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New casting information has been released for the upcoming TIGER & BUNNY THE STAGE production, which will be playing in Tokyo from 19th - 27th September and in Hyogo from 2th - 4th October!

Introducing our cast:

Kotetsu T. Kaburagi: spi (William W. Spearman IV)

Barnaby Brooks Jr.: Ichigo Shiota

Karina Lyle: Yui Soma

Keith Goodman: Kiriya Morita

#tiger and bunny #tiger & bunny #the stage #anime #events #event #live events

1. Michael Sheen Actor, artistic director of the Welsh National Theatre

Sheen put Wales back on the theatre map in 2025.

At the beginning of the year, he unveiled plans for his new Welsh National Theatre – which came in the wake of the closure of National Theatre Wales – and the next 12 months have been nothing short of inspiring as he laid out his plans, formed partnerships and announced its inaugural productions. The adoration for the actor-turned-artistic-director has been rightfully palpable.

Sheen, who is running the company, has financed certain elements of the WNT himself.

“I’m in a unique position in some ways,” he previously told The Stage. “I have my own resources. And I don’t just mean financially, although that is part of it. I can buck the trend, or at least try to change the current a bit. I don’t have to go cap in hand to people right now.”

Announcing the organisation last January, he described its launch as “a new dawn for theatre in Wales”.

“It will be a home for our greatest talent, bringing them together to create ambitious theatre that makes our national story come alive. That’s what national theatres should do,” he said, adding: “Wales has such a rich storytelling history but our stories are underexplored in the English language, both at home and internationally.”

He wasted no time fixing that, going on to announce two co-productions in which he will star.

Kicking off the season is Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play relocated to a small Welsh town by director Francesca Goodridge and executive producer Pádraig Cusack, with acclaimed screenwriter Russell T Davies on board as creative associate. The play opens this month in Wales, before a small tour, including a run at the Rose in Kingston. This will be followed by a new 15th-century-history play, Owain & Henry, by Gary Owen, which is to open at the Wales Millennium Centre’s Donald Gordon Theatre in November. The WMC is a co-producer on the show, in which Sheen will play the last Welsh-born prince of Wales, who clashes with King Henry IV in a battle for national identity.

“Playing the iconic Welsh prince on one of Europe’s biggest stages in our capital city will, I hope, be a defining moment for us as a people and a culture. This is what Welsh National Theatre is all about,” Sheen said.

But it wasn’t just the inaugural productions that got people excited about his ambitious plans.

Sheen also announced former National Theatre Wales co-chair Sharon Gilburd as the company’s founding chief executive, with Nye writer Tim Price named its founding literary manager. Later in the year, WNT revealed Swansea as its home, where it will create a “cultural hub” that is set to “come alive with actors, directors, producers and writers before the work meets audiences”. Our Town will play in Swansea as part of this.

Sheen’s organisation also announced that it had partnered with Doctor Who production company Bad Wolf to support the “next generation of storytellers”.

Bad Wolf, based in South Wales, became the first private-sector investor to team up with the theatre company, with its investment being used to offer seed funding to commission writers and theatremakers with “bold ideas to develop Welsh stories”. The theatre company said these stories could “play on the biggest stages in the world or be developed into screen content”. Swiftly afterwards, BBC Studios announced that it would be funding a talent-scouting scheme for the new WNT, in what is being billed as a “big moment for the next wave of creative talent from Wales”.

The commercial arm of the BBC, which counts EastEnders and Silent Witness among its credits, partnered with Sheen’s company in a joint bid to create opportunities for Welsh artists across theatre and television.

Sheen said he hoped the talent-scout project, bolstered by BBC Studios’ investment, would “create pathways that have vanished, or never existed” for Welsh creatives. And for that, no doubt, creatives throughout Wales will be thankful.

Sheen’s actions have galvanised others. Actor Matthew Rhys used the moment to announce his return to the Welsh stage for the first time in 22 years in a one-man show about Richard Burton, Playing Burton, which will raise funds for the WNT.

Announcing the performances, Rhys said: “Michael Sheen has been putting all us Welsh actors to shame by setting up Welsh National Theatre, so when a space appeared in my schedule, I felt it was my time to step up.”

He won’t be the last. It seems Sheen and his star quality is set to be a significant force in re-establishing Welsh drama and making sure it delivers to its full potential.

Recognising his role in being able to spur others into action, Sheen said: “There are enough people who want to work with me as an individual that I can say: ‘Okay, how about working with us as a company?’ I can convene people, I can get doors opened, I can commission playwrights and hopefully I can galvanise and catalyse things in a way that maybe other people are not in a position to do. I want to make the most of that while it’s still the case.”

With Sheen at the helm of the WNT, theatre in Wales and beyond has received a massive boost and now all eyes will be on how his first projects land when they finally hit the stage this year.

But if the product is as impressive as his intent, The Stage has no doubt that the future is exceptionally promising with Welsh National Theatre part of the ecology. Sheen is a very well-deserved and inspirational number one.

The Stage Interview with Michael Sheen explores more about his work with the Welsh National Theatre, as well as his broader career. Sheen will also be presented with The Stage 100 trophy at The Stage Awards in association with Tysers Live in London on January 12.

#Michael Sheen #The Stage #Welsh National Theatre

Serious Stage Star ↙️

…Damn those eyes…

So much Sparkle ✨

🖤 I love watching him take full command of his surroundings. You can’t help but stop and stare and be mesmerized! 🖤

#michael sheen #our town #the stage #practice #welsh national theatre #twinkly boy