Creating Her Story
Adele Cordner
Writer, Director, Performer
Born in Newport, Adele is a poet and a playwright who enjoys writing strong female characters. Her recent plays include My Favourite Dog, a play about a daughter coming to terms with her father’s diagnosis of dementia, and A D(r)ip In The Wye, a political satire about the pollution of the River Wye, both produced by Odyssey Theatre Company. Adele’s short play, The Firestarter was performed at a script-in-hand reading by Dirty Protest Theatre Company for Newport Rising Festival, 2022. Her play The Balloon Girls, about a WWII barrage balloon incident in Newport, was produced by Newport Playgoers Society. Adele has an MA(Distinction) in Scriptwriting from Bath Spa University. Her poetry collection,The Kitchen Sink Chronicles was published by Hedgehog Poetry Press (2020) and many of her poems feature in magazines and anthologies.
Adele has directed for Odyssey Theatre Company and for community theatre, including a tour to Minack Theatre in Cornwall. She enjoys working collaboratively with other creatives.
Adele has been an actor since a young age, performing with various companies across South Wales, including Odyssey Theatre Company, Screwpacket Theatre Company, Newport Playgoers Society and Everyman Theatre Company, including at Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival. She has worked with inspirational professional theatre directors including Rebecca Gould, David Cottis, Chris Durnall, Mark Modzelewski, John Jack Patterson, Peter Morgan Barnes, Sarah Bawler, Deborah Evans-Gale, Mark Lloyd and Greg Ashton. Some of her favourite roles include Eliza in The Forgotten (Tour), Jacques in As You Like It, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (Everyman Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival) and Annabel in Ayckbourn’s Snake In The Grass (NPS, Dolman Theatre). Most recently, Adele performed the character of Beatrix Long-John in her own one woman play A D(r)ip in the Wye with Odyssey Theatre Company, directed by Deborah Evans-Gale.
Adele is delighted to be part of Her Story Theatre Company and is thrilled that the company’s inaugural tour is a production of her new play, Daughter of Bala, based on the incredible life of Betsi Cadwaladr.
Clare Drewett
Director, Performer
Born in Newport, Clare’s love of theatre and music was formed at an early age and she has performed in scores of productions.
Before Clare left school she had already starred as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Blackwood Little Theatre), Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank (Dolman Theatre, Newport), and taken a leading role in What The Old Man Does, an Alun Hoddinott opera performed in conjunction with Welsh National Opera at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, as well as taking smaller roles in numerous stage plays and appearing as a singer and musician in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It.
After leaving university, where she studied English Literature, Clare worked as a presenter, researcher and script writer for HTV Wales, including writing and presenting items on ITV’s This Morning, before becoming a journalist. She continued her theatrical endeavours winning awards for performances as varied as Helen Damson (Gift of the Gorgon, Peter Schaffer), Helene Alving (Ghosts, Ibsen),and Madame Arcarti (Blithe Spirit, Noel Coward). Recently Clare was awarded the Webley Prize for best performance, for the second time, for her role as Florence Foster Jenkins in Glorious, by Peter Quilter - a role which combined her love of acting and singing.
Clare has performed in venues throughout Wales including at Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival (Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ariel in The Tempest), on tour in Germany (Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion) and has performed at the Minack Open Air Theatre in Cornwall for both Ad Hoc Theatre Company and Newport Playgoers Society.
More recently Clare has enjoyed using her creative talents as a director, with successful productions of Quartet (Ronald Harwood), Jekyll and Hyde (Andrew and David Hobbs ) Strictly Murder (Brian Clemens), Pride and Prejudice (adapted by Janet Munsil), in which she also played Mrs Bennett, and Vanity Fair (adapted by Kate Hamill), a large cast production which toured to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.
A classically trained singer, Clare has performed with choirs and choral societies in Wales and England. As a soloist she was a guest artist on Elinor Live (ITV Wales), lead vocalist for Bristol-based jazz and blues band Anything Goes, and performed as a ‘lady of the court’ at Caldicot Castle’s Medieval Banquets. In a creative collaboration with composer Michael Elliott and pianist Paul Green, Clare has given a series of recitals including premieres of works by the well-known Newport musician and accompanied by him. A succession of concerts by the trio at which Clare, also a Grade 8 pianist, has played and sung, have raised money for local charities. She continues to work as a soloist at venues throughout South Wales.
Clare is delighted to be part of Her Story Theatre Company and is relishing the chance to bring the incredible story of Betsi Cadwaladr to life on the stage.
Director, Performer, Stage Management
Alison has been involved in the theatre since a young age, originally taking part in school productions and has since accumulated many years of experience in performing and working backstage with various companies in Market Drayton, Llandudno, Cwmbran, Monmouth and Newport.
She has vast experience across a wide range of genre including pantomime, musicals and plays. Her first lead was Cinderella at the age of 16 and went on to appear in a large number of pantomimes and shows such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Gigi, South Pacific and Fiddler on the Roof.
In more recent years, because of family and work commitments, she has focused on plays appearing many times on stage at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran, Savoy Theatre in Monmouth and the Dolman Theatre in Newport. She has also performed a number of times at the world renowned Minack theatre in Cornwall.
Using her wealth of experience, Alison has recently directed two short plays for Newport Playgoers Society: Award winning play Drawing the Line by Ross Salvage; and Untucked by Teresa Hennessy.
Alison has also appeared as a background artist in many well known television shows such as Casualty, Broadchurch, Sex Education, Keeping Faith and Pobol y Cwm.
She is thrilled to be part of Her Story Theatre Company and, as well as being part of the creative team, is the Company Secretary.
Alison Gerrard
Linda Ward
Design and build, Stage Management, Performer
Linda’s active participation in theatre began 35 years ago. Born in Liverpool, after studying English Literature in Aberystwyth University, she moved to London where she enjoyed many iconic West End productions, from the auditorium. On relocating to Chepstow she moved out of the audience and joined Tidenham Players to ‘help’. After a brief step on stage she concluded that her talents were best deployed backstage.
She joined Newport Playgoers on the promise of being taught how to make a pig (Gut Girls), and then got attracted to the silent drama that happens behind the scenes. She enjoyed sourcing and making props, graduating to set dressing and then set design.
Linda has enjoyed participating in outdoor theatre which presents very different challenges to performing in a conventional theatre space. Working with Ad Hoc Theatre Company and Newport Playgoers, she has worked on numerous productions at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, including The Hypochondriac, The Canterbury Tales, Tartuffe, The Miser, The Titfield Thunderbolt, and Vanity Fair. Some of these shows were toured to Welsh venues. Her involvement with outdoor theatre also found expression with Red Herring Theatre Company designing and creating for productions performed in Welsh castles including Dick Barton Special Agent, Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood and Blackadder. Despite her preference for backstage, Linda has stepped partially back on stage to undertake the role of a Foley artist (sound creator) for Red Herring’s productions of It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle of 34th Street.
The inaugural production of HSTC gives Linda the opportunity to work with people she has enjoyed working with at different points in her experience. She is looking forward to the challenges of getting Betsi on the road.
Creative partner: lighting and sound specialist
Rob has been involved in drama since 1978 and, as well as acting has directed many plays over the years, including Hobson’s Choice, Far from the Madding Crowd, Under Milk Wood, The Hidden Host, Play On!, Deadly Dull, Forget Me Knot and Noises Off. He also designed the lighting and sound for these plays and numerous local pantomimes. However, his main interest is designing soundscapes.
Rob's skills in this area have their roots in his professional career as a broadcast television film editor.
Early in 2023 he was lighting and sound designer for A D(r)ip in the Wye directed by Adele Cordener, performed at The Drill Hall, Chepstow
Later in the year,he was sound designer for Under Milk Wood performed at The Dolman Theatre, Newport, a production which demanded a continuous - and continuously changing – soundscape, to help the audience immerse themselves in a day in the village of Llareggub.
Rob has enormously enjoyed creating the soundscape for Daughter of Bala and is looking forward to the Summer tour.
Rob Ollerton
Creative partner: set design and build
I became involved in theatre many years ago, acting, working backstage and the occasional stint of directing. I first trod the boards as a member of Caldicot Theatre Club, and since then have been involved in several groups around Chepstow, Newport, Cwmbran, Lydney and Penarth.
With these groups I have been involved in many outdoor performances including tours in and around Monmouthshire, West Wales and, my favourite place, The Minack Theatre, right on the tip of Cornwall. There I have been fortunate to have acted in and worked backstage on 17 productions, my favourite being The Titfield Thunderbolt, for which we had to design and build an almost full-size copy of a steam engine. I enjoy the challenge of solving the practical problems of getting a script on stage, but still get a thrill from being on the stage itself. As an engineer I understand how important it is for the design and construction to work technically and safely and as actor on stage can appreciate when it does.
Graeme Johnson
Her Story Theatre Company Ltd
Registered No 15573598
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