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Hello,
and welcome to the Theatre Directors Scotland August newsletter! It is a most unusual August with the festivals happening online, of course, and makers and audiences split between trying to make the most of it in whichever way possible or just taking some time out to breathe.
At TDS, we are taking this month to wrap up and reflect on our lockdown schemes and have some rest so we can come back with more energy in September to continue to provide development, networking and advocacy for stage directors in Scotland.
Participants of both Friends for the End of an Era and Desert Island Designs will be sent an exit survey to give us feedback on those schemes, and we have held our last TDS Thursdays, rather appropriately timed chats about sustainable theatre with Paul Michael Henry and about the Fringe with Lyndsey Jackson, Deputy Chief Executive of the Fringe Society. Links to the audio recordings of these conversations will be uploaded in due course, but in the meantime, you can read the live tweet threads here and here.
That is all from us for now, folks. We hope you enjoyed some of the TDS lockdown sessions. We are still going to be checking our inbox once a week and our twitter notifications every couple of days until the end of the month so you are welcome to get in touch. Moving forward, we are going to go back to focusing our opportunities and events on directing and we will have an AGM at the end of September to discuss the year ahead, so please consider becoming a TDS member to have access to exclusive benefits and get voting rights at the members' meetings.
Becoming a TDS Member
We want as many directors to access help as possible so we are extending perks to pending members, meaning if you sign up today we will not demand the full payment of membership but rather ask that you agree a payment plan with us. You will then become a pending member and enjoy membership benefits. We hope this means finances will not be a barrier for folk enjoying our services in these difficult times. Email us to request membership at directorsscotland@gmail.com
SEE OUR UPCOMING WORK
There has been an outpour of great content online live streamed or pre-recorded, all directed by fabulous talent, but we won't tell you about all of them. The entries below were submitted through our newsletter call out. Feel free to drop us a line if you want to be included in our September Newsletter.
Happy Ark Day
The world faces a catastrophe of biblical proportions, but all Noah seems to do is fiddle with his boat. Is it part of his grand vision or has he just lost the plot? Frustrated at being kept out of the loop, his wife and daughter watch the rain come down and try to decide whether to stand by him or take a chance on looking after themselves. Liz Ewing & Jasmin Ewing-Asname star in a new short from writer Andy Edwards.
Directed by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir.
Produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, in association with BBC Scotland, Screen Scotland, BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine project and The Tron Theatre with support from Hopscotch Films.
Friday 14th Aug, 9pm.
Link to watch here.
Fragments of Home
Beyond family memories of her writer grandfather in Kerala India, who died shortly before India’s Independence from British rule in 1947, Annie George connects his story to her own, as first generation immigrant to the UK.
‘Fragments of Home’ is a stripped back 20 min extract from the solo show ‘Home is Not the Place’, which powerfully weaves the personal and political, with the need to make our histories known. An intimate story painted on an epic canvas from ‘...one of Scotland’s most powerful and interesting writer-performers’. THE SCOTSMAN
Written and performed by Annie George, with music/sound by Niroshini Thambar
Zoom Sun 16 Aug 7.30pm, with accompanying discussion to follow.
Ticket: £4 minimum at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/fragments-of-home
FRAGMENTS OF HOME is part of SHEDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL a brand new online festival and fundraiser presenting the very best of the Fringe stalwarts of theatre, music and comedy, and the best new acts, all performed live from sheds across the country and streamed into people’s homes this August.
Citadel Goes Viral
Six short audio plays by older writers inspired by their experience of the virus and lockdown.
Link to access here.
OPPORTUNITIES AND SUPPORT
Here's this month's opportunities and information:
Rural Touring: accessible to everyone?:an online discussion with and about disabled artists and rural producers touring live work outside of urban areas
Freelancers Make Theatre Work: website with resources, advice, advocacy and much more
Official guidance for organising events in Scotland
Nuu docs: an initiative to help self-producing and early career artists, including templates for contracts, letters of agreement, budgets, etc, all free to download and use
Outdoor Arts UK C-19 resources: guidance, risk assessments, case studies, etc
Scottish Government guidance for shared studios and workspaces
Join EPAD's Pool of Expertise
Headlong Origins Directors Scheme
TDS MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Stephanie Boyle
Stephanie is a director, theatre-maker, and semi-professional biscuit eater from Glasgow. Theatre-maker is a simple way of saying she has had a lot of jobs in making plays over the years. As a recent Applied Psychology graduate, she is interested in the relationship between performing arts and health and has a lot of unplanned experience in working with new writing.
She has previously worked in association with Young Scot, Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, and Toonspeak. Her most recent directing credits include Budgies (excerpt, Our Time Theatre), Cooncil (Our Time Theatre/Webster’s Theatre) and #FOMO (SDUK/Edinburgh College). Before Covid ruined everyone’s plans she was working on a full-length production of Budgies with Our Time Productions and Blood Ties, a new play by Amelia Nashe exploring young carers and mental health. She hopes these will resume as soon as possible.
Stephanie is also the TDS Secretary and you have probably received lovely emails from her.
Thanks for reading - hope to see you at one of our online events soon!
Theatre Directors Scotland
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