Blwyddyn Newydd Dda (Happy New Year)!
The December round up of news from Wales ended with Rhyl's Pavilion Theatre and this edition starts with their recent announcement that performers from north Wales will participate in comedian Jimmy Cricket's show, Jimmy Cricket – Value For A Tenner’ Show.
The cast and crew of Womble The Movie, the biggest ever independent film shot in North Wales, will make a special appearance in a show that will having dancing from the Popstarz Academy and of course the stand-up comedy of Jimmy Cricket.
Also coming up at the Pavilion Theatre is veteran entertainer Max Boyce who has worked all over the world in a career spanning more than 30 years.
Visiting singers include two-time Grammy nominee Gretchen Peters who was recently inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Dr Feelgood with support from Eddie and the Hotrods and Ireland's Louise Morrisey, John Hogan, Gloria, Frank Mc Caffrey and Lee Matthews with a live band in The Legends of American Country Tribute Show.
And for a young Rhyl audience, television's Count Duckula is live on stage in The Jewels of Duckula.
This adventure is the first time Count Duckula has been staged and the show includes songs and fun for all the family as Duckula, Nanny and Igor have to hunt for hidden treasure.
Meanwhile, leading Welsh producing house The Sherman Theatre has another varied season coming up.
One of the three co-productions on offer is the Bruntwood Prize-winning Bird written by the Sherman’s playwright in residence, Katherine Chandler.
After its May run at the Sherman, it transfers to the home of co–producers, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.
Three new scripts from Welsh or Wales-based writers are to get their first airing. These have been developed through TAITH, the Sherman’s new writing initiative, with support from Soho Theatre associate director Nina Steiger, and their performance will be followed by a post-show discussion.
"The perfect post-work pick me up" A Play, A Pie and A Pint is also a new play based on one of the most famous Hollywood marriages of the 1930s, Mr. and Mrs. Laughton by Michael Alan Read.
Before that, a large-scale community production will open the season: Sherman Cymru and Waulah Cymru’s Home is about the journey of two brothers from Waulah in Pakistan to Cardiff in the 1950s.
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Richard Burton Company brings Stiles and Drewe’s musical revue Anything Can Happen! with songs from Just So, Honk, Peter Pan, Betty Blue Eyes and Soho Cinders, and there is more music in Before I Leave by Tredegar-born poet and playwright Patrick Jones.
This is a new musical about men and women from south Wales living with Dementia and features music from Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers. It is presented by National Theatre Wales and Wales Millennium Centre.
Iphigenia in Splott returns to the venue as part of an extensive tour and other visitors include Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru with Gary Owen’s Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Traverse Theatre Company with Crash by Scottish writer Andy Duffy and new company 5pound5 with Sid by Leon Fleming.
Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales (The Monkey Puzzle, The Smartest Giant in Town and A Squash and a Squeeze) visit for Easter entertainment of young audiences.
With The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Princess and The Pea (Y Dywysoges a’r Bysen Fechan Fach), Sherman Cymru has enjoyed its most successful Christmas since it reopened in 2012 and has announced that its main stage Christmas production for 2016 will be The Borrowers based on the book by Mary Norton.
The programme at Sherman Cymru also includes opera, dance and comedy.
Looking forward, albeit not as far as Christmas this time, is the return of Mandela Trilogy opening at Wales Millennium Centre in August before heading off on tour.
This Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera production has a cast and orchestra of over 60 South African performers. It is written and directed by Michael Williams with music by Peter Louis van Dijk and Mike Campbell.
This musical tribute to Nelson Mandela premièred at Wales Millennium Centre in 2012. Its 2016 tour opens there and takes in London's Royal Festival Hall, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, Birmingham Hippodrome and The Lowry, Salford. Tickets are not yet on sale at all venues.
And to close, more news about new writing. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama new writing season, NEW, is back for a third year.
The season is made up of four world premières in Cardiff, all of which will transfer to London's Gate Theatre.
The writers are Dafydd James, Elinor Cook, Ali Taylor and Joe Ward Munrow and the productions will involve all 32 graduating actors as well as students from the design and stage management course.