Artistic Director

Vic Mills

Vic is a retired teacher, an actor, director, playwright and lecturer. He lectures part-time and runs a small professional theatre company called Contemporancient Theatre. He has a degree in English literature and theatre from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. After a career from 1985-2015 as an English and drama teacher, he now teaches English part-time at an adult education college in Wales. He has taught thousands of young people acting and theatre skills over 30 years and his students have an outstanding record of examination success. He has directed more than 40 community productions and more than 20 school productions. Many of these have led to awards for direction. As an actor, he has performed in more than 60 plays and has won many local, national and international awards for acting. Vic has written five school plays, three full-length community plays, twelve one-act community plays and one full-length professional play. Many of these have resulted in awards for writing, direction and acting. He has also worked extensively as a performance examiner in England and Wales, visiting almost 100 schools to examine students performing in acting, design, lighting, sound and directing.

Neil Maidman

Neil graduated in 1991 with a postgraduate diploma in management studies from the University of South Wales. He pursued a career in management with a national UK retailer – working across many locations and roles. Alongside this, his passion for community theatre was being cultivated by being involved in a local, small theatre group. He joined Blackwood Little Theatre in 1998, playing the role of a young lieutenant, opposite Vic Mills. His association with this theatre and his friendship with Vic Mills has endured ever since. During his time with Blackwood, he has directed and acted in more than 40 plays, from farce to Shakespeare and Arthur Miller. Vic and Neil have sought to produce plays that have a high interest for the community and especially school children. They have jointly produced a number of plays of this type with children coming from across South Wales to see them. Additionally, after attending a performance, they have facilitated workshops with schools. In 2005, Vic and Neil entered their first festival, which they won. That put them on a festival path that has seen their productions compete all over the UK and, of course, in Liverpool Nova Scotia. Neil’s plays, many of which are original works by Vic Mills, reached the Wales Finals every year from 2005 until 2016. They won the Wales final in 2008 and again in 2012, and narrowly missed out winning the British Final title that same year. Neil has on four occasions at LITF: three times for Blackwood (2008, 2012 and 2018) and once for the Winds of Change (2010) with Last Tango in Liverpool. The latter experience is one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life in theatre. Neil has also been in the administration of community theatre on a local, regional and national level. In 2015, he set up a professional theatre company in South Wales. Performing original comedic works, it has built up a cult following and is about to embark on a tour, culminating in a performance in London’s West End in February 2020.