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Dafydd Meirion, Penygroes 3/18/2005

The Welsh language will be featured in a live Disney show for the first time. The Disney Live! Winnie the Pooh show will be staged at Cardiff’s recently opened Millennium Centre. Welsh-language children’s television presenter Martin Geraint will appear in the show and he will teach some Welsh words to the presenter Tracie Franklin.

The producers of the show, Feld Entertainment, says it decided to include the language in the show to reflect the growing importance of the language, especially amongst pre-school children. It is estimated that about 40 per cent of the children of Wales speak the language, compared to 24 per cent in 1991. Most of the growth has been in the capital Cardiff and the south-east of Wales.

"As soon as we realised how important the Welsh language is in Wales we started to look for ways to embrace the language in any way we could," says Gary Kane of Feld Entertainment.

There has been criticism of the Millennium Centre for the lack of Welsh language performances being staged there, and this may alleviate these criticisms. "The significance of Feld Entertainment’s undertaking to include the Welsh language in its production at the Wales Millennium Centre is not to be underestimated," says Judith Isherwood, Australian-born chief executive of the centre. "The Welsh language is again flourishing - particularly among young people. So it is only right that we strive to deliver certain cultural products bilingually to support and aid this growth."

The script of the show has been designed so that members of the audience who cannot speak the language will be able to follow the action.

"There is no bigger brand of children’s entertainment and it’s marvellous that such a big company is embracing our native language in their show," says Martin Geraint. (Eurolang © 2005)