Fern Smith
Fern was born in London and now lives in Swansea, South Wales. After studying for a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Industrial Relations she formed Volcano Theatre Company with Paul Davies in the 1980’s. Since then Fern has performed, directed and taught workshops for Volcano and as a freelancer nationally and internationally for 25 years. Fern is also a Holistic Massage therapist, Craniosacral therapist and a Relational Dynamics Coach. Fern was awarded the Arts Council of Wales Clore Leadership Fellowship in 2009 / 10. As part of her fellowship she co-developed Emergence-Eginiad an arts and sustainability initiative for Wales. Emergence aspires to bring artists and the arts sector in Wales together, creating a platform to inspire, empower and inform artists to take a role in developing ‘creative practice for a sustainable future’.
Fern is co-initiator and creative producer of Emergence.
www.volcanotheatre.co.uk
Jenny Mackewn
Jenny Mackewn is an organizational consultant, creative catalyst, constellator, systemic coach, trainer and author working across sectors – ranging from educational and environmental to business. She specializes in catalyzing creative conversation and dialogue and in whole systems approaches to leadership and organizational development. She has recently designed and led pioneering programmes in eco facilitation and eco constellations for schumacher college.
Jenny facilitated World Café’s for Emergence and advisory group meetings. She was also one of the designers and Land Journey facilitators on the 2012 Summit
Rhodri Thomas
After gaining an degree in Environmental Biology in 1988, Rhodri did the post graduate performance course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. For the following 13 years he was a freelance actor, writer and small scale producer working with theatre companies in Wales and in London. He has produced shows at Chapter and took his one man play (written with Boyd Clack) to the Dublin Fringe Festival. He has also acted in numerous BBC radio productions and appeared on film and TV most notably as one of the main cast of BBC sitcom SatelliteCity.
In 2002 Rhodri returned to university and gained a Masters in Environmental Management. Since then he has worked for the University of Glamorgan, Environment Agency Wales, Forum For The Future and Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales. This currently includes acting as a steering role in the Creu Cymru Emergence project.
Rhodri is co-founder of the Emergence initiative and manages Cynnal Cymru’s Emergence contribution.
Paul Allen
Paul is CAT’s External Relations Officer, heading the ground-breaking Zero Carbon Britain research and communications programme,. Paul holds an Honours degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from LiverpoolUniversity and joined the Centre for Alternative Technology in 1988. Since then Paul has held many positions at CAT and helped spearhead many projects local to the Dyfi valley and further afield including Dulas Ltd – a CAT spin-off renewable engineering company and Eco Dyfi, a local organisation facilitating the regeneration and sustainable development of the DyfiValley (a UNESCO Biosphere reserve). Paul has also been influential on Wales’ position on climate change and sustainability in roles as Wales’ Climate Change Comissioner in 2007 and part of the Wales Science Advisory Council in 2010. Paul is also a sound engineer and musician, playing double bass, guitar, bouzouki bodhran and low whistle.
Paul was part of the Emergence Advisory group, gave presentations at Case for Optimism and Emergence Cardiff and was project manager and coordinator for CAT’s involvement in the Emergence Summit.
www.cat.org.uk
Lucy Neal
Instigator, theatre maker and educator, Lucy Neal is interested in the art of social sculpture and how celebratory events act as a catalyst for change. Co-founding director of the LIFT Festival, recent projects, The Trashcatchers’ Carnival and the Tooting Transition Shop explore how artists nurture collective space to imagine a more ecological and life-sustaining society. Co-author of MMM’s Sustainable Ability, she is Happiness Associate on the Happy Museum Project and co-founder of Case For Optimism. Active in the TransitionTown movement since 2008, she is currently writing Playing For Time, the Transition Book on the Arts. She was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to drama.
Lucy gave a presentation at Emergence Swansea and then became Design consultant at the 2012 Summit in addition to facilitating on the Land Journey North route.
www.sustainableability.com
www.happymuseumproject.org
www.caseforoptimism.co.uk
Rosie Strickland
Rosie studied for a BAhons in English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths College, London. Since graduating in 2008 she has lived and worked in Spain, Cornwall and Wales dabbling in various forms of communication and creative practice including writing for Positive News, TEFL teaching, co-organising improvisation workshops, language learning and experimenting with more connected and sustainable ways of living. She worked for three years at the Centre for Alternative Technology in various marketing and media roles and is now a freelance project manager, coordinator and marketeer for the arts and environment.
Rosie was co-ordinator of the 2012 Summit and Emergence website.
Philip Ralph
Philip Ralph is a writer and performer based in Swansea. He trained at RADA and has been working professionally as an actor and performer in theatre, television and film since 1992.
Philip won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2008 for his play Deep Cut, which also won Fringe First and Herald Angel awards. He is a regular scriptwriter on the BBC soap-operas Holby City and Doctors and is currently developing several new screenplays for film and television. As a performer, he is an associate artist with Volcano Theatre Company and was nominated as best Actor for Hitting Funny by the Stage Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005.
Since 2010 he has been The One-Eyed Man, in an extended experiment in performance, conversation and the here-and-now. He followed this initial series with CHAT/SHOW, which encouraged audiences to talk about talking, before going on to create How Volcano Saved My Life for Volcano’s 25th anniversary birthday party festival. He continues to perform alongside Fern Smith in Doin’ Dirt Time, a piece which explores artists responses to the global environmental crisis.
Philip Ralph partnered with Emergence principally for the 2012 Summit and is now developing his work under the Emergence umbrella and continuing his support for the project.
