Twelve theatre and dance productions, expected to fly the flag for Scotland around the world, were revealed yesterday by Scottish Culture and External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
The shows make up this year's Made in Scotland showcase on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a winning selection from 56 applications to share in the £440,000 fund to mount world-class Scottish work on the Fringe, and for the attention of international promoters who gather in the capital in August.
With £100,000 earmarked for forward touring, the companies have been granted awards ranging from £6000 to £25,000 to support production costs in the fourth year of the scheme.
"Made in Scotland provides a fantastic platform for a diverse and talented range of Scottish-based artists," said the minister.
Previous productions have travelled to 18 countries, including the US, China, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Italy.
The Made in Scotland project is supported by the Scottish Government's Expo Fund, and is a partnership between Creative Scotland, the Fringe, the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the British Council. This year's selection panel included The Herald's dance and performance critic, Mary Brennan.
The list includes four shows for young people – Frozen Charlotte's Paperbelle, Shona Reppe's The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean, Catherine Wheels' The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk, and ThickSkin's The Static – as well as Donna Rutherford's acclaimed one-woman KIN, built around moving testimonies of the middle-aged relating to ageing parents. Molly Taylor's Love Letter to the Public Transport System, featured in Tuesday's Herald, is also among the 12.
Dance performances include Watch iT! by Room 2 Manoeuvre, Smallpetitklein's Within This Dust, which references 9/11, and Leaving Limbo Landing, by Caroline Bowditch in St Andrew's Square Garden. Other venues include the Royal Botanic Gardens, Traverse, Assembly Rooms, Playhouse, Dance Base, and the Underbelly. A new version of Burns's Tam O'Shanter by Gerry Mulgrew's Communicado company will be at the Assembly Hall.
Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland said: "The Fringe is the perfect stage for these Scottish companies to present their work, and to be exposed to venue bookers and festival directors from all over the world."
Creative Scotland chief executive Andrew Dixon added Made in Scotland productions were a good starting point for anyone overwhelmed by the options during the Edinburgh Festivals. The shows in past years have regularly featured in awards lists, including several Bank of Scotland Herald Angels.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article