Platfform Artists 2024-2026
Mari Luz Cervantes and Greg Glover
Theatr Iolo’s Platfform Artists for 2024-26 are Mari Luz Cervantes and Greg Glover. The artists will spend the first 9 months developing their idea and receive mentorship from Theatr Iolo’s Artistic Director, Lee Lyford. Both artists will also receive an additional 12 months of in-kind support and expert guidance from the company.
“Platfform is an opportunity for writers and theatre makers to experiment in ways that they may not have done before. Writing for young people offers endless creative possibilities and we’re looking to forward to working with Mari Luz and Greg to help them bring their stories to life for young audiences.”
Lee Lyford
Artistic Director, Theatr Iolo
Theatr Iolo’s Platfform programme runs biennially and is currently made possible thanks to the support the company receive from Arts Council Wales.
Mari Luz Cervantes
Mari Luz Cervantes is a Welsh-Spanish, Cardiff based, Community Theatre Practitioner, Director, Actor and Facilitator with a first-class honours in Acting and Community Engagement from East 15 Acting School. Mari Luz is a proud queer woman who is natively trilingual in Welsh, Spanish, and English. Mari Luz leads projects that combine her skills in community engagement and theatre-making to create work that nurtures empathy and inclusivity through theatre. Exploring themes of social justice and uplifting voices that are less often heard in theatre spaces are at the core of her work.
Mari Luz is passionate about creating theatre with communities directly to help harness work that is directly for and by them. She is particularly interested in celebrating diversity within Welsh language spaces, inspired by her own lived experiences of navigating multicultural identity.
Notable examples of her engagement with community theatre projects are creating a Forum Theatre play with young people at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system; working alongside and translating for acclaimed Uruguayan activist/director/writer Marianella Morena creating a performance with a Swansea based group of people giving voice to their thoughts and feelings about the Climate Crisis. Mari Luz was also recently an artist in residence at Theatr Clwyd, developing a mask and puppetry show for young audiences as part of emerging company Theatr o Glust i Glust.
As a facilitator, Mari Luz often works with children and young people, planning and delivering drama workshops that focus on building communication skills and self-expression. She has done so with a range of organisations including Monmouthshire County Council and Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation. She has also facilitated workshops for adults supporting migrants to build confidence in the use of the English language as well as workshops encouraging participants experiencing homelessness build a sense of identity as they are rehabilitated back into the community.
Mari’s Platfform Journey
Mari Luz Cervantes is developing a new play called Dwi’n Dysgu, about moving to Wales from another country, finding out where you belong and learning to love all parts of your heritage. The play is inspired by Mari Luz’s own mixed heritage, and will be performed in Welsh, Spanish and English.
Dwi’n Dysgu finished its first stage of Research and Development in January 2025. During the five days R&D, Mari Luz worked alongside actor/devisers Junior Mujica and Elin Phillips to start the idea of Dwi’n Dysgu into a fleshed-out storyline. This involved reflecting on everyone’s own cultural experiences and discussing how ‘Spanishness’ and ‘Welshness’ might be portrayed on stage. During these five days Mari Luz lead two community workshops. The first with a group of year 5 pupils at Ysgol Treganna exploring the experience of shifting between languages as a young person. The second with a group of parents and children from Nawaris Sudanese performing arts group about the blending and sharing of cultures between generations.
“This first stage of my platform journey has reinforced for me that when we tell stories that are true to us, it becomes apparent that it is true for so many others. I’ve learnt a lot about the moving parts that go into making new theatre happen and the skills I need to run a project like this one”
Having defined the content of Dwi’n Dysgu, the next step will be to work out how to tell the story. Mari Luz’s aim is to continue to work collaboratively to finalise the script before moving into production. The ambition is to take this play to groups of young people and families on stages across Wales.
“Creating a trilingual show for children that celebrates multiculturalism in the Welsh language is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The Platfform programme gives artists like myself the chance to be daring. The support of such a renowned theatre company allows us to try something that may have been difficult to achieve alone.”
Greg Glover
Greg is a writer and teacher from South Wales. Primarily a playwright, he has had plays performed in venues such as Bristol Old Vic, Theatr Clwyd, Theatre 503 and Sherman Theatre, as well as creating work for television and radio.
Passionate about moving Deaf and disabled stories into the mainstream, he takes the path less travelled by introducing us to people and stories that have often been overlooked or ignored, because if they aren’t a hero or a victim we don’t know what to do with them.
Having helped empower young people to find their voice through film he has never written a play for this audience, which is something he wants to change with this opportunity.
“I want Platfform to help me create some real magic that will make young people go, wow because they are savvy and sophisticated and don't want second best. They want something that's been created with them, that's for them. Wales feels like a very different place to only a few short years ago and that is something that I want to tap into. I want to distil all that energy, positivity and humour to create something that'll make young people want to come back for more.”
Greg’s Platfform Journey
Greg Glover is writing a play for young people called Drum Roll Please, which explores the true story of the Cardiff Colossus - a man with giantism who joined Barnum’s Circus and took on the world!
“So please, without further ado give it up for the one and only, Captain George Auger, the tallest man in the world…”
Born with gigantism in Temperance Town, Cardiff where the BBC now stands, he had a life worthy of a Hollywood film. Thinking he was “Doomed to walk about all my days in a world to which I am all out of proportion”, he instead took a different path, one which we can all learn from.
Going through life, “trying to make the best of what nature had served him” he joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry at the age of 12, before becoming a policeman at 15 where he guarded Queen Victoria. After serving for several years he then joined the Barnum and Bailey Circus as one of their star acts in New York.
Wanting to take charge of his own destiny he knew that no one was going to cast him in a lead role so George set about writing and staring in, Jack the Giant Killer which became an international smash hit as it made people question what a hero should look like.
The play is set in 1908. Cardiff is a raucous multicultural melting pot, where danger and excitement stalk the streets as poverty and wealth collide. Entering this tumultuous scene is Captain George Auger who is one of the most famous men in the world. Mobbed wherever he goes, people can’t wait for the opening night of his show, when disaster strikes as another giant rocks up in town claiming to be taller. Knowing that people won’t pay to see the second tallest man in the world, George sets off on an adventure to save his show and himself from the medical men who will do anything to get their hands on his body.
Greg is hoping to create something that speaks to the audience and sends out a powerful message of body positivity to everyone living in a world where we are seemingly obsessed with perfection.
Greg is now in the process of writing the story beats and the script in preparation for 3 days of further research and development with a group of actors in August 2025.
“To be working with Theatr Iolo at the start of my journey has given me the confidence to be braver and go further when looking for the magic that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.”