91Èȱ¬

Having witnessed the birth of the National Theatre of Scotland four years ago, it was interesting to sit in on final rehearsals for the opening production of the new National Theatre Wales this week.

Like Scotland, there's been a long running campaign to establish a national English language theatre [it already has a Welsh language national theatre - Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru].

Like Scotland, devolution has played its part in pushing the argument, and in finding the funding for the new company, which officially launches tonight in Blackwood, Gwent with A Good Night Out in the Valleys.

The show - written by Alan Harris - focuses on the Miners Institutes, which were once a feature of almost every town in the south wales valleys.

Paid for by the miners themselves, they're proof that culture doesn't have to be dumbed down for the masses.

A good night out here would have once encompassed everything from opera to bingo, via chamber music, political speeches and foreign films.

Some, like Blackwood Miners Institute, have been revived as modern arts centres [the latter, where rehearsals have been taking place, also has the high profile support of the Manic Street Preachers, who grew up locally]. Others have been given a new lease of life for the tour.

But all send out the message that National Theatre Wales - like the National Theatre of Scotland on which it's modelled - is a company which has neither a building, nor any boundaries when it comes to staging work.

"There's always been theatre - it's been in places like these," says Professor Dai Smith, who as chair of the Welsh Arts Council has championed the new company.

"This is where Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson would have performed their shows, it's where Aneurin Bevan walked into the Reading Room with a copy of the Pravda and the New York Times, it's where Neil Kinnock watched his first foreign films.

"This is nothing new. It's just a rerouting of what's always been there but that's why it's so important."

Already, director John McGrath has plans for performances in Swansea Library [in a collaboration with Welsh National Opera who'll be providing "singing librarians"], the beaches of North Wales, Snowdonia, and even a disused army range in the Brecon Beacons.

He admits Wales, with just a handful of professional theatres, and comparatively low levels of paying theatre goers, will be a challenging place to launch a national theatre, but he's confident that by-passing more conventional audiences to bring in completely new people will pay off.

As well as performing in local communities, rehearsals are held there, so that audiences can see how theatre is made, as well as watching the finished product.

John McGrath says: "One of the great traditions in Wales is amateur participation, whether that's choirs, or drama groups or whatever, and that's something we hope to tap into."

"With this show, we invited people along and asked them for their memories and made them into part of the show, and now they're incredibly enthusiastic about coming along to what might be their first professional show."

The launch coincides with a massive increase in TV production in Wales, largely due to the decision by the 91Èȱ¬ to relocate Dr Who there in 2005.

Now, with the three Dr Who strands [torchwood and the sarah jane adventures as well as the Doctor] and the long running medical drama Casualty and the cult series Being Human relocating from Bristol to Cardiff, a new drama village is having to be built to cope with it all.

And while there are plenty of people who're unconvinced as to how much work that will actually entail for the local sector - it's already having a positive impact on National Theatre Wales.

Michael Sheen - only this week, seen on stage at the Oscars - will return to his native Wales to direct, and star in, a forthcoming production. It's hoped other Welsh actors will be persuaded to follow suit.

"There's huge scope for crossover," says John McGrath.

"We are already working to develop writers together. It's a very significant moment when there's enough work to sustain writers and actors and production crews - whatever area they work in - and I think that corner is about to be turned.

"As well as making it clear that you can work in both television and theatre, and you don't have to choose."