Volcano is an independent theatre production company based in Swansea, South Wales. Our HQ is a large former supermarket building on Swansea High Street, where we create and perform original productions and host and support a vast range of creative activity by others and run our own programme of community activities.
Volcano's latest production is Under Milk Wood - a new version of the Dylan Thomas classic the company was once banned from performing.
The company's work is supported by Arts Council of Wales, Garfield Weston Foundation, Postcode Lottery, Austin Bailey Foundation and others.
At Open Door, our Behind the Scenes Access Programme supports participants aged 17-30 who are passionate about a career in Technical Theatre and Productions Arts and who want to apply to study at one of our partner schools. Technical Theatre and Productions Arts careers can include the likes of scenic art, theatre technology, set construction, costume construction, prop-making, set/costume design and more!
Our current partner schools are Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, LAMDA, Royal Welsh College of Music, and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. We can give you the support you need to approach your interviews with confidence, knowing that you have benefited from the advice and mentoring from our selected industry professionals.
The Behind the Scenes Access programme provides participants with:
On the Drama and Theatre degree at Aberystwyth University, you will study what theatre has been in the past, examine what it is the present, and begin to imagine what it might be in the future. Innovatively combining theory and practice and teaching a range of transferable skills, this course will prepare you for work in the creative industries and beyond.
Rooted in Aberystwyth’s celebrated history of innovative and radical performance-making and taught by internationally recognised staff, this degree will help grow your skills as a creative thinker and an articulate practitioner.
Focusing on contemporary performance practice with a global outlook, through this degree you will encounter a range of performance styles and theatrical forms, from scripted stage plays to devised site-specific work, from Shakespearean drama to musical theatre and experiments in new media.
Our dynamic, flexible degree programme allows you to study literature from different periods and cultures, and across the range of principal literary genres. You will not be restricted to studying the printed word: we are intrigued by the connections between literature and film, art, history, technology, language, and everyday life, and our teaching reflects these interests. You will learn how literature addresses social, environmental, and economic concerns with the aim of creating a better, more inclusive world and developing sustainable solutions for the future of the planet.
The Creative Writing element of the programme provides you with the opportunity to progress from introductory modules on reading and writing creatively to specialised work within specific forms and genres such as fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and scriptwriting, culminating in the production of an extended collection of creative work.
Throughout the programme you will be encouraged to stretch yourself intellectually and imaginatively by exploring literature as both a creative practitioner and a critic. Our approach will help you develop an understanding of the creative process, as well as enhancing your knowledge of genre, literary history, and the varied and dynamic academic field which is English Literature.
You will focus on becoming a careful, attentive, and informed reader and writer, sensitive to the nuances of language and style and able to produce polished and sophisticated creative work.
You join a friendly and supportive environment with an international reputation for both teaching and research. Our talented Creative Writing team regularly scoop national and international awards, and collectively share experience in theatre, television and film. Our public platforms Cardiff BookTalk and Cardiff Poetry Experiment are popular and hugely engaging.