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Hello,
and welcome to the first Theatre Directors Scotland newsletter of the new decade! This month we have some exciting news, unmissable shows, a committee member featured as Member of the Month, and great opportunities. We will also tell you about the work we've been doing and upcoming events we are hosting.
So what is new with us? We had a small but enthusiastic group attending the Christmas social, including some new faces. There was some dispute over personal preferences regarding mince pies but no one got hurt. We presented a summary of the Big Sector Meeting Report and an abridged financial report. The former will be circulated to TDS Members in due course and also be made available to download from our Facebook group and website. The latter can be made available upon request.
The results of our 2019 Events Survey are in. The most popular event of 2019 was the Big Sector Meeting, followed by our AGM and the Fringe WhatsApp group. Distance was the greatest obstacle for those who didn't attend any TDS events last year, with 55% of respondents choosing this reason. Most voted future events were more round tables or panel discussions and a symposium. The general feedback about the events was positive, with calls for more practical or direct action as a result of sessions with the industry and for events up north. We are taking all this into account and will work hard to bring at least some of these into fruition in 2020!
Stay tuned here and on our social media for further details about upcoming events!
TDS BOOK CLUB
Tuesday 21st January, 2pm - 4pm
National Library of Scotland Café, Edinburgh
TDS Book Club is back in a brand new format!
Here’s how it works. The first book will be Jerzy Grotowski’s Towards a Poor Theatre. On Tuesday 21 January we’ll meet in the café at the National Library of Scotland to discuss the book. Anyone can attend the discussion, you don’t need to be a subscribed member.
Then on 25 February we’ll meet at a location TBC for a practical session led by a director who works within this practice, in this case Flavia D’Avila. TDS will bring in some actors so that directors have a chance to apply the techniques they’ve been reading about. Places at the practical sessions are limited and can only be booked by subscribed members.
It’s our intention to move the Book Club from city to city just as we do with our other events, but it will be a bit Edinburgh-centric in the early stages. If any members would like to lead a Book Club on a particular practitioner whose techniques they use, drop us a line.
GO SEE OUR UPCOMING WORK
Of course there are loads of shows on, 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 February Newsletter.
Flightpath
Wed 15th/Thu 16th Jan, 7.30pm
Stereo, Glasgow
£6, book here
A man, a plane, a cadaver: pandemonium!
High above the earth, where hunks of metal soar on invisible winds, the very fabric of reality breaks down. When an unidentified body falls impossibly fast from a plane that never existed, one journalist - determined to make sense of it all - resolves to take up the case. When what he finds goes deeper than a single story could, he’s quickly picking battle lines in a fight between reason and madness. And a bunch of other stuff happens on the side as well.
Stitching up a story from loosely-related scenes, Flightpath weaves a tapestry of craziness which might just help make sense of the spinning world we live in.
After opening in Glasgow, the show is set to tour in Ljubljana, Celje (Slovenia) and Cardiff.
Directed by Tomaž Krajnc.
Canto X
Sat 1st Feb, 2pm (40 min)
Summerhall, Edinburgh
£6/£4, book here.
Deep in the Circle of the Heretics, a forgotten philosopher lies in his grave. His tomb is on fire. He’s got the whole of eternity to spend inside his own mind… good job he has a sense of humour.
Directed by Flavia D'Avila.
Tandem Writing Collective: Play Readings
Fri 7th Feb, 8pm (90 min with interval)
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
£5, book here.
Established and run by playwrights, Amy Hawes, Jennifer Adam and Mhairi Quinn, Tandem features tasters of topical new scripts by the three writers, performed script-in-hand by the best local actors and featuring talented new directors.
Organising events across Edinburgh and Glasgow, Tandem presents a night of new writing and live music. Fresh from four sell-out shows at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, the Tandem girls are bringing five new plays to the Traverse stage that they have created and critiqued together.
Directed by Flavia D'Avila.
Home Is Not The Place
Fri 21st & Sat 22nd Feb, 8pm (65 min)
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
£12/£10.50/£9/£5/£1, book here.
Where do I belong? What defines me? Where is home?
Poetic, poignant solo show by award-winning, Edinburgh-based writer Annie George, which tells the remarkable story of the short life and lost work of her grandfather Kerala poet PM John, shortly before India’s independence; and contrasts his struggles with her own, as an immigrant in the UK.
Drawn from family memories, with ‘an exquisite score’ by Niroshini Thambar, projections, and testimonies of both Annie and John, Home is Not the Place considers how experiences shape us, what home means and how we can live forever. An intimate story of personal and political independence, painted on an epic canvas.
Directed by Annie George.
OPPORTUNITIES
Here are some opportunities with approaching deadlines:
Deadline: ongoing Jane Hobson production photography - Book now for Fringe publicity shots!
Deadline: ongoing Sign up for new Edinburgh BAME Network mailing list
Deadline: various Tron workshops
TDS MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Jen McGregor
Current Acting Chair of TDS, Jen McGregor is a Scottish writer and director. She trained at Mountview. Theatre work includes Comfort and Joy (TREND Festival, Rome), Winter Fuel Allowance (Village Pub Theatre) #SonsOfGod: Vox (Piccolo Theatre of Milan), Volante (Hothouse, Traverse). She is a contributor to 404 Ink’s smash-hit anthology Nasty Women. Spoken word performances include Flint & Pitch, Inky Fingers and Interrobang.
Jen was mentored by Rob Drummond through Playwrights’ Studio Scotland. In 2017 she undertook a BOP Artists residency at Rockvilla. Her play Heaven Burns won the Assembly Roxy Theatre Award in 2018. She is writer in residence with Fronteiras Theatre Lab, with whom she will present a sharing of work in progress Canto X at the 2020 Manipulate Festival. Jen is directing Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana for the Edinburgh Studio Opera at the Assembly Roxy in March.
Thanks for reading - hope to see you at one of our events soon!
Theatre Directors Scotland
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