Background - The Journey Begins

In the summer of 1995, Joanna Bates saw an article for entries into 'The Musical of the Year Competition' due to take place in Denmark in September l996 - and in that moment, the idea for 'CELT' was born.   With only two half-finished songs, she had three months to deliver storyline, characters and at least eight songs.   With two children under five and a musician husband touring the world with ELO part 11, it was going to be a tall order.   The night before the deadline, the transcription for the final song was still being written at 3am.   But it was worth the sleepless nights when some weeks later a phone call from 'Musical of the Year' confirmed that 'Only in the Stillness of the Night' had won through to the final in the Best Song category out of a world-wide field of 2500 songs.   Among the judges were Julia McKenzie and the keyboard player from ABBA.

Fast forward to l998 and an abortive attempt to put CELT on at Theatr Brycheiniog despite funds from the SDF and Brian Blessed set to narrate.   With no team to work with and the long delay in confirmation of funding, Joanna decided to shelve the project until... three years later RED KITE THEATRE were looking for a composer to write a song for their next production, THE APPLE SISTERS.   Joanna became so caught up in the piece that she wrote six songs, and a working friendship playwright, Margie Douglas, began.

It has taken another two years to get CELT up and running - two solid years of research, development, writing, composing and most time consuming of all, fund-raising.   But at last CELT will be performed and it promises to be one of the most exciting theatrical events taking place in the region this summer.