Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

====On the stage====
[[File:Dylan Thomas Theatre, Swansea - geograph.org.uk - 3954582.jpg|thumb|right|The Little Theatre relocated to Swansea's Maritime Quarter in 1979 and was renamed the [[Dylan Thomas Theatre]] in 1983|alt=A wide three storied building with windows to the upper two stories and an entrance on the ground floor. A statue of Thomas sits outside.]]
The stage was also an important part of Thomas's life from 1929 to 1934, as an actor, writer, producer and set painter. He took part in productions at Swansea Grammar School, and with the YMCA Junior Players and the [[Dylan Thomas Theatre|Little Theatre]], which was based in the [[Mumbles]]. It was also a touring company that took part in drama competitions and festivals around South Wales.<ref>See {{harvp|Thomas|2003|loc=ch. 7, "Dylan on the Stage"}}. See also {{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=95–118}} for interviews with those who took part in productions with Thomas.</ref> Between October 1933 and March 1934, for example, Thomas and his fellow actors took part in five productions at the Mumbles theatre, as well as nine touring performances.{{sfnp|Thomas|2003|pp=264–265}} Thomas continued with acting and production throughout his life, including his time in Laugharne, [[South Leigh]] and London (in the theatre and on radio), as well as taking part in nine stage readings of ''Under Milk Wood''.<ref>{{harvp|Thomas|2003|pp=265–267}}. On South Leigh drama, see the interviews with Ethel Gunn and Dorothy Murray at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandsouthleigh/south-leigh-residents-talk-about-dylan-thomas?authuser=0 South Leigh drama society].</ref> The Shakespearian actor, [[John Laurie]], who had worked with Thomas on both the stage<ref>a poetry reading at the Wigmore Hall in 1946, in the presence of the royal family.</ref> and radio<ref>in ''Paradise Lost'' in 1947, BBC Third Programme.</ref> thought that Thomas would "have loved to have been an actor" and, had he chosen to do so, would have been "Our first real poet-dramatist since Shakespeare."{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|p=153}}

Painting the sets at the Little Theatre was just one aspect of the young Thomas's interest in art. His own drawings and paintings hung in his bedroom in Cwmdonkin Drive, and his early letters reveal a broader interest in art and art theory.<ref>See, for example, his letters to Pamela Hansford Johnson of 11 November 1933 and 15 April 1934.</ref> Thomas saw writing a poem as an act of construction "as a sculptor works at stone,"<ref>Letter to Hansford Johnson, 15 April 1934.</ref> later advising a student "to treat words as a craftsman does his wood or stone...hew, carve, mould, coil, polish and plane them..."{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|loc="At Ease Among Painters"|pp=350–351}} Throughout his life, his friends included artists, both in Swansea<ref>e.g. his friendships with [[Alfred Janes]] (painter), Ronald Cour (sculptor), [[Mervyn Levy]] (art critic) and Kenneth Hancock (Principal, Swansea Art School).</ref> and in London,<ref>e.g. his friendships, and sometimes collaboration, with [[Michael Ayrton]], [[Oswell Blakeston]], [[Mervyn Peake]], [[John Banting]], [[Jankel Adler]], [[Robert Colquhoun]], [[Robert MacBryde]] and [[Roland Penrose]].</ref> as well as in America.<ref>e.g. Dave Slivka, [[Loren MacIver]] and [[Peter Grippe]].</ref>

In his free time, Thomas visited the cinema in Uplands, took walks along [[Swansea Bay]], and frequented Swansea's [[pub]]s, especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dylan Thomas: The Pubs|first1=Jeff|last1=Towns|year=2013|publisher=Y Lolfa|isbn=978-1-84771-693-4|pages=73–84}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Where+Dylan+Thomas+'communed+with+his+legendary+creatures'.-a0145458555|title=Where Dylan Thomas 'communed with his legendary creatures'|first1=Robin|last1=Turner|publisher=thefreelibrary.com|work=Western Mail|date=6 May 2006|access-date=27 July 2012}}</ref> In the [[Kardomah Café]], close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet [[Vernon Watkins]] and the musician and composer, [[Daniel Jones (composer)|Daniel Jones]] with whom, as teenagers, Thomas had helped to set up the "Warmley Broadcasting Corporation".<ref>Music, poetry and other material was broadcast along hidden wires by the teenage Thomas and Jones from the upper floor of Jones' home, Warmley, to the floors below. For more on The Warmley Broadcasting Corporation, see D. Jones (1977) ''My Friend Dylan Thomas'', Dent.</ref> This group of writers, musicians and artists became known as "[[The Kardomah Gang]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/dylan-thomas-and-the-kardomah-set-525736.html|newspaper=The Independent|title=Dylan Thomas and the Kardomah set|first1=Boyd|last1=Tonkin|date=11 February 2006|access-date=15 July 2011|archive-date=7 September 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907032951/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/dylan-thomas-and-the-kardomah-set-525736.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> This was also the period of his friendship with Bert Trick, a local shopkeeper, left-wing political activist and would-be poet,<ref>See {{harvp|Ferris|1989|pp=72–78}}, for an overview of their friendship, with an extended interview with Trick in Thomas, D. N. (2003), ''Dylan Remembered 1914–1934'', pp157-174, Seren, as well as an account by Trick's son: Trick, K. (2001) ''Bert Trick – the Original Marx Brother'', ''New Welsh Review'' 54.</ref> and with the Rev. [[Leon Atkin]], a Swansea minister, human rights activist and local politician.<ref>See an interview with Atkin about his friendship with Thomas in Thomas, D. N. (2003), ''Dylan Remembered (1914–1934)'', pp. 138–145, vol. 1, Seren, as well as Atkin's entry in the ''Dictionary of Welsh Biography'' at [https://biography.wales/article/s7-ATKI-LEO-1902#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=3&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F1473167%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-48%2C-47%2C3620%2C2978 Rev. Leon Atkin.]</ref>

In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time.{{refn|In {{harvp|Ferris|1989|p=86}}, [[Paul Ferris (Welsh writer)|Ferris]] writes that two of Thomas's friends had stated that they met him in London in 1932, though his late 1933 visit to the city is the first for which evidence exists.|group="nb"}}