In 2015 Chris worked with National Theatre Wales on their Big Democracy Project in partnership with Celf o Gwmpas, exploring the issue “Are disabled people an easy target for the cuts?” - an evening of performance and debate at Celf, Llandrindod Wells. The evening was recorded by Radio 3.
Chris trained as an actor at The Welsh College of Music and Drama and as a teacher at Trinity College, London. During his early career he worked with a number of companies including Moving Being, Caricature and Theatre Addix which he co-founded with playwright, Ian Rowlands. In recent years, however, it’s as a director that he is most well-known. Following the ground-breaking productions, The Bench and Shakespeare’s Bottom which established Newport Inclusive Arts (NIA), founded with poet Goff Morgan and Mobile Arts Project, at the cutting edge of new work with disabled adults, Chris became Artistic Director of the Unusual Stage School, Wales’s disability-led hot-house for performers.
Productions:
The Unusual Stage Show, Cardigan Theatre Mwldan and Swansea Grand Theatre, 2006-2007
Sex Not Charity, Liverpool DaDaFest, 2008
Moulin Rouge, Cardiff Millennium Centre, 2009
S’not Fair, Cardiff, 2009
Pride The Opera, a musical written by Chris and Goff Morgan, music by Jon Turner, Cardiff Oval Basin and Millennium Centre, 2010
“You had them rolling in the aisles. You’re a hit on The Sunshine Coast!” David Roche
“a digital Canterbury Tales”
Chris Laidlaw, Radio New Zealand
Moulin Rouge
The Unusual Stage Show, Jon Luxton and Andrew Hubbard
“Disquietingly shocking...comically strong and lyrically clever...an outstanding success”
Ella-Louise Gilbert, about The Unusual Stage Show on the Theatre in Wales website
Workshops
Chris offers a full range of theatre, drama and storytelling workshops including improvised and devised theatre, audition techniques and script sessions for disabled, non disabled and inclusive groups of all ages. Satisfied clients include St David’s Hall, Chapter Arts Centre, Drama Association of Wales, ImprovBoston USA, The Centre for English and American Studies, Krakow, Poland.
Chris has performed as stand-up, storyteller and compere for the Welsh Assembly Government and the BBC and at venues at home and abroad including Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Liverpool DaDaFest, Sechelt Arts Centre, Canada, The Glen Eden Playhouse and Corbans Estate Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. His stand-up show was filmed for the award-winning HTV documentary, One in Six (2003) and he has directed / hosted cabarets for Disability Wales, Disability Arts Cymru and DaDa.
21st Century Dinosaurs
Click on the pictures to see extracts from the show
The Big Democracy
21st Century Dinosaurs, premiered in 2014 at Chapter Arts Centre, is an exciting piece of multi-media theatre, created by award winning director, Chris Tally Evans and his talented company of artists. Funny and tragic life stories, a tropical island where 10% of the islanders are colour-blind, an original view of Muslim women and their place in our society smash together in this thought provoking production. Read more...
A collaboration between myself, Fernanda Amaral, a Bonnie Bird winner and São Paulo-based Brazilian dance company Dança sem Fronteiras, Skin, Muscle & Bone - Pele, Músculo & Osso, sees concrete and countryside collide. The performance in the Weston Studio, Wales Millennium Centre on Wednesday 3rd July 2024 fused the language of dance-theatre with music and soundscape, along with my disability activism, into a cross-cultural cauldron of sound and vision.
An Unlimited International Partner Award 2023 commission made possible thanks to funding from British Council.
