The Dancing Floor

Some years ago, I attended a very helpful writing course taught by Lyn Webster Wilde. She isn't only a writer - though I can recommend On The Trail of the Women Warriors and Becoming the Enchanter - she is also a film-maker (she begins Becoming the Enchanter with a scene where she's trying to film in Liverpool, and has to find a way to deal with some cheeky kids).
Becoming the Enchanter is a book steeped in the mythology of the Mabinogion, the collection of Welsh myths and legends which are pretty much all that survive of pre-Christian religion in Britain, and she's returned to these myths to write and direct a film called The Dancing Floor.

So far, she's made a fifteen minute pilot film, which will be shown at Hay Castle on Wednesday 9th September. The evening starts at 7pm and there will also be storytelling from Seiriol Tomos and Wayland Boulanger. Seiriol Tomos also appears in the film, along with Isha Gurung (aged 8, from Mount Street School in Brecon) who plays young Sita, the half-Welsh, half-Indian heroine of the film. Renu Brindle from Bristol plays the adult Sita.
There's a lot of local involvement in the project - Dylan Fowler and Gill Stevens, from Abergavenny, are writing the music, and will be performing live at the Castle. Richard Greatrex, who lives in Hay and who shot Shakespeare in Love, is director of photography, and Jasper Fforde, local novelist, has been helping him. Filming so far has taken place around Brechfa Pool, where Lyn Webster Wilde lives, and at Erwood's Ciliau House.
They are, of course, hoping to raise money to make the rest of the film. They are trying to raise £40,000 through the crowd-funding website Indiegogo. They also want to find extras to appear in the film - primary school children to do some dancing, adults to appear at a funeral, a pub scene, and a dance scene at the climax of the film.

They can be contacted at dancingfloorfilm@gmail.com

It looks as if it's going to be a magical evening.