The play is touring to thirteen venues across Wales, finishing at co-producer venue, the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven.
The end of the tour coincides with ‘May the Fourth’ and to celebrate this and the wonderful town at the heart of the play’s story, the company is organising a community led three-day festival ‘Pembroke Dock Celebrates’, sponsored by Valero.
‘Pembroke Dock Celebrates’ will involve a series of workshops and creative community activities thatwill culminate in a locally-led festival on the weekend of ‘May the Fourth’ (unofficially celebrated worldwide as Star Wars Day), celebrating the area’s unique history and future.
Workshops and master classes in local schools and Pembrokeshire college on May 3 and 4 will build up to a large-scale community celebration day in the town on Saturday, May 5.
Producer Jennifer Lunn said: “Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock is inspired by the real-life constructionin Pembroke Dock shipyard of the full-size Millennium Falcon spaceship, used in the film ‘Star Wars:The Empire Strikes Back’.
“We really wanted to bring the story home to Pembroke Dock. Through highlighting the town’s role in one of the most iconic film franchises of the last fifty years, we hope to broaden the aspirations and horizons of the local community by allowing them to see themselves reflected in this based-on-true-events story.
“The production received a large touring grant from Arts Council Wales. Part of this funding is designated to support the planning and delivery of a community focussed and led festival in Pembroke Dock, the town at the heart of the play.
“The project has also been supported by Pembrokeshire County Council and is sponsored by Valero.”
The day will start with a procession through the Town Centre.
A giant spaceship will be created as part of the project and will lead the parade alongside costumed characters from Star Wars including Stormtroopers.
The children involved in the schools’ project will carry the spaceships they have created.
They will be joined by friends and family and other members of the community who will be invited to dress up and walk with them.
Accompanying the procession will be a band playing the Star Wars theme tune.
The procession will lead to the Market Hall in Pembroke Dock where various locally-themed and Star Wars related activities will take place.
These will include a fancy-dress competition, face painting, screenings of a short film about the building of the Falcon in Pembroke Dock, lightsabre combat academy displays and workshops, Star Wars space ships and gun replica display, Star Wars Green Screen activities and showcasing of past and current work in the dockyard by local companies and stakeholders.
At the end of the event there will be buses available to take ticket holders over to the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven to see ‘Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock’ and to bring them back afterwards.
The aim is to offer/subsidise reduced tickets for residents of Pembroke Dock so that the show is more accessible to those less able to attend the theatre.
The festival has been created and planned in collaboration with local stakeholders including Dilys Burrell, Town Council, Stuart Berry, Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre, The VC Gallery and the Pembroke Town Team.
Dilys Burrell said: “The Pembroke Dock Town Team have often talked about the potential associated with their link to the Star Wars films, so they were delighted to hear of Dirty Protest Theatre’s plans for the ‘Lightspeed from Pembroke Dock’ production.
“They have also told us there have been few community arts events in Pembroke Dock in recent years, and they are hugely excited by the potential of the Dirty Protest Theatre led community event to inspire similar celebrations in the future, as well as build pride amongst the community in Pembroke Dock in their unique role in making amazing things since the town’s creation in 1814.”
During the event volunteers will be collecting contributions towards the development of a new Town Centre Space for the VC Gallery.
Pembrokeshire born writer Mark Williams said: “In 1979, I was too young to be aware of the rumours that the Millennium Falcon was being built on my doorstep in Pembrokeshire.
“Learning about it later, it felt almost too amazing to be true. The thought of actually getting to see it – what that would mean to someone of Sam’s age, and how that might shape his life – was what first inspired Lightspeed. Some of my earliest memories are of seeing the Star Wars films for the first time.”
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