here.  For the sweet, satisfied moments of family, friendship, kindness, vision and imagination.  I can’t remember who said a civilised society is only measured by the success of it...


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The real Dylan Thomas?

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Sunday, January 29, 2017, In : Writers 

It’s been great being involved with the new International Dylan Day. 14 May each year has been designated Dylan Day to mark the first time his play for voices ‘Under Milk Wood’ was performed in public in the USA. It’s a direct lift from Blooms Day, an annual event inspired by one of the lead characters in Ulysses, by James Joyce. We're going to celebrate it this year with an extra tour and extra Dylan content.  Book now for 13th May - the Saturday before the day.  We also have some id...


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Memories of Dylan Thomas and chapel Wales.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Saturday, May 21, 2016, In : Writers 

Having just celebrated the second Dylan Thomas day, we came across this on Facebook.  Written by Josh Brown, it's self-explanatory.  Nick Hennegan, our writer, really liked it and Josh gave us permission to repost it, so here it is.  Thanks Josh!

 

 
Brown's Hotel, Laugharne, Wales.

 

I have meant to post about my visit to Laugharne in the 70's since joining the [Dylan Thomas Facebook] group. Here it is........

 

I was born in a snowstorm in 1947, 6 years before Dylan died. My mo...


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We've moved! The Fitzroy Tavern closes!

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Friday, July 17, 2015, In : Nick Hennegan 
The roots of the Literary Pub Crawl lie in the Fitzroy Tavern. I was doing my Masters at the University of London and looking for a cheap pint.  My mate from Birmingham, filmmaker Andy Bloom, suggested I could get a cheaper pint at the Fitzroy, as the pub was run by the Sam Smiths Brewery and they were considerably cheaper than other pubs in the area.  He also told me about the Writers and Artists Bar at the pub, which certainly appealed.

So I was nursing my cheap pint downstairs and couldn't ...
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We missed you!

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Friday, May 15, 2015, In : Theatre News 


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Dylan Thomas Day.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Thursday, May 7, 2015, In : Nick Hennegan 

An Evening at The Wheatsheaf Pub, Rathbone Place, London, W1. 8pm

Dylan's Day is a celebration of Dylan Thomas.  14 May has been chosen because marks the day Under Milk Wood was first read in public.

We hope you can join us for what will be a memorable night. As you know, we produced Under Milk Wood on the 60th anniversary of Dylan's death and we were involved in Griff Rhys JonesDylan Thomas in Fitzrovia Festival, so I feel very close to the Welsh Wizard!  We're planning music, poetry and a r...
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Review of 2014.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Monday, January 12, 2015, In : Nick Hennegan 

We started 2014 in the shadow of the previous year.

My experiment with theatre in a pub, as opposed to Pub Theatre as it's understood in London, had proved very successful in 2013.  I managed to get the rights to produce Under Milk Wood on the 60th anniversary of Dylan Thomas' death.  It proved a success in a number of ways, but mainly though conversations with the excellent veteran theatre director John Adams.  John was not available to direct, but he recommended a former student of his who ...


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Dylan, my Dylan.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Saturday, November 8, 2014, In : Nick Hennegan 

 
So the Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia Festival is now over.  Although only really on the periphery of the organisation it's been a part of my life and certainly large in my thoughts for most of this year.  
Pub crawl walks were part of Griff Rhys Jones' original thinking for the festival which he conceived with Dylan's granddaughter, Hannah Ellis and actor Jason Morrell.  It became far more than a tour of Dylan Thomas' Fitzrovia Pubs of course. And I have to say the final, fantastic Gala Performa...

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National UK Poetry Day, by our writer and producer, Nick!

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Thursday, October 2, 2014, In : Nick Hennegan 

Thursday, 2 October 2014

National Poetry Day - have a go!

I've been spending a lot of time recently with the poetry of Dylan Thomas and numerous writers for the London Literary Pub Crawl and the forthcoming Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia Weekend in London. More about that later.  But in spite of the genius of Thomas, Heany and dozens of others, I've found I quite like writing poetry.  I've no idea of technical form or how to do it or even why I like writing it, but it's an interesting way of encapsu...

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London Writers and Poverty. How the Lit Pub Crawl started. Part One

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Friday, August 15, 2014, In : Nick Hennegan 
It's me birthday!  Thanks!  Feel free to send cards. Or cash... :-)

Birthdays are often a time for reflection.  When I first got the idea for the London Literary Pub Crawl, it was because I was taking my M.A. and I was flat broke.  In spite of never having received a grant for education, for reasons known only to the Education Dept I had to fund everything myself.  It was tough - not only the fees, but living in one of the most expensive cities in the world.  But I don't think we'd have done t...
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Maverick's latest Newsletter.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Thursday, May 29, 2014, In : Nick Hennegan 


So.

 

I was in the Twelve Bar on Denmark Street in Soho with Filmaker Andy.  He used to be MyLodger Andy, then VanDriver Andy and now he's FilmMaker Andy. Of course he was always FilmMaker Andy, it's just that none of us, including Andy, realised it for some years.

 

Then in shimmies Maddy, shaking her Soho stack at the boys in the pool room. Tonight is a charity night with some very smart comical and musical talent.  It's a fund-raiser for the uber-cool London Arts radio station, Resonance 104.4...


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Under Milk Wood - The final, raw, blog. We did it!

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Wednesday, November 13, 2013, In : Nick Hennegan 
Or at least the final blog of this particular production. What can I say! We’ve just finished and I’ve just got back from the last night.  And the consumption of a few drinks with the cast makes this not the best time to write this, perhaps! But it became a big deal for me. As you may have gathered from the previous blogs, I had a number of concerns with this production. Although small in scale it was large in ambition and my first toe in the West End water.  I only actually got to watch ...
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Under Milk Wood - Part Deux

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, In : Nick Hennegan 

This week has been quite interesting in terms of Under Milk Wood.  The decision to do it as a fundraiser has been quite liberating.  It means we're all in the same boat and anybody who wants to be involved with the project will be doing it for the love of the piece and the experience rather than any hard financial reward. Any funds we do raise will go to Maverick in the hope we might be able to resurrect the youth group or The Peoples' Company.

After my last blog I had a Facebook comment tha...


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Commit Financial Theatrical Suicide with Dylan Thomas! Part One.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Thursday, October 10, 2013,


I love the image above we are using for Under Milk Wood.  It has a wistful quality to it and that is how I feel about some of our writers - especially Dylan Thomas, who was taken from us so tragically early. I also love Wales, and this image kind of sums up my schoolboy holidays in out-of-season seaside towns. This bench has seen a lot, you can just tell.  And it quietly waits for the next joyful - or maybe melancholy - experience. 

But enough wooden bench and more Milk Wood.  He was a smart c...
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On a trail of Dylan Thomas.

Posted by Nick Hennegan on Thursday, August 15, 2013, In : Nick Hennegan 
I had the pleasure of spending a week in Wales last month. A beautiful country and the home of my childhood holidays. Most of our time had been spent around Aberdyfi and Corris, but this time we moved a little further south and rediscovered New Quay.  And as I walked into town, I was greeted by an image of the boyo himself. Yep, New Quay has a Dylan Thomas Trail!



Dylan lived in many places and he is most generally associated with his Boathouse in Laugharne even further to the South, but he and...
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Dylan Thomas Returns!

Posted by Simon Plant on Monday, May 13, 2013, In : Nick Hennegan 

Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas

£ 15

Friday 8th November 2013 at 7.30pm

Saturday 9th November, 2013 at 2.30pm

The Wheatsheaf Pub, Rathbone Street, London, W1T 1JB

 

A rare, fund-raising performance of the "play for voices' given on the very day Dylan died sixty years ago.

The Maverick Theatre Company and the Literary Pub Crawl Company present this stunning vocal masterpiece in the same pub where Dylan Thomas drank and met his wife, Caitlan.

 

A unique, not-to-be-missed event celebrating the genius o...


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Nick Hennegan and 2012 in London

Posted by Simon Plant on Sunday, December 23, 2012, In : Nick Hennegan 

Well, what a year 2012 has been.  The Silver Jubilee, the Olympics and more importantly (to us anyway) the launch of the London Literary Pub Crawl.  It's because we are a not-for-profit charity with no budget that the critical and audience acclaim we've received early on has been so important and so crucial... and so moving.  Partly inspired by the Olympics coming to London, I felt a desire - perhaps a passion - to share what I'd found out about the struggle some of the worlds most famous wri...


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Additional Reading and writers we meet!

Posted by Simon Plant on Thursday, November 8, 2012, In : Nick Hennegan 
We had a query this week from someone wondering what preparation they should make for the tour. Well, it is written assuming no previous knowledge, but works covered on the tour include A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, 1984 by George Orwell, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and various Charles Dickens works. We've also some new work from the niece of Brendan Behan and we get to meet all the above, plus William Blake, Francis Bacon, Jeffrey Barnard a...
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Soho Act Two nearly ready. Are you?

Posted by Simon Plant on Sunday, October 28, 2012, In : Nick Hennegan 
If you've been on the tour, you'll know that the Fitzrovia leg is more theatrical than the Soho leg. We enact various scenes, including Anthony Burgess (Clockwork Orange, etc) meeting a knife gang in the Duke and Dylan Thomas meeting his wife at the Wheatsheaf. But then Soho becomes a more 'traditional' tour. That's about to change very soon. I've written a number of pieces around our Soho artists and writers and I hope its going to transform what we already have.

I'm very pleased with critica...
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About Us


Nick Hennegan Hello. I'm Nick Hennegan and I started the London Literary Pub Crawl. Most of the blogs on here will be by me. I've always written but my first theatrical success was an adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Henry V' (www.HenryVPlay.com) I founded Maverick Theatre in 1994. (www.MaverickTheatreCompany.com) This pub crawl is really more a promenade theatre performance than a tour and I'm running it with a bunch of enthusiastic local actors and writers. I love sharing my passion for the area and the artists. I also present a weekly radio show, 'Literary London' on Resonance 104.4fm - London's Arts Station and a podcast on our site. If you haven't visited us in London yet, I hope you'll come soon. Have a look at my new site, www.BohemianBritain.com. And feel free to leave comments or email me at nick @ LondonLiteraryPubCrawl.com - I reply to them all and I love to hear from you.

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