MONEY raised from phone polls for shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice will be used to fund theatrical performances across Scotland.
The BBC Performing Arts Fund (PAF) has revealed that cash collected from telephone voting will be used to provide nine grants to artists north of the Border.
More than £430,000 will be distributed across the UK in the latest round of PAF funding announced today.
Scottish recipients range from Art Link Central, in Stirling, who plan to stage live a performance inside the Scottish Parliament, to a production that will use internet videophone service Skype to include performers who are housebound.
The PAF has also awarded 19 theatre fellowships of £10,000 of funding to aspiring actors who will receive training next year.
Since it was created, the fund has contributed more than £4 million to the UK's performing arts sector in its annual awards of grants for theatre, dance and music.
Performers who have received support in previous years include Oscar-winning singer Adele, whose first recording equipment came courtesy of a grant in 2003 when she was 15, as well as composer Mark Simpson, soprano Katherine Rudge and choreographer James Wilton.
So far the fund has provided money to 1288 individuals and has allocated cash to community groups, with 58 theatre projects benefitting this year.
In total, 77 theatre grants were announced today: 15 to drama groups in north-west England; 17 in London; and nine apiece in south-west England and Scotland.
Among those receiving funding is young director Pete Lannon, who will work with the Edinburgh theatre companies Imaginate and Catherine Wheels.
He said: "I am absolutely delighted to be a BBC Fellow with Imaginate and Catherine Wheels. The chance to work with these companies so closely and so early in my career is incredible, and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on my future. I can't wait to start."
Miriam O'Keeffe, Director of the BBC PAF, said: "I think the arts are really important, socially. As a society it is something that can bring people together.
"We support community groups and emerging talent. The money is made available through phone voting on BBC One entertainment shows, and we have an open applications process.
"This year we are supporting 19 theatre Fellows and 58 community theatre projects with over £430,000 spread right across the UK. Sevent eight per cent of those supported are based outside of London. It's been an amazing year, looking at the breadth of theatre happening around the country."
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