1:01pm Thursday 17th September 2009
THIS year marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Bleddfa Centre for the Creative Spirit, the setting for the current retrospective exhibition of Rhoda Partridge’s work.
It also marks the 50th anniversary of another artistic venue, The Hampstead Theatre, miles from the Welsh Marches, but created by the same man, James Roose-Evans, a distinguished, award-winning theatre director and the first to be ordained a non-stipendiary priest.
Coinciding with these two significant anniversaries is the publication of two new books by James Roose-Evans, Opening Doors and Windows, a memoir in four acts, and Finding Silence: 52 Meditations for Daily Living.
James Roose-Evans now divides his time between London and his home near Knighton, where he enjoys a glorious view across to Clee Hill, and, though no longer involved in the running of the Bleddfa Centre, is a life trustee He concedes that starting a centre in a tiny hamlet with a population of less than 100 was not an obvious thing to do, but when the then rector, John Tipping told him that Bleddfa Church was on the list for closure he reluctantly became involved.
“Having founded the Hampstead Theatre on a shoestring and lurching from one financial crisis to another for seven years, I was not eager to launch into trying to save a small church in a tiny hamlet in the least populated county in Britain.”
A year later, he recalls, and after reflecting and meditating on the situation “I realised that If I did nothing, no one else would.”
He therefore suggested that while it continued as a place of worship, it should be developed as a centre for sacred art offering a programme of exhibitions of sacred art, seminars, retreats, concerts and workshops.
Plans for the centre didn’t go unopposed with one local resident tackling James in the churchyard one day, saying “‘It’s evil what you are doing.’ I replied that other churches held concerts of music and put on exhibitions, adding that the Dean of Westminster had sent a donation, at which she snapped, ‘He doesn’t know what is going on.’” Running workshops on meditation had prompted other locals’ imaginations to run away with them, too: “Another inhabitant spread the rumour that we were smoking pot in the church.”
Bleddfa, he says, is about enriching people’s lives. “Rhoda is a wonderful example of what it’s about - for people to use their creative gifts in the best way possible.”
The work of the Bleddfa Centre has grown over the years, with an annual lecture introduced in 2000 - the inaugural event was given by Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum and his successors have included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music and Jonathon Porritt.
As the founder of the Hampstead Theatre, James’s celebrated production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives resulted in what Coward always referred to as ‘Dad’s renaissance’. And other productions which transferred to the West End included James’s own adaptation of Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie, while his adaptation and production of Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road won him awards for best director and best play on both sides of the Atlantic.
Marking the publication of his two new books, James was be a guest on Radio 4’s Midweek on Wednesday, September 16, talking to Libby Purves about his life of contrasts.
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