Management 2000




Gareth Drake

Additional Information

 

Gareth DrakeGareth started at an early age with the Mrs Gillesons's Acting Troupe for Young Girls and Boys. As a former member of the Black Hand Gang she schooled them well in the art of Melodrama and Gareth remembers well singing on the streets of Liverpool those well-known ditties such as 'She was only the fishmongers daughter but she always knew her plaice!' 

He soon progressed to school productions and by the grand old age of seven he had risen to the dizzy heights of playing a soldier in a devised piece about toys! How he remembers having to wear the girls serge blue standard knickers, which doubled as pantaloons. The experience has left an indelible mark on Gareth even to this day! (photos for aficionados can be supplied!)

After several failures to make any inroads at the school eisteddfodau Gareth realised that he had no talent whatsoever and it was time to take a History degree! - Which strangely enough indirectly led him to the jungles of Borneo, where as a lecturer in Economic History his true vocation was about to reveal itself. 

He won the prestigious Shell Award for best character actor 'in-a-play-set-in-Lancashire-at-the-turn-of-the-century-but-played-in-sub-tropical-climates-for-people-of-Dutch-origin-who-don't-understand-the-nuances-of-ER-BAH-GUM-LASS-but-think-it's-culture', for his missable (sic) performance in Hobson's Choice. And how can anyone forget the trail blazing tour of Merchant of Venice, in which he played Antonio, throughout the kampongs of Sarawak. Wherever there was a jungle clearing there was the Bard! The head hunting Iban tribes of the interior knew a good thing when they saw it, but if you gave a bad performance you could lose more than your reputation!! He returned home to Wales in 1987 and was heading for a glittering career on the dole!

Fortunately, as the dole really was not an option, he started the acclaimed Heritage Theatre Company, which won many awards for innovative work in both England and Wales, trying to bring very boring bits of English and Welsh history alive for very bored English and Welsh pupils. That work continued for some ten years and is sorely missed - but not by the pupils!

During that time Gareth also kept his hand in (no comments please!) with work as a jobbing actor and these can been seen on the more conventional CV.

He has also been fortunate in working as a guest director for a variety of community projects and youth theatre productions (running a youth theatre himself 1990-97): Half year End 1990; Pasiant yr Urdd, Dros Ein Plant 1996 (both wrote and directed); Little Shop of Horrors 1996; Return to the Forbidden Planet 1997; Romeo and Juliet - the Abba Version (wrote and directed) 1998; Blood Brothers 1999; The Power of Love (wrote and directed) 2000; all of which have helped to broaden and extend his own knowledge of the theatre.

Gareth has also been involved with an event management company that has put on large-scale productions such as the Bryn Terfel event at Castell Caernarfon and Blwydden Newydd Wa for Avanti television as well as hundreds of small-scale events throughout Wales.

For the past five years Gareth has also been involved with the teaching of acting skills and the development of theatrical awareness and several of his former pupils are now at Drama colleges throughout England, Wales and Scotland pursuing a career in the acting profession. Again this has helped a great deal in the development of his own talents and as a result of this work he has undertaken several workshops either as a leader or as a participant with companies such as Volcano; Welsh National Opera; Granada Studios; English touring Theatre; and several others.

 

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Management 2000 ◊ 11 Well Street ◊ Treuddyn ◊ Flintshire ◊ North Wales ◊ CH7 4NH
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