Thanks @alex_levene, interesting as always. However, there is one thing nagging at me. I am not sure how to put it out there, it’s been a long day and I struggle to find the words, but: you don’t seem particularly excited. And, going through your post, I can hardly blame you: rural art, at a time when it seems most of the action – both bad and good – is in cities; “lots of sitting in rows”; the, uh, dressing code; even the multilingualism, that is wonderful to behold in so many contexts, looks to me fairly passive-aggressive in Wales. Did those guys really think that the translators would do a better job of conveying their thinking to you, or the folks from Denmark, France and Egypt, than they could have done themselves? Did they really prefer to listen to your words through a professional translator? Far from me the thought of disrespecting the suffering of the Welsh under English domination (I even used to play in a London-Welsh punk-folk band with Welsh and English lyrics), but do I really want to be working with an elephant of that size and stink in the room? Do you? (well, you personally probably do, you are English and can relate to this particular elephant. But you get my point.)
Would you say this is a scene where we can find strong, funny, resilient, sarcastic idealists to do cool stuff with?
(I read the official commissioned article, and it left me shaking my head. “Freelance professionals and independent companies in operation who have to go cap-in-hand to ACW on a project-by-project basis”, “the performing arts for non-Portfolio organisations has been moving for some time in the direction of box-ticking for Arts Council priorities”, “This nationality question is not a nationalist one, but rather a question about why Wales does not have the structures in place to develop young Welsh talent into people who can fill these positions?”. Does not sound so healthy and thriving to me.)