Ralph Bolland He/him

An actor, writer, director, facilitator and poet with thirty years experience in film, television, theatre and community arts.

Delivering theatre workshops in schools across the UK since the mid 1990s: from inner city London and Glasgow to rural Wales and the Scottish Highlands. I’ve led – often single-handedly – a vibrant community arts organisation (MPYT) for twelve years.

I facilitated a cross-cultural exchange with Immediate Theatre in Hackney (led by Swedish artist/filmmaker Emanuel Almborg) in 2019. The collaboration – a devising process between rural, Welsh (and white) Young People and their inner city London (mainly BAME) counterparts – culminated in a film, ‘The Nth Degree’ which was still touring international film festivals up until lockdown.

I spent more than two years as an associate artist on the Courtyard Hereford’s ‘Creative Ageing’ – a flagship programme for work in Dementia Care Settings across Herefordshire and mid Wales.

I produced, wrote and directed a year-long oral history/reminiscence project for MPYT’s 30th anniversary. ‘How to Mend the Broken Heart’ (2017) celebrated the ordinary lives of rural mid Wales over 30 years in an inter-generational partnership (ages 9-90) with Age Cymru.

I also co-devised, wrote and directed a history/theatre project in Builth Wells High School with Wyeside Arts Centre in 2016 looking at the life and works of the writer Thomas Prichard (who wrote ‘Twm Sion Cati’)

I’ve recently worked on projects with the ACW Lead Creative Schools programme; with Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s on their ‘Climate Camp’ residency (2024); also as PCC Arts Officer (1 year post) and, now the kids are grown up, about to dip my toes back into professional theatre, appearing in a major outdoor stage play of Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’.