Welcome to CATS a Class Act Theatre School

Jill Williams | Pontardawe

Founder and Principal –  B.Ed Drama First Class Honours /MA Drama with Distinction

Graduating as a Drama and Dance teacher in 1989 Jill was embarking on her journey towards realising her long-term childhood dream. The years spent as a teacher and later Head of Drama at Bishop Vaughan School in Swansea gave her so many opportunities to develop her pedagogy, classroom management and positive work ethic. Jill loved working with all the students and the year before she left Bishop Vaughan, she produced 5 school productions across the Drama and Dance Departments. The timetable, however, was too stifling, not giving her the freedom to explore all the creative aspects of Drama with her students and, in 1999 – following the birth of her daughter Amber, Jill knew that it was time to take a leap of faith and start the dream of creating her own theatre school.

Over the ensuing Summer Holiday Jill ran three-day drama workshops and began marketing her weekly classes in Morriston, Cockett and Pontardawe. Through word of mouth the classes grew and Jill began to stage sharing’s with parents at the end of each term – developing marketing ideas for future production ambitions.

In 2003 CATS performed their first major production on the main stage at Swansea Grand Theatre “Children of Eden”, to a great success, and a huge learning curve for Jill. From this point CATS grew from strength to strength with annual productions in theatres throughout Swansea, Pontardawe and Neath, with invites to perform at the first ever International Musical Theatre Festival in Cardiff and with The RSC Open Stages event.

In the 20 years since its inception, CATS has gained a reputation for outstanding productions and diverse audiences- including members of the public as well as parents, family and friends.

CATS is the perfect platform to explore passion in young people for the performing arts – CATS has grown in to a dynamic, caring and well-respected Theatre School because quite simply, we are a family.

Twenty years later in 2019, former student of Jill – Gareth Mitchell is Principal of CATS Swansea and her daughter, Amber, has taken over as Principal of CATS Pontardawe after Jill was appointed as Resident Director of the UK and Ireland Tour of Disney’s “The Lion King”. Despite her busy traveling schedule Jill wa always available to support her colleagues when needed.

2023 saw Jill return to Pontardawe as Principal with a breathtaking production of School of Rock.

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