http://www.traverse.co.uk/Traverse Theatre Latest Newshttp://www.traverse.co.uk//news/50-plays-for-edinburgh-make-a-comeback-this-festival/With the 2013 Traverse Festival launch date drawing closer, we have some exciting news to share about this year's programme. We are delighted to reveal that the Traverse Fifty writers, who have come on board to work with us in our 50th year, will be making an appearance. Their 50 Plays for Edinburgh, which secured them each a place on the programme, are to be the swansong of this year's Festival on 30 and 31 August. The 50 500-word plays performed in one sitting captured the public's imagination - in fact, we programmed a second showing as the first performance sold out so quickly. The plays caused a storm in the press, too - click here to read a round-up of the whirlwind of praise they won back in January.   This time round, the 50 plays will be performed across two nights, with 25 plays on each. They will once again be directed by Traverse artistic director Orla O'Loughlin and our associate director Hamish Pirie, who are both thrilled to be working on the 50 Plays again....Tuesday, May 21, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-fifty-meet-scottish-theatre-heavyweights/Yesterday our Traverse Fifty writers descended on the bar for Café Conversations, a speed-dating style networking event giving them the chance to pick the brains of leading theatre professionals. They were given the opportunity to chat to Nicola McCartney from the Scottish Society of Playwrights, Judith Doherty from Grid Iron Theatre Company, as well as producers from Stellar Quines, The Arches and Untitled Projects. We caught up with a couple of the writers who attended, and were delighted at their response to the session. Jack Dickson told us:  "The 'speed-dating' format worked wonderfully - I met lots of interesting people and I now have a much better understanding of what producers are looking for. I'd maybe even go so far as to say this was the best Traverse Fifty event yet." Former member of the Traverse Young Writers' Group and Words, Words, Words contributor Matthew was equally enthused: "It was a great way to meet people from some of Scotland's top theatre-makers and...Thursday, May 16, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/made-in-scotland-2013-traverse-show-announced/We're delighted that David Leddy and Fire Exit's Long Live The Little Knife will be part of the 2013 Traverse Festival. The show features in this year's Made In Scotland Showcase, a project set up by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Federation of Scottish Theatre and Creative Scotland to boost the profile of the Scottish arts in the international arena.   The show, which played in Glasgow earlier this year, is a fast-paced, punchy feast of spoken word that questions the nature of 'truth', via a husband and wife forgery team. They're small-time con-artists who need £250 grand to buy their way out of a turf war. Their mission is to be the greatest art forgers in the world. There's only one problem. They can't paint. Read more about the show and its creator - the"theatrical maverick" David Leddy (The Scotsman), and watch the trailer for this provocative and boisterous caper here. We're also excited that Playwrights' Studio Scotland will be making a return to the Traverse...Wednesday, May 15, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/after-show-discussion-announced-for-the-bear/We're looking forward to welcoming theatre-maker and performer Angela Clerkin back to the Traverse for this month's Improbable production, The Bear. A stylish noir thriller, it's a murder mystery with a solicitor's clerk and a mythic bear - more on that here. It's been announced that on 17 May, writer and performer Angela Clerkin will be joined by The Stage's Scotland correspondent and theatre critic Thom Dibdin in an after show discussion. We caught up with Thom, and he told us he was intrigued by the fact that Angela's personal experiences as a solicitors clerk at the Old Bailey are the starting point for the play, and was keen to know more. He was struck by the unusual  content of the play, too - the noir styling , bear facts interspersed throughout the whodunit story line, all mashed up into a story with a mythic edge. He went on to say "The company have real form, too. And of course composer on the project is Nick Powell who was a co-founder on the fantastic Suspect...Friday, May 10, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-scoops-6-cats-awards-nominations/It's been announced today that the Traverse has received six nominations in this year's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland. The Awards, co-convened by theatre critics Joyce MacMillan and Mark Fisher, celebrate the vibrancy and quality of theatre produced in Scotland. Ever championing the best new theatrical talent, the Traverse scooped three out of four nominations for Best New Play, with Rob Drummond's Quiz Show, last year's The Artist Man and the Mother Woman by Morna Pearson and Douglas Maxwell's A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity all in the running. The most talked-about show of the Spring, Quiz Show, dominated as the most nominated show in the awards. As well as an entry in the Best Production category, the show's director Hamish Pirie is up for Best Director, and actor Eileen Walsh for Best Female Performance. Our Associate Director Hamish is thrilled to be selected for the shortlist - saying this morning "after a great run this Spring, and so much buzz about the...Thursday, May 9, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/update-from-traverse-artist-in-residence/For the third year running, we've teamed up with the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities to offer a 6 month Creative Fellowship for a Traverse playwright. Our current resident playwright within the university is Iain Finlay Macleod, whose work for the Traverse includes The Pearlfisher, I was a Beautiful Day and Homers. Iain is working with the theme 'difficult dialogues' with a view to a new play landing on the Traverse stage in 2014. An early draft  of Iain's play, The Devil Master and his Children, received an airing last month during the University's Haggis Hunting event at the Traverse last month, and he chatted through the development of the play so far to a group of IASH students earlier this week. He explained that the idea for the play sprang from a wealth of wide-ranging ideas; as a Gaelic speaker, Iain found the 'difficult dialogues' starting point resonated with ideas of language and identity. This collided with wide-ranging...Friday, May 3, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-iain-finlay-macleod/We had the pleasure of spending half an hour with playwright Iain Finlay MacLeod for this month's podcast - a playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director based on the Isle of Lewis. Iain is the current Traverse writer in residence at Edinburgh University's Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities - more on that here.   Iain's plays for the Traverse include Somersaults (NTS), The Bends (Playwrights Studio/RSAMD), The Pearlfisher, I was a Beautiful Day, Homers and Alexander Salamander or The Story of a Teenage Pyromaniac. He collaborated on the multimedia opera St Kilda which was performed in English, French and Gaelic at the Edinburgh International Festival 2009. In addition, he has written extensively for radio including The Summer Walking which was adapted from his play The Pearl Fisher, and was a co-writer of the Gaelic-language film Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle, and is the author of three Gaelic-language novels. In his chat with Traverse Associate Director...Tuesday, April 30, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-show-announced-as-key-player-in-2013-festival/We're delighted that a gem of this year's Traverse Festival programme will be presented as part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase this year, a curated collection of work chosen to promote the excellence of UK performance internationally. The new play, I'm With the Band, is a co-production with Wales Millennium Centre, and is written by Tim Price and directed by Traverse Associate Director Hamish Pirie. The duo were nominated for an Olivier Award for their last collaboration Salt, Root and Roe, and are excited about this new venture, which is set to be an energetic feast of live music and a witty response to our changing political landscape. The play tells the story of an Englishman, a Northern Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman who walked into a recording studio and created The Union. Commercially successful and critically acclaimed, the pioneering Indie-rock band is now on the verge of breaking-up. When financial disaster strikes and Scottish guitarist Barry leaves the...Thursday, April 25, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/quiz-show-best-of-the-press/We've had a slew of rave reviews for Rob Drummond's new psychological thriller Quiz Show, which opened on Tuesday night. The show contains all the twists and turns you'd expect from the writer of Bullet Catch - so if you'd rather the mystery remain unspoilt, we advise you to click through to The Herald and The List's ★★★★★ reviews and the Evening News's ,but not the others. But if you hate surprises anyway, click through to read the reviews in full.  The Herald ★★★★★ "The sort of surrealist territory which is normally the preserve of Charlie Brooker's Black  Mirror." The List ★★★★★ "This is the sort of dangerous, questioning and beautifully-delivered theatre that the Traverse was made to stage." Edinburgh Evening News ★★★★ "Achingly topical and poignant... exciting and pacey."  The Guardian ★★★★ "Unsettling… bold… superbly acted."  The Independent ★★★★ "Bold but sensitive... hugely poignant."  The Scotsman ★★★★ "A...Friday, April 19, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/quiz-show-top-tweets/We've been bowled over by the praise for Rob Drummond's psychological drama Quiz Show, with a Twitter feed packed with delighted theatre goers sharing their thoughts. As the play enters its final week, we thought you might like to read some of the stand-out tweets so far. ‏@albroon most powerful theatre I ever saw, I'm traumatised, proud, manipulated & hopeful @mumstrokesactor @DrummondRob @traversetheatre #quizshow @WorkshopHaze Don't think I'll sleep much tonight for thinking about Quiz Show @traversetheatre Certainly packed a punch. A must-see. #QuizShow @callumsmith1234 "Quiz Show" @traversetheatre is hauntingly, achingly clever and deceptive - you won't see it coming... ‏@jillian_reilly Incredible performances and a thought-provoking script on #quizshow @traversetheatre Only a week left to catch it. Go! ‏@NTS_Neil #QuizShow @traversetheatre amused, troubled and moved me in equal measure. Kudos to @DrummondRob the peerless Eileen Walsh and company ‏@SarahMcC1978 I...Thursday, April 18, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/cast-profile-jonathan-watson/As Quiz Show enters its final week, we're giving you an insight into the stars of this much acclaimed psychodrama. Next up, we have actor Jonathan Watson…  Jonathan has been receiving bags of praise so far for his Quiz Show role as "everyone's favourite Quizmaster" Daniel Caplin. Read some of the great reviews here - but careful, there are a couple of plot spoilers lurking that are best avoided if you've not seen the show. You can hear more from Jonathan (and cast member Eileen Walsh) as he chats to Susan Calman on BBC Radio Scotland's Fred Macauly Show about the twists and turns you can expect from Quiz Show - give it a listen here. The Daily Record also picked his brains on what it's like being back at the Traverse after 30 years in this interview. Most recently on TV, you might have seen Jonathan co-star in BBC Four's Bob Servant, Independent, opposite Brian Cox. He plays Bob's sidekick Frank the Plank in this adaptation of the popular BBC Radio 4 serial The Bob Servant...Tuesday, April 16, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/good-with-people-takes-new-york-by-storm/Following a sell-out success at the Traverse 2012 Festival, Good With People is now taking 59E59 Theaters in New York City by storm. David Harrower's Good With People takes us to Helensburgh, west Scotland. A once thriving holiday resort now home to Britain's nuclear defence programme. Returning to a place he's been trying to avoid, Evan (Andrew Scott-Ramsay) finds Helen (Blythe Duff) working at the Seaview Hotel. The show, featuring as part of the city's Brits off Broadway season, has been winning rave reviews since it opened last week. It was a hit with The New York Times, whose reviewer Ben Brantley called the short two-hander "a beautiful, deceptive wisp of a play" and described the performances as "perfection". Equally impressed was Diane Snyder of Time Out New York, who described the piece as "a brief, sneaky, skillfully measured duet" that "works its minimalist magic on you when you least expect it" and awarded it ★★★★. Dmitry Zvonkov of Stage and Cinema was bowled over by...Friday, April 12, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/scratch-the-fifty-plays-selected/Since winning the last year's playwriting competition, our Traverse Fifty writers have been very busy indeed. Their year kicked off with a bumper night of performances, with all 50 winning plays performed in one evening. Since then, they've attended a panel session on writing for radio with the BBC, and two days of workshops with Zinnie Harris and Traverse writer-under-commission Tim Price. This Saturday is your chance to catch work from eight of these talented writers, in a scratch night of work chosen from all fifty submissions. Playwrights Stef Smith (Roadkill) and Morna Pearson (The Artist Man and the Mother Woman) curated the evening, and have chosen the work based on the variety of theatrical voices displayed. The selected pieces are listed below - congratulations to the lucky eight.   A Shorter Catechism of the Rudiments of Music - Colin Clark Cabbages & Carrots - Giles Connisbee The Silent Plague - Sophie Good The Cottage on Cathedral Lane - James Ley Reality...Wednesday, April 10, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/tweet-to-win-quiz-show-tickets/Rob Drummond's new Traverse play Quiz Show is set in a quiz show called FALSE!, where there are no questions- only statements. To win points, the contestants must spot erroneous facts in the Quizmaster's statements and shout "false", followed by the correct statement. Quizmaster: "Quiz Show runs at the Traverse until 20 June." Contestant: "FALSE! Quiz Show runs at the Traverse until 20 April." We're holding our own FALSE! Competition on Twitter, and giving away a pair of tickets to the first three performances of the show each week until 19 April. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed each Friday, where we'll be posting our FALSE! statement with the hashtag #TraverseQuiz. The first person to tweet the correct full statement in reply will win a pair of tickets to Quiz Show.   To find out more about this new psychological drama from Rob Drummond, click here. Quiz Show previews at the Traverse on 29 and 30 March, and runs 2 - 20...Friday, March 29, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/cast-profile-eileen-walsh/Ahead of Quiz Show previewing this weekend, we're giving you the chance to get to know the cast of this new psychological drama a little better. Introducing Eileen Walsh…     Eileen will star as lead quiz show contestant Sandra. Her prolific stage career includes The Entertainer for the Liverpool Playhouse and Disco Pigs for Bush Theatre, as well as Splendour at the Traverse in 2000. On our screens, she's appeared in Eden (for which she won the Tribeca Film Festival Best Actress Award in 2008), Nicholas Nickleby and Magdalene Sisters. You might remember Eileen from the widespread acclaim she achieved for her role in Disgo Pigs, in which she starred opposite Cillian Murphy at the Traverse in 1997. In this interview, she talks to The Herald about the impact the runaway success of the play had on her life, and the challenges and rewards of playing Sandra in our new psychological drama Quiz Show. We asked Eileen: What would your specialist...Wednesday, March 27, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/meet-the-traverse-fifty/Today we are delighted to announce the 50 writers we'll be working with during 2013, our anniversary year. The winning writers entered a playwriting competition from the Traverse for 500 word Plays for Edinburgh in September 2012, in the Theatre's search for 50 exciting new theatrical voices to carry the Traverse into its 50th year, and beyond.  The Traverse received 630 scripts from across the globe and writers have been selected from Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Croatia and Australia.  The Traverse Fifty are: Colin Bell (Edinburgh) Kate Bowen (Glasgow) Michael Burnett & Joe McCann (Edinburgh) Alison Carr (Newcastle upon Tyne) Colin Clark (Glasgow) Grace Cleary (Livingston) Giles Conisbee (Pitlochry) Robert Dawson Scott (Glasgow) Jack Dickson (Glasgow) Sylvia Dow (Linlithgow) Dave Fargnoli (Edinburgh) Sophie Good (Edinburgh) Alan Gordon (Edinburgh) Caroline Gray (Putney) James Green (Newark on...Tuesday, March 26, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/rob-drummond-answers-your-tweets/For part two of our interview with Rob we handed the reigns over to you, our Twitter followers. Here's what you asked him. @DrummondRob Now for a couple of questions from our followers… @theoksocialclub asks - what is the best/worst thing about being a playwright? @traversetheatre @theoksocialclub The best thing is being your own boss - getting to work on your own terms and speak about what's important @traversetheatre @theoksocialclub to you. The worst thing is being your own boss, not having anyone to blame but yorself and no one to moan @traversetheatre @theoksocialclub at you to get out of bed because it's lunchtime. Also, not KNOWING for sure that this job isn't your last. @DrummondRob @ImAliForbes would like to know - what's your all-time favourite quiz show and why? @traversetheatre @ImAliForbes Good question! I loved family fortunes because there's so many different characters on each team. Producers @traversetheatre @ImAliForbes of quiz shows...Saturday, March 23, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/twitter-interview-with-rob-drummond/Writer Rob Drummond is a busy man, with his new play Quiz Show currently in rehearsals at the Traverse, his Fringe hit Bullet Catch touring to New York and London, and a new play for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in the pipeline. Yesterday we managed to pin him down long enough to ask him some questions via Twitter.  This evening we're chatting to writer Rob Drummond in a #twinterview ahead of his upcoming Traverse play #QuizShow. You there @DrummondRob? @traversetheatre I am indeed. First up @DrummondRob - where did the idea for your new play #QuizShow come from? @traversetheatre My dad. He's a huge quiz show fan and and from a very young age I've always had a quiz show on in the background. He even @traversetheatre appeared on one once. They were a soundtrack to my youth and his thirst for knowledge must have rubbed off on me because @traversetheatre I'm now obsessed with knowing things. Sometimes it worries me that there's too much stuff...Thursday, March 21, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/round-2-of-rehearsal-insights/Rehearsals for Rob Drummond's new play Quiz Show are in full swing, with a full run-through for Traverse staff planned later this week. Assistant Director Emily Reutlinger gives us an insight into how the characters in the play are developing, and how the rehearsal process itself bears the traits of a quiz show.   Round 2: Everybody Plays to Win Year after year, people apply to be contestants on quiz shows for a variety of reasons: for the cash prize, for the fame, for the national recognition of their superior intellect. But no matter their reason for entering, they all want desperately to win big.  A very similar thing is happening as we begin to bring this drama to life. Each of our cast has been busy figuring out what winning means to their character and just how they're going to play to win, as the questions get harder and the stakes get higher. Just as playing along at home is very different from playing for real on live TV, how a...Wednesday, March 20, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/writer-profile-rob-drummond/Over the next few weeks, we'll be introducing you to the cast of our Spring play Quiz Show. But first, meet the writer of this brand new psychological drama, Rob Drummond. Rob is both a playwright and a performer. His work is often characterised by his total immersion in the subject of a play - for instance, in Rob Drummond: Wrestling, for which he trained as a wrestler and pitched himself against professional wrestlers. He also took the starring role in his most recent show, 2012's Traverse Festival hit Bullet Catch, for which he won a Herald Angel Award and a Total Theatre Award. We're hugely excited to bring you Quiz Show, which will be his first main stage show, starring a cast including Eileen Walsh and Jonathan Watson. We get to know Rob a little better by asking him a couple of questions that had been playing on our minds. As a participant in a quiz show, what would you choose as your specialist subject? Professional wrestling. What is your fondest...Wednesday, March 20, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/imaginate-festival-2013-open-for-booking/Now in its 24th year, Imaginate Festival is the largest performing arts festival for children and young people in the UK, and brings with it thirteen shows from all over the world. This year's Festival boasts homegrown Scottish shows from Shona Reppe, with the award-winning The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean (ages 7+), a beautiful and intriguing show where slowly, page-by-page, a scrapbook becomes the window into a secret world as a curious life unfolds before us. National Theatre of Scotland bring us The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, a delightful show which is a little bit about being a sibling and a little bit about being a genius (6 - 10 years).   Highlights of a jam-packed international programme include a kids' finger-puppet caper - Wanted: Rabbit is for 3-5 year olds, and comes to us from the Netherlands. Also from the Netherlands is Alles (All), a rhythmic, colourful dance piece for 4-7 year olds that will have you dancing in...Monday, March 18, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/tune-in-to-50-years-of-the-traverse/This Sunday 17 March, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the documentary 50 Years of the Traverse Theatre. Presented by theatre critic Joyce McMillan, the 45 minute programme will look back on our risk-taking, tempestuous past, as well as focussing on our exciting plans for the future. The programme charts our rise from a tiny first floor room in a former brothel, where seats were arranged on either side of the acting space, to our Grassmarket venue, to our current home on Cambridge Street. We hear anecdotes from the remarkable Traverse founder Jim Haynes, along with insights from actors Richard Wilson, Simon Callow and Alan Cumming. The key part the Traverse Bar has played in the social landscape of Edinburgh crops up more than once, too. And David Greig chats about the bar as a meeting and working place, as someone who's sought out a cosy corner to write on many an occasion. Tune into BBC Radio 3 on Sunday evening at 7.30pm to take a tour of our fascinating history....Friday, March 15, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-sabrina-mahfouz/Our latest episode of our monthly writers' podcast features Sabrina Mahfouz, whose five star sensation Clean  is with us this week for a Play, a Pie and a Pint. The play started life during the 2012 Traverse Festival Dream Play season, when Orla O'Loughlin's commissioned her to create a scene from a play she'd never had the chance to write in just 48 hours.  Performance poet turned playwright Sabrina's path towards theatre has certainly been less straightforward than most. She began training as a civil servant after a Masters in International diplomacy before turning to writing poetry and prose. Her first piece for theatre, That Boy, was performed at the Soho Theatre in 2010 and won a Westminster Prize for New Playwrights. Since then, she's bagged a UK Young Artists Award 2011 for poetry, an IdeasTap Innovator Award for theatre and one for poetry. Sabrina tells Hamish Pirie how poetry and rhyme actively drives the plot of her plays, and...Thursday, March 14, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/quiz-show-cast-announced/Quiz Show is our flagship Spring show by Rob Drummond, a psychological drama interrogating our obsession with celebrity culture. It started rehearsals last week - and we are thrilled to announce the full cast. Eileen Walsh (pictured) will star as lead quiz show contestant Sandra. Her prolific stage career includes The Entertainer for the Liverpool Playhouse and Disco Pigs for Bush Theatre, as well as Splendour at the Traverse in 2000. On our screens, she's appeared in Eden  (for which she won the Tribeca Film Festival Best Actress Award in 2008), Nicholas Nickleby and Magdalene Sisters. Jonathan Watson will break from some of the lighter comedic work for which he's known in his role of the quizmaster. You may recognise him from his starring role in TV's Only an Excuse, the BBC's New Tricks and primetime favourites The Bill, Casualty and Rab C. Nesbitt. The cast will also include Paul Thomas Hickey, last seen at our 50 Plays for Edinburgh last...Friday, March 8, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/rehearsal-insights-from-assistant-director/After a read through with the full cast and company earlier this week, rehearsals for our flagship Spring production Quiz Show have started in earnest. Read on for some rehearsal insights so far from assistant director Emily Reutlinger.  Round 1: Last August, after some persistent loitering in the Traverse box office, I found myself the lucky winner of a last-minute cancellation ticket to see Rob Drummond's sell-out hit Bullet Catch. As many of you will remember, it was a rollercoaster of a journey, layered with as much insight and emotion as it was thrills and chills. I consider myself lucky once again to find myself in rehearsals this week with company of the upcoming Quiz Show.  The first week of rehearsals has been rather like the first round of a quiz show. We met all the players and started learning a bit more about our contestants. We got our first glimpse into a fantastic television studio designed by Andrew Edwards.  When the action...Friday, March 1, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/quiz-show-goes-into-rehearsals/Rehearsals kicked off today for Quiz Show, a new thriller from Rob Drummond - writer of 2012 Festival Fringe hit from The Arches, Bullet Catch. Rob was joined by the cast, company and Traverse staff for the first read-through of the script this morning - the start of a five week process before opening night on 2 April. The show is a highlight of our 50th anniversary year, and promises to enforce our reputation for staging important, controversial work of exceptional quality. Taking the form of a surreal quiz show in which the search for truth is paramount, it's an urgent and timely response to our celebrity-obsessed world. If you liked Rob's gripping Bullet Catch at the Traverse last year, this edge of your seat psychological rollercoaster could be for you. We'll announce the full cast of the show in our Traverse enews - sign up on the homepage to be the first to hear. Quiz Show previews at the Traverse 29 & 30 March before running 2-20 April. More...Wednesday, February 27, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/good-with-people-transfers-to-new-york/ Months of exciting negotiations, planning and long distance phone calls have come to fruition, as we can now announce that our 2012 Fringe Festival hit Good With People by David Harrower will make its New York debut next month as part of the city's Brits off Broadway festival at the 59E59 Theaters.  The production follows hot on the heels of David Greig's Midsummer (a play with songs), which kicked off our 50th year by playing at the Clurman Theatre in January.  Good With People started life as a commission by Oran Mor and Paines Plough at a Play, a Pie and a Pint in 2010. Since then, it featured as part of our Festival 2012 programme, as a double bill with The Letter of Last Resort by David Greig, where it received rave reviews. Good With People runs from 27 March - 21 April at 59E59 Theatre B in New York City.  Click here for tickets. Wednesday, February 20, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/fifty-photographers-for-fifty-writers/Our friends Writer Pictures specialise in literary portraits, creating fascinating images of writers of all kinds. Excited to hear about our Traverse Fifty playwrights project, they got in touch last September - and from there a very exciting collaboration was born. Writer Pictures held a competition to find 50 photographers to pair up with each of our writers, producing a unique, personal portrait of each. After receiving almost 100 applications, they've now announced the chosen photographers - and which Traverse Fifty writer they'll be paired with. One of the chosen photographers, Eoin Carey, kicked the project off with a group shot of the writers (pictured). He said "I have been wondering which face in the crowd I will be paired with. I hope I can earn their forgiveness first for putting them on the spot and blasting them with paper!". Find out how Eoin and the other photographers get on by keeping an eye on the Writer Pictures blog throughout the project. And...Friday, February 15, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/manipulate-animators-win-bafta/ A big congratulations goes to animators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, who have won a BAFTA for their animation The Making of Longbird at this year's awards. Presented last week in Traverse 2 as part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, the film was a graduation project for the talented duo, who studied at Edinburgh College of Art. In accepting the award, Will expressed his gratitude to the College - and wished a happy birthday to Ainslie's mum.  Read more about their win in The Scotsman.  Wednesday, February 13, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/read-all-about-the-traverse-fifty/  The 50 talented playwrights who won a place on our year-long writers scheme have captured the imaginations of audiences and critics alike. The performance of their  50 Plays for Edinburgh was received as one of the freshest, most exciting and memorable theatrical experiences of the spring. We've picked the best bits of buzz surrounding the Fifty so far, as well as some hints on what they're up to next.   Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin chats to BBC Radio 4's Front Row about the origins of the project, and we hear insights from playwrights Sylvia Dow and Dave Fargnoli. Switch channels to BBC Radio Scotland to hear writer Colin Bell talk to Culture Cafe's Clare English about his own play. Read the all the Traverse Fifty news highlights, including the 6 o'clock STV News bulletin featuring playwright Jen Mackie, insights from Traverse Associate Director Hamish Pirie on STV online and reviews in the press and on Twitter of the big...Monday, February 11, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-lesley-hart/The latest in our series of writers' podcasts features writer and actor Lesley Hart. Lesley won Playwright Studio Scotland's New Playwright Award in 2011, and went on to write 3 Seconds through the PSS mentoring scheme. Her first play for radio, Personal Best, was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in June 2010. In 2009 she wrote MIX and Second Life, two short plays for the Traverse Theatre which received performed readings as part of the 'Wildfire' series. Lesley's play writing has its roots in the Traverse Young Writers Group, to which she belonged 2001-2002. As a feature writer, Lesley has produced hundreds of articles for publications including 4 Talent, the Channel 4 website, Product Magazine and brochures for National Theatre of Scotland. Between 2003 and 2011 Lesley also wrote a weekly op-ed column in the Press & Journal newspaper. As an actress, Lesley has worked extensively in theatre, film, television, and radio drama. Lesley tells us how she...Tuesday, January 29, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-exhibition-highlights-50-years-of-risk/(Image: a press cutting featuring the accidental stabbing of Colette O'Neil during the Traverse's opening performance of Huis Clos)  Stabbings, falling-outs and artistic risks pepper our history, proved by The Traverse Theatre at 50 - an exhibition compiling a rich array of photos, press cuttings and programmes from our past 50 years. Edinburgh Libraries' exhibition captures the spirit of a daring theatre prepared to take chances on new work and new writers, without being afraid to raise a few eyebrows along the way. Commentary by James Hogg charts the tempestuous relationship between the founding members of the Traverse, the highly publicised stabbing of a cast member on our opening night, and documents the history of challenging work for which we're known. From the production of Lay By in 1971, where pornography was distributed to the audience during the performance, to a staging of Futz, which depicted bestiality with a pig and...Tuesday, January 22, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/the-traverse-fifty-have-landed/Today is the day we've been waiting for since we launched the Traverse Fifty playwriting competition in September last year. The excitement in the theatre was palpable as we welcomed the winners of our international search for new writing talent into the building this morning for the launch of the year-long project. Associate director Hamish Pirie (pictured), who leads the project, expressed to the group his enjoyment in reading their winning plays. He said "I've loved having your work inside my head for the past few months", before introducing artistic director Orla O'Loughlin. Orla told the fifty writers that running the project was a key aspiration since starting at the Traverse last year, and that she was committed to finding the best new work through the project, and bringing it to the Traverse stage. All 50 winning plays will be directed by Hamish and Orla, and presentedat the end of next week. The project has received an incredible response, and due to...Wednesday, January 16, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/the-traverse-theatre-turns-50!/Welcome to our 50th year. Throughout 2013 we will be celebrating five decades of programming and producing the best new work from the UK and around the world with a jam-packed programme of productions and events. We're thrilled to mark our birthday by working with the Traverse Fifty writers - 50 bold theatrical voices, handpicked from over 600 applicants of our playwriting competition to work with us throughout the year. On 26 Jan we'll be presenting their 50 'Plays for Edinburgh' that won them their places on the attachment - come along to see this fizzing talent first hand, and keep an eye on our website for Traverse Fifty events throughout the year.   To help us celebrate, Edinburgh Libraries have launched the exhibition Fifty Years of the Traverse Theatre, at Central Library - you can view it online here. Theatre critics Joyce McMillan and Mark Fisher did their bit too, organising a walking tour of all the Traverse sites to mark our official birthday on 2...Monday, January 7, 2013http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-douglas-maxwell/This month, our writers' podcast features one of the highlights of our newly announced Spring season - Douglas Maxwell. His play,  A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity enjoyed a sell-out run as part of our breakfast Dream Play series, and is back on the menu this spring as part of our lunchtime play series A Play, A Pie and A Pint.    Douglas has been one of the most popular and produced playwrights in Scotland for over a decade - his work has included Promises Promises (which transferred to New York under the title The Promise in 2011, where it earned a Drama Desk Award Nomination for the actress Joanna Tope); a 10th Anniversary revival of the award winning Decky Does a Bronco; a version of Wedekind's Spring Awakening; The Miracle Man for the NTS, and Small Town, written with DC Jackson and Johnny McKnight. He has written two musicals: Watertight, with music by Richard Taylor and The Bookie with music by Aly...Sunday, December 23, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/50-special-announcements/We're getting ready for a very special announcement next week. 50 announcements, actually. The Traverse Fifty project kicks off in January 2013, leading a year of celebrations of our 50th anniversary. On Wednesday 19 December, we'll be letting everybody know who the 50 winning playwrights are. Our artistic team are busy going over the final plays. We received a whopping 630 plays from all over the world in response to a playwriting competition launched in September. The prize? To work with the Traverse on attachment for our 50th anniversary year in 2013. We put a call out for 500 word Plays for Edinburgh in a bid to find 50 exciting voices to carry us into our 50th year as a new writing theatre, and beyond. A panel of 12 readers have read 630 scripts, with the shortlisted plays being read 8 times. That's enough to make your head spin, and potentially a lot of paper! So we asked that every play was submitted paperlessly, through an online...Friday, December 14, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/what-the-critics-said-what-you-said!/The reviews have started to roll in for The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, and the verdict is that this is one of the most entertaining shows around this Christmas! EdinburghGuide.com praised its "jaw dropping tricks and illusion" (★★★★) and British Theatre Guide.called its mixture of storytelling, slapstick and magic, "a winning comic formula." The Scotsman reckoned it was, "gently entertaining...beautifully played" (★★★★) while The Arts Desk said it was, "consistently inventive and wonderfully funny" (★★★★).  The Stage loved its "comedy, pratfalls and deep philosophical investigation" calling it "utterly hilarious" and Edinburgh Evening News said it was "masterful...a story filled with contradictions and comedy, leaving you with more than a little appreciation for Mr Conan Doyle" (★★★★). Our opening audience thought so too! Check out this video with reactions from our first night.  The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society...Monday, December 10, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/gearing-up-for-opening-night-rehearsal-blog/As we get set up for opening night of our Christmas show The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, hear what assistant director Jo Rush has to say about the development of this whirlwind of physical comedy from Peepolykus.  Even when you're doing a comedy show tech week is not a 'funny' week. With all the things that need to get done everything takes a long time and the process can be very stop-start. All of this can make the jokes and joy of the play suddenly fall a bit flat or seem smaller somehow in the theatre space. But the brilliant thing is there is now so much more to play with and a huge team of people all working to make the play sing. You discover that seemingly unfunny objects, like a remote control for example, can acquire a new purpose that brings out the playfulness of the performers. As opening night looms closer another lovely thing happens as the show gradually gathers an audience, first of tech team, then the theatre's staff, and...Thursday, December 6, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/christmas-arrives-at-the-traverse/ Instead of Santa Claus sneaking down the chimney, we're getting a festive visit from Peepolykus (John and Javier pictured above) ...and Arthur Conan Doyle. And Sherlock Holmes. And Harry Houdini!  The excitement is palpable as Traverse Christmas show, The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society gears up for it's World Premiere tonight, Death, life and the afterlife explode onto the stage in what promises to be one of the funniest shows the Traverse has staged in years.  Director Orla O'Loughlin teams up with purveyors of fine physical comedy, Peepolykus, for her second show at the Traverse. Check out these production shots and get a sneak peek of the action to follow.  The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society is at the Traverse from tonight until Saturday 22 December.  Thursday, December 6, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/rediscover-edinburgh-with-conan-doyle/Here at the Traverse, Arthur Conan Doyle is set to collide with his world-famous creation, Sherlock Holmes later this week. Before he arrives, why not get to know the man himself a little better by taking a tour of Edinburgh with a series of podcasts led by celebrated historian and Conan Doyle aficionado Owen Dudley Edwards. Provided by our friends at the West Port Book Festival, the audio tour will whisk you from Arthur's birthplace on Picardy Place, to the college where he studied, and the bar where he loved to drink. Listen on, and you'll hear about the place that could well have been the inspiration for the Hound of The Baskervilles. We'll be posting steps of the tour throughout the run of The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, so keep a lookout on our Twitter feed to find out more about this fascinating man, and the star of our Christmas show.    The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society previews tonight and tomorrow, before opening on...Tuesday, December 4, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/christmas-show-rehearsal-insights-from-assistant-director/Image: The cast record a scene for our monthly TravCast.   As the third week of rehearsals for our Christmas show The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society comes to an end, hear what assistant director Jo Rush has to say about the development of this whirlwind of physical comedy from Peepolykus.  Now that the work on the script is finished; scenes streamlined, problems ironed out, even character names altered(!) we have been able to start really playing with the stories that are being told and finding the fun to be had in each scene. A lot of our rehearsal time has been spent exploring the comic possibilities of - amongst other things - swivel chairs, extension cables, phone ringtones, and various forms of facial hair. This hasn't been just for our own amusement but has really helped us to identify the physical language of the play, to find which ways of using costume and props make the most sense in the world of these characters. A really important...Tuesday, November 27, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/its-all-about-the-traverse-christmas-show-in-this-months-writers-podcast/Any sign of Sherlock Holmes yet? Here's a sneak peek into the rehearsal room of The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, the Traverse Theatre's Christmas show. We've teamed up with masters of physical comedy, Peepolykus, in this anarchic show about death, life and the afterlife. You can listen to how it's all going, here, This month's writers' podcast is a very fun one indeed, and features not one but two playwrights, direct from our Leith rehearsal room. Co-authors Steven Canny and John Nicholson talk to Hamish Pirie about the challenges and joys of collaborating on this script and their mutual passion for comedy. We also hear from director Orla O'Loughlin and Peepolykus' Javier Marzan who show us that everyone has a bit of a clown in them and give insight into the journey the script has been on since rehearsal began two weeks ago. Plus, we get a sneak extract from the play performed by John Nicholson, Javier Marzan and Gabriel Quigley. The...Friday, November 23, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-dance-festival-kicks-off-tomorrow/The next five days are jam-packed with just about every dance form around, as the Traverse Dance Festival enters its fourth year. SMITHdancetheatre kick the festival off tomorrow with Agnes & Walter: a little love story, a highly physical, comic and poignant piece of dance theatre which made its debut at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Inspired by James Thurber's classic story,The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the show features five dancers aged from 26 - 78 (20 Nov). Aberdeen's Citymoves Dance Agency teams up with Aberdeen Performing Arts to present 12 Dancers / Deliberance, a new work choreographed and performed by Andy Howitt. Set in a courtroom, the piece explores reasonable doubt and the concept of guilt (21 Nov). Red Note Ensemble bring 14th century Persian mystic, Divan e Hafez's The Intoxicating Rose Garden to life in a hybrid of music, song, dance and animation. The piece features music from Sally Beamish and Iranian sitar player Anoosh...Monday, November 19, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/manipulate-visual-theatre-festival-2013/We're delighted to announce the launch of the 2013 manipulate visual theatre programme. Now in its sixth year, the festival of innovative theatre, puppetry, animation and film is now open for booking.   Presented with Puppet Animation Scotland, this cutting-edge visual theatre festival - running 4-16 February 2013 - is a truly international affair. Work is brought to you from practitioners based in Estonia, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, USA, along with home grown artists from the UK. The 2013 festival, presented in the Traverse's 50th year, is the most ambitious yet. Showcasing epic storytelling and exploring the future of puppetry and animation in the digital age, the work on offer spans puppetry, object theatre, animation and film.  Highlights include Yael Rasooly's Papercut- a charming show that transforms the style of black and white cinema into a low-tech universe of paper cut-outs and animated cult classic from The...Tuesday, November 13, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/arthur-conan-doyle-visits-the-traverse-this-christmas/ We had our first script read through for the Traverse Christmas show, the second to be directed by Orla O'Loughlin who heads into what's sure to be four weeks of very fun rehearsals. There was lots of laughter and it felt almost as if Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson were in the room as actors Javier, Gabriel and John (pictured above) got to grips with a script which hurtled from sightings of fairies and a spectral hounds to Professor Brian Cox and particle physics. Orla will work with the cast over the month to bring this anarchic show about life, death and the afterlife to the Traverse stage in December. We'll be giving you sneak previews of the show on this blog (subscribe here) and through our monthly podcast series, so stay tuned. The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society  is at the Traverse Theatre Thursday 6 - Saturday 22 December. Previews  Tuesday 4 & Wednesday 5 December.   Tuesday, November 6, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/opening-night-of-autumn-show-what-the-audience-said/ Orla O'Loughlin's Traverse directorial debut, The Artist Man and the Mother Woman opened to a packed house last night, and has already won praise from the audience and critics alike. The crowd was  buzzing with enthusiasm for Morna Pearson's tragicomic exploration of small town life - here are just a few of their insights:    "Beautiful, funny and very, very moving."      "Thoroughly entertainingly dark." "A great piece of work." Hear more of what the audience members had to say in this video. The show has been impressing critics so far too, with early reviews describing it as "fizzing with dark and twisted energy" (The Stage) and lauding Morna's "beautifully crafted script"  (The Edinburgh Reporter). Keep track of the latest reviews as they come in via our Twitter and Facebook feeds, as well as on the show page of the Traverse website.  Friday, November 2, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/writers-block-for-the-traverse-fifty-insider-tips-from-zinnie-harris/The clock is ticking and there are just two weeks left to go before our competition to find fifty brilliant voices closes on 14 November. We're looking for writers to show us your creativity and submit 500 word scripts for a chance be part of the Traverse family during 2013, our 50th anniversary year. Zinnie Harris and Kieran Hurley have each written a play to show you where you can go with the brief. You can read their plays here. Zinnie, an award-winning playwright who's also a Traverse associate artist and leads our Playwright's Toolkit workshops, has a few tips to help you put pen to paper. One: Start the story in the right place. Someone once said to me that a play should be 'curtain up and someone is in trouble.' I think that's not bad advice here, 500 words is very short so you want the situation to have already begun before the play starts. Then we, the audience, are catching up and you'll have hit the ground running. Two: Make your characters...Wednesday, October 31, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-morna-pearson/Our latest writers' podcast features Morna Pearson, whose new play is set to have its first preview here tomorrow. In a first for our TravCast series of conversations with playwrights, we've included interviews with the cast and director Orla O'Loughlin, along with a sneak preview from the play.  The Artist Man and the Mother Woman is written in Morna Pearson's trademark Doric vernacular and set in a small town in northern Scotland. It's a surreal and darkly comic look at a very unusual mother-son relationship.  Elgin-born Morna Pearson was awarded the Meyer-Whitworth Prize for her first Traverse play, Distracted in 2007. Morna took part in the Traverse's Young Writers' Group - a long-running engagement programme which also launched the careers of Sam Holcroft (Cockroach, While You Lie) and Catherine Grosvenor (Cherry Blossom, One Day All This Will Come To Nothing).  Listen to Morna in conversation with Traverse associate director Hamish...Monday, October 29, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/the-artist-man-and-the-mother-woman-gets-stage-ready/ A last chance to get a glimpse into the rehearsal room before the cast and creative team move to the Traverse later this week. Director Orla O'Loughlin and the cast are busy putting the finishing touches to The Artist Man and the Mother Woman in our Leith rehearsal room.  We snapped some of the rehearsals before the team leave the space and get the play stage-ready at the Traverse. Check out the rest of the pictures over on the Traverse tumblr. The team begin technical rehearsal over the weekend as they gear up for the show's first preview next week. We'll have some beautiful production images shortly but before that we'll be broadcasting a very special TravCast with playwright Morna Pearson, so keep an eye on our twitter feed or better still subscribe through iTunes or SoundCloud. The Artist Man and the Mother Woman previews on Tues 30 & Wed 31 October. Click here for more info and booking.  Wednesday, October 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-fifty-writer-pictures/As if things weren't exciting enough, with the search for the Traverse Fifty well underway (less than a month to get those submissions in), Writer Pictures have offered something extra special into the mix to help us celebrate our 50 writers. In association with the Traverse Theatre, they are inviting photographers from across the UK to apply to be part of a unique photographic project, bringing writers and photographers together to create some amazing, inspirational portraiture. They are looking for 50 passionate photographers, from anywhere in the UK, to match up with each of our Traverse Fifty writers. Throughout the first 6 months of 2013, the photographers will work collaboratively with their writer to create a portrait of them. Photographers will have full creative freedom and the chance to be exhibited at the Traverse Theatre later in the year. The copyright on the finished portrait will remain the photographer's and from 2014, Writer Pictures will...Friday, October 19, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/rehearsal-insights-from-orla-oloughlin/Rehearsals for our autumn show, Morna Pearson's The Artist Man and the Mother Woman have entered their second week. Find out how it's going so far with these insights from artistic director Orla O'Loughlin.   I write this at the beginning of the second week of rehearsals and I'm fizzing with the theatrical possibilities and practical challenges the play is throwing up as we make our way through each of its thirty-odd scenes. The world Morna creates is such an adventure to dive into to. The company are completely smitten with the lyricism, wit and wonder of her words. Morna's particular take on the Doric means her characters speak with a muscularity and poetry that feels both ancient and modern at the same time. This is small town territory at once surreal, and other, yet also terrifyingly familiar. Morna's work is deeply bound up with her own geographical roots, and she has a particular interest in the relationship of people to place. In this piece, as...Friday, October 12, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/emerging-directors-workshop/Our first Bare Bones directors' workshop last month was so popular that we're doing it again. Traverse associate director, Hamish Pirie, leads a workshop that will focus on presenting new writing in a pressurised environment. This is part of a series of events we're offering especially for emerging directors. We have joined forces with the esteemed JMK Trust so that we can arm Scotland's next generation of theatre directors with the tools to support the work of new writers. The JMK Award is the single most sought-after prize for outstanding young theatre directors.  This workshop will be led by Traverse associate director, Hamish Pirie, who recently directed Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro! - winner of 2012 Scotsman Fringe First and a Herald Angel Awards. Hamish also directed Demos and Salt Root and Roe by Tim Price, nominated for a 2012 Olivier Award.  Space: Traverse Two Start...Wednesday, October 10, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/rehearsals-begin-for-autumn-show/Rehearsals for our autumn production got off to a flying start this morning with the script read through of The Artist Man and the Mother Woman by Morna Pearson. Four weeks of rehearsals kick off today where Orla O'Loughlin (pictured second from left) will put the cast through their paces as they work on the script. It's an exciting day because this is the first play Orla will direct for the Traverse since joining as artistic director. The play began life here as a reading during Orla's first project for the Traverse, the Write Here new writing festival earlier this year. Since then, Morna Pearson has been working on drafts of the script, which will make its way to the Traverse stage in November.  Written in Morna's trademark Doric vernacular and set in a small town in northern Scotland,The Artist Man and the Mother Woman  is surreal and darkly comic look at a very unusual mother-son relationship. Actors Garry Collins and Anne Lacey play the...Monday, October 1, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/whats-a-play-for-edinburgh/ Playwrights Zinnie Harris and Kieran Hurley have been enlisted to help us find 50 brilliant writers to work with us during our 50th anniversary next year. They responded to our call for Plays for Edinburgh by each writing a 500-word theatrical jewel as an example of where you can go with the brief.  Read Skylight by Zinnie Harris and Beleaguered man, Holyrood press room by Kieran Hurley to get your imagination going. We've also teamed up with  The Scotsman who have published the plays to help us to find 50 brilliant writers of any age, from anywhere.  Full details and FAQs about the project here.  The Traverse Fifty project is generously supported by City of Edinburgh Council.   Thursday, September 27, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-begins-search-for-50-writers/2013 is a big year for us. In celebration of our 50th anniversary, we are searching for 50 writers from Scotland and beyond for a year-long attachment.   We're looking for 500-word plays for Edinburgh.  If selected, writers will be invited to take part in a series of tailor-made writing events throughout 2013, including panel discussions, workshops and one-on-one dramaturgy. The year-long attachment, which begins in January 2013, will culminate in a New Writing Festival featuring some of the work developed by the Traverse Fifty throughout the year. At the end of the process we will offer three seed commissions. Who we want   50 brilliant writers of any age, from anywhere. You must have had no more than two professional productions staged. How to apply   Submit a 500-word play for Edinburgh. The play can be about anything you like, for example: a real or imagined event, an experience of, or tribute to,...Tuesday, September 25, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-pamela-carter/The latest in our series of writers' podcasts is now live, this month featuring playwright, director and dramaturg, Pamela Carter. Earlier this year we announced our continued partnership with Edinburgh University's Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities in a Creative Fellowship to be based within the University. Pamela was chosen as a fellow for 2012 - 2013  along with Iain Finlay McLeod. They'll be working on Traverse Theatre commissions at the University, exploring the theme, 'difficult dialogues'.  Pamela will be in residence at IASH from September to December 2012. Her work for the Traverse includesWhat We Knowwhich she wrote and directed. Pamela also worked as dramaturg on our co-production with Untitled Projects last year, The Salon Project. Other recent work includes Meat (part of PEEP, Natural Shocks); Skane (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs) and Wild Life  (Magnetic North). Visual art, biology and finance have all been themes in...Monday, September 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/platform-18-new-directions-award/Kieran Hurley's Beats was one of the most talked about shows of the 2012 Traverse Festival season. It first exploded onto the Traverse's stage earlier this year as a winner of the Arches' groundbreaking Platform 18 Award, which has just opened the submissions process for 2013. The strength of the Arches Award for Directors (Platform 18 award), in its near decade-long existence,  has been not just its diversity but its willingness to take risks." The Herald Other Platform 18 winners have quickly established themselves as some of the most exciting theatre makers on the scene. Along with Kieran Hurley, alumni include Nic Green, Rob Drummond, Cora Bissett and Davey Anderson.  Winners are offered the unique opportunity to stage a fully-funded production at the Arches and here at the Traverse, with the full artistic and practical support of both venues. The Arches Platform 18 Award sets artists off in exciting new directions and we're delighted...Friday, September 14, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/free-workshop-with-thickskin/We are teaming up with ThickSkin to offer an exciting opportunity for professional artists to work with director Neil Bettles. The workshop will explore ThickSkin's approach to creating theatre, covering devising techniques and physicality. Participants will gain insight into the company's rehearsal process and create their own material in response to creative tasks. Participants can expect a fast and physical workshop and should be prepared to move and work as a team to generate material quickly through guided tasks. 'A ThickSkin approach to making a play is a highly choreographed one. Not just in the detailed physical sequences that feature, but also in the way a story moves from beginning to end. As a director I rely heavily on instinct and being able to spot potential magic through playing. I like to play. I look for connections and ways to immerse our audiences in a cinematic experience. I want the performers to constantly discover new things within set...Wednesday, September 12, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/human-cloning-debate-reignites-at-the-traverse/Ethical dilemmas are set to be explored at the Traverse next week as we reconnect with the Genomics Forum to explore the debate around human cloning with a performance reading of A Number by Cary Churchill. The reading is directed by Traverse writer Peter Arnott, the Forum's playwright-in-residence. Peter is also currently under commission to the Traverse to write a genomics-related play. After the reading, we'll be presenting a panel discussion lead by Forum Visiting Research Fellow, Dr Adele Langlois, who will be joined by Professor Keith Campbell, a key member of the team responsible for cloning Dolly the Sheep, and Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley, from the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Population Health Studies. A Number was written at a time when there was tremendous excitement and uncertainty about the impact advances in life sciences - such as cloning - might have upon society. Dr Adele Langlois says, "It will be very interesting to see...Friday, September 7, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-autumn-programme-is-live/Once again the Festival has been and gone and this can mean only one thing; The Traverse has a brand new season of work, featuring some exhilarating work from some the finest artistic talents around. We have two flagship Traverse productions this Autumn, both directed by Traverse artistic director Orla O'Loughlin. The first is from the pen one of Scotland's most distinctive voices, Morna Pearson, the chilling but hilarious The Artist Man and the Mother Woman. Set in a small town in the North East of Scotland, the relationship between a mother and son unravels as our hero makes a bid to cut the apron strings he's clung on to for far too long. This is a pitch black tale with a big, big heart. Our second world premiere is an anarchic Christmas show. The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society by Steven Canny and John Nicholson is a collaboration between the Traverse and the acclaimed Peepolykus. Life, death and the afterlife are all addressed in a way which will...Tuesday, September 4, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/herald-angel-for-dream-plays/ Dream Plays has been awarded a Herald Angel, bringing the total number of awards won by productions in this year's Traverse festival programme to 16. Orla O'Loughlin said, "I am hugely thankful for this herald angel. It is the perfect end to my first festival as artistic director at the Traverse. Devising, curating and directing dream plays has been a labour of love. It is a project that has twelve writers at its heart and one of which I am extremely proud. I would like to thank each and every writer for rising to the challenge and allowing David and I to bring their dreams to the stage."   She added, "I'd also like to thanks the loyal and inspirational traverse audience, who sold the season out, some of whom came to all 12 performances. Without their appetite for risk and innovation we would be lost."   This latest award brings to five the total number of Herald's Angels received by works and artists in the Traverse festival programme. Saturday, September 1, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/bumper-awards-harvest-at-the-traverse/It's been another bumper Fringe here at the Traverse with productions from our programme landing a total of 15 awards at recent ceremonies. In all, shows at the Traverse were awarded five Scotsman Fringe First Awards as well as a Spirit of the Fringe Award. In addition, three productions were presented with Bank of Scotland Herald Angel Awards while Andy Manley. This is an increase on last year's total and "is a fantastic validation of our programme," said Orla O'Loughlin our Artistic Director. She added that "curating it was a labour of love." As well as the Fringe Firsts and Herald Angels, a number of productions were recognised at The Stage and Total Theatre awards with two receiving gongs in each case. In addition we are delighted to announce the wonderful news that Midsummer, which received the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award in 2009, will travel to New York next year and premiere in that city in January as part of the...Wednesday, August 29, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/final-dream-play-writer-is-andrew-greig/ Our breakfast theatre series, Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) is coming to an end. The twelfth and final writer will be Andrew Greig, with Found at Sea.  Andrew Greig is a much-loved Scottish writer who has published 19 books of poetry, non-fiction, and novels. All concern strange, scary and exhilarating pursuits and challenges - Himalayan expeditions, flying, fishing, golf, being Scottish, surviving major illness and getting older. Found at Sea is a long narrative poem arising from an open-dinghy voyage to overnight on the abandoned island of Cava, which playwright David Greig seeks to shift from a mental to a physical staging.   Find out more about Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) here. For up-to-the-minute info, search #DreamPlays on Twitter.    Saturday, August 25, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/new-york-premiere-for-midsummer/The Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation has announced that Midsummer (A Play With Songs) is one of the winners of this year's The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award 2012.  One of our biggest hits of recent years, Midsummer will run at the Clurman Theatre from its New York premiere on January 9 until February 3, 2013. Carol Tambor said "I am excited to have an opportunity to finally bringMidsummer by David Greig to New York. This is a play with music by Gordon McIntyre, which I wanted to bring to New York since I saw it in Edinburgh in 2009. They could not accept the award then because of their schedule. For three years, I could never get out of my mind.  Now, I can finally award this play the prize it most definitely deserves" Midsummer began life as a small scale production which premiered at the Traverse in 2008. The production then toured Scotland and played at the Cork Midsummer Festival in Ireland before a hugely successful...Friday, August 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/newly-commissioned-tobias-manderson-galvin-is-saturdays-dream-play-writer/ We're even more excited than usual to announce our next Dream Play writer. Tobias Manderson-Galvin was handpicked to work on Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) after co-curator David Greig saw his Fringe show The Economist. David was bowled over by the show, which is written in response to the media's portrayal of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.  Tobias Manderson-Galvin is a playwright, performer and poet from Melbourne, Australia. He also co-founded Australia's MKA: Theatre of New Writing in 2010, where he holds the post of Artistic Director.  Find out more about Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) here. For up-to-the-minute info, search #DreamPlays on Twitter.    Friday, August 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/fridays-dream-play-writer-is-douglas-maxwell/We're delighted to announce Douglas Maxwell as the next writer in our series of Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) this Thursday 24 August. We quizzed him on his play, A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity.  What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? My reaction to the brief was that it wouldn't work for me. The way I write is to avoid blank commissions as best I can. It doesn't always happen that way, but ideally I'll write the entire play first and then shop it around, rather than take a commission for an idea that's unformed and unwritten. I've found this back-to-front method is great for the play but terrible for the finances. Most days I'm writing for free and gambling that at some point someone will like it enough to pay me to develop and stage it. But on the upside it means that if I have a play I want to write then, chances are, I'll just go ahead and write it. So there is no great idea in my notebook I can't get...Thursday, August 23, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/gerda-stevenson-is-third-dream-play-writer-of-the-week/We're delighted to announce Gerda Stevenson as Thursday's writer for Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write). We chatted to her about her thoughts on her play, Skeleton Wumman.    What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? When David Greig phoned me to ask if I'd be interested in coming up with something for Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write)  I thought the brief might match an Inuit story: the protagonist is a skeleton, she's under the sea, and she can't speak!   Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from?  I've long been fascinated by Skeleton Woman,who appears in Native American stories. I first came across her in Pinkola Estes' book, Women Who Run With Wolves, which led me to another, similar Inuit tale, The Magic Drum. Sedna, the Inuit sea goddess is another inspiration.  How did this idea grow/develop? Folk tales reveal little detail in terms of character. The question...Wednesday, August 22, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/lynda-radley-next-up-in-dream-play-series/Lynda Radley has been announced as the next writer in our Festival series (for Wednesday 22), Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write). We grilled her to find out more about her play, National Health. Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from?  I just started to write without worrying where it was going. This was refreshing for me as I'm normally a bit of a planner and like to spend a lot of time thinking and researching before starting a play. With this play I was into it before I knew what it was.  How did this idea grow/develop? At first the scenes I was writing seemed disconnected but I just trusted in the process and eventually a theme emerged as well as something to tie to scenes together.  What was writing the piece like?  It was a process of improvisation followed by editing and refinement. Having been so open at the beginning I found the rewrites more difficult than normal, as I wasn't sure what I...Tuesday, August 21, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/jonny-mcknight-kicks-off-the-second-week-of-dream-plays/We can reveal that the first writer of the week, kicking off on Tuesday 21 in our breakfast series Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) will be Jonny McKnight with Room 7. We picked his brains on his thoughts about his Dream Play. What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? I had the same reaction I always have - terror, inability and sat staring at a screen for quite some time overthinking the subject matter.  I started to get myself in quite a pickle thinking about 'The Play I'd Never Write' because surely if I was writing it then it would be a play that I would write.  This is how my brain works at times.  It can be pretty frustrating.  Then I decided to pick a subject matter that I would generally never write about.  Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from?  The idea grew from the idea of being inducted into a new work place and thinking about how that initial contact with your boss...Monday, August 20, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/week-2-more-awards!/As week two of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe draws to a close, the second round of Scotsman Fringe First Awards and Bank of Scotland Herald Angels are announced - and we've very pleased to say that four of them are ours.  Daniel Kitson won the critics over with his, "jokey, intimate, pasionate and minutely perceptive" solo performance,  As of 1.52pm GMT on Friday April 27th 2012, This Show Has No Title.  which picked up a Fringe First. Hannah Price and Emma Callander are on to a winner with this year's hugely successful Theatre Uncut, a series of 10 minute dramas each Monday at the Traverse Festival, reflecting the state of the economy.  Along with a Fringe First, Theatre Uncut also won a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel award on Saturday, while actor and director Andy Manley was awarded the Herald Archangel award for sustained contribution to Edinburgh's Festivals. Andy is a leader in children's theatre and his work has been seen worldwide....Monday, August 20, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/final-dream-play-writer-of-the-week-is-janice-galloway/The final writer of the week in Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) is Janice Galloway. Her play sex and drugs and rock and roll has been brewing in her head for years, and the time has finally come for it to see daylight. What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? My reaction to the brief from the Traverse was my usual first reaction to anything nice - anxiety I've got it all wrong. After a chat with David Greig, I was fine. I sent him too much stuff and he did the hard work of choosing.  Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from? It was a story I'd been honing for ages that had never quite seemed finished. The story itself came from a fascination for wards, hostels, prisons, too-small houses - enclosed interiors which can be overpowering and unexpected in what they allow to happen between the lines. How did this idea grow/develop? I had to get over the temptation to write something surreal or based on...Saturday, August 18, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/wake-up-this-saturday-to-a-dream-play-by-alan-wilkins/We are delighted to announce Alan Wilkins as Saturday's writer for Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write). He's given us a great insight into his play My Loneliness is Killing Me, so read on to find out more. What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? What was the brief? A dream play? Scenes from a play I'll never write? It sounded elliptical, open to exploration, not what I normally do and possibly quite exposed. So intriguing. Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from? From a dream. That seemed the only honest starting point. Unfortunately, waiting for the right dream when you need one is a frustrating process.Apart from that, I can't answer, as that would mean trying to work out where the dream came from. Which I never generally want to do. How did this idea grow/develop? The next stage in development was a coffee with David Greig, who was to direct. He told me he really didn't want it to be a play. So... A dream...Friday, August 17, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/nicola-mccartney-is-fridays-dream-play-writer/ We're excited to announce that Nicola McCartney will be the next writer to feature in Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write). Her play, Rachel's House, will be showing at 9am tomorrow (Friday 17). Wake yourself up with a brakfast roll and a hot drink (included in the ticket price, no less) and start your day with some cutting-edge theatre. Find out more about Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) here. For up-to-the-minute info, search #DreamPlays on Twitter.    Thursday, August 16, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/five-star-sensations/The bright young things at Lyric Hammersmith lead the way in a slew of Traverse shows winning five star reviews this Festival with Morning. This unflinching, "stylishly visceral" (Time Out) coming of age play from Simon Stephens is one of the most talked about shows of the Festival. Read the review here.  Hot on their heels is Caroline Horton's musical romp with a sharp edge, Mess. The Stage's 2010 Best Solo Performer Award winner has struck gold again, with a play that "doesn't just break down the fourth wall, it tramples it to dust". Read the full Three Weeks review here.   And No More Shall We Part, the tear-jerking exploration of an elderly couple in crisis has had critics weeping into their hankies- in a good way. Fest Magazine called it "unforgettably beautiful" in their five star review.      Rob Drummond's "extraordinary" (Edinburgh Spotlight) Bullet Catch  has been a sure fire smash hit. Taking...Wednesday, August 15, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/sabrina-mahfouz-is-third-writer-for-dream-plays/ Sabrina Mahfouz, the performance poet spotted by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin just a week ago, will be the third featured writer in Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write).  Sabrina was commissioned after Orla saw her show One Hour Only at the Underbelly last week. She described the show as being "like a little electric shock from London", and we can't wait for Sabrina's play Clean tomorrow morning (Thursday 16). Find out more about Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) here. For up-to-the-minute info, search #DreamPlays on Twitter.  Wednesday, August 15, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/david-ireland-announced-as-first-dream-play-writer/ Our highly anticipated series of Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) has almost arrived. The programme will kick off bright and early tomorrow morning - Tuesday 14 - at 9am, with Most Favoured written by David Ireland. David is our featured writer in this week's TravCast. It's your chance to get a fascinating insight into his approach to playwriting. So whether you're an early riser or still going from the night before, grab your ticket (there's a breakfast roll thrown in) and head over.    Find out more about Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) here. For up-to-the-minute info, search #DreamPlays on Twitter.    Tuesday, August 14, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/1-week,-4-awards/ We're delighted to announce that our programme has picked up a slew of prestigious awards over the past 24 hours! Yesterday Mark Thomas (Bravo Figaro!) and Belgian company Ontroerend Goed (All That is Wrong) won The Scotsman Fringe First award, and today there are two Herald Angels for Mark Thomas and Rob Drummond's breathtaking show Bullet Catch. Congratulations are also in order for playwrights and long-time Traverse collaborators, Peter Arnott, who picked up a Fringe First yesterday for Why do You Stand There in the Rain? and to Catherine Grosnevor for Continuous Growth. The Fringe First awards - given to outstanding new writing - are announced weekly throughout the festival, with the following round of awardees revealed on Friday.  Herald Angels are revealed each Saturday of the festival. Well done to our winners! Tuesday, August 14, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/sue-glover-to-be-next-dream-play-writer/Our second writer for Dream Plays (Scenes From A Play I'll Never Write) will be Sue Glover. We quizzed Sue on her Dream Play -  Catterline - showing on Wednesday 15,  to find out more.    What was your reaction to the brief the Traverse gave you? Intrigue.   Where did the idea for your Dream Play come from? The idea grew from writing Artist Unknown for Citizen's TAG theatre. I wrote about three artists from different eras, one of whom was Eardley. Also, I love the East Coast - all of it - and the coast and village of Catterline made a lasting impression.   How did this idea grow/develop? Maddeningly, erratically. It keeps changing shape, but I THINK I now know what shape it should be.   What was writing the piece like? As above! But it was great to explore the characters again, because it is a good while since I first planned to write about them.   What were you interested in...Tuesday, August 14, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/latest-recruit-for-dream-plays/Meet our latest recruit for Dream Plays, performance poet Sabrina Mahfouz. Sabrina is the first of two writers, commissioned during the Fringe, to take part in our Festival Dream Play. Over the next week, Sabrina will write a short script which will be directed by Orla O'Loughlin as part of the Traverse's Festival season of breakfast theatre.  Orla commissioned Sabrina today after seeing her sensational second play, One Hour Only at the Underbelly. Sabrina Mahfouz will join Sue Glover, David Ireland, Douglas Maxwell, Nicola McCartney, Johnny McKnight, Lynda Radley, Gerda Stevenson, Alan Wilkins and poet and novelists Janice Galloway and Andrew Greig, who will all write short scripts to be directed by Orla O'Loughlin and David Greig.  A second writer will be enlisted during the Fringe by David Greig, who we'll be announcing shortly. Each play in the season will be performed once during the twelve day run of Dream Plays (Scenes From A...Tuesday, August 7, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-gary-mcnair/ We're delighted that Gary McNair's show Born to Run features in our 2012 Festival programme. It's especially exciting with the recent announcement that actress Shauna MacDonald (pictured) is set to star in this intense, physical show about one woman's attempt to escape death by pushing her body to new limits. Gary is a writer, performer and director based in Glasgow. His one man show about the failings of our financial system, Crunch, went on to achieve critical acclaim at the 2011 Forest Fringe. Gary was one of the artistic collaborators on The Jean Jacques Rousseau Show, A Play, A Pie and A Pint's 250th production. Other work includes: Count Me In (National Theatre of Scotland) and How Soon Is Nigh? (The Arches Platform 18 Award). Listen to Gary McNair talk to Hamish Pirie on the July issue of the Traverse writer's podcast.  Born to Run 21-26 August at the Traverse.  Tuesday, July 31, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/12-months,-16-writers-many-more-to-come/ Our TravCast podcast project turns one next month! Over the past year we've talked to some of the best people in the business and really put the art of playwriting under the microscope, challenging and celebrating what it means to be a writer and theatre maker today. So far we've featured Lynda Radley; David Greig; Zinnie Harris; Tim Couch; Peter Arnott; Alan Wilkins; Linda McClean; Jo Clifford; Catherine Grosvener; Clare Duffy; Lewis Hetherington; Tim Price; Kieran Hurley; Sue Glover and Gary McNair.  Over the course of our 2012 Fringe season we're giving you a chance to get insight into what makes the writers in our programme tick, in a weekly edition of TravCast. The line-up for August includes Caroline Horton (Mess), Ontroerend Goed's Alexander Devriendt and Joeri Smet (All That Is Wrong), David Ireland (Dream Plays) and Rob Drummond (Bullet Catch). Catch up on previous episodes of TravCast on SoundCloud. Friday, July 20, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-sue-glover/The June episode of TravCast finds Hamish Pirie engaged in a tête à tête with one of Scotland's most renowned playwrights, Sue Glover. She is one of ten writers commissioned to create a piece of work for the Dream Plays (Scenes From a Play I'll Never Write) series of breakfast plays as part of this year's festival programme at the Traverse. Sue has written extensively for various media, including radio and television and here she describes the special challenges and opportunities presented by writing for the stage.  Sue Glover's plays have been produced worldwide. Her 1991 play Bondagers for the Traverse Theatre Company has been hailed as a modern Scottish Classic. She regards Guy Pierre Couleau's translations and productions of Asservies and La Chaise de Paille as highlights of her work for theatre. Other plays include The Bubble Boy, The Seal Wife, Artist Unknown, Sacred Hearts, Shetland Saga. Listen to the June episode of our writers'...Wednesday, July 4, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-reveals-2012-festival-programme/We're delighted to reveal our Festival programme for 2012, a season of world-class drama that dares to bare its soul, look you in the eye and tell you its story. Brochures are available today from the Traverse, and will be hitting doorsteps in the next few days. In the meantime, you can browse through it on Issuu, Highlights include Morning, a dark coming of age story by Simon Stephens, featuring the Lyric Young Company and All That Is Wrong from Belgian agent provocateurs Ontroerend Goed. We are delighted to welcome Dearbhla Molloy and Bill Paterson in Tom Holloway's timely and deeply moving And No More Shall We Part, and verbatim theatre gets a twist as the world view of thirty 8-10 year olds forms Monkey Bars, presented by Chris Goode and the Unicorn Theatre. We are joined once again by the inimitable Daniel Kitson and excited to welcome to the Traverse the award-winning comedian and political activist Mark Thomas. Both come to us with bespoke festival...Thursday, June 21, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/festival-2012-on-sale-for-theatre-club-members/ We're having an exclusive preview of our 2012 Festival programme tonight for our Theatre Club Members. There is still time to become a member and benefit from pre-sales of Festival tickets, plus an introduction to the season by our Executive Producer, Linda Crooks and Associate Director, Hamish Pirie. We will reveal our 2012 Festival programme next week on Thursday 31 May, where you'll be able to see what we have in store for you this August at the Traverse. Tickets will go on general sale from 10am that day.  More details on how to join the Traverse Theatre Club, here.  (Available to Saltire 1, Grassmarket and Lawnmarket members) Thursday, May 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/cats-nominees-announced/Nominations for the prestigious Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland are in today, and we're delighted to say that The Salon Project has been nominated under two categories: Best Production and Best Technical Presentation.  Astonishing...one of the most complete immersive theatre experiences ever conceived. **** The Scotsman Our co-production with Untitled Projects took place at the Traverse over two weeks in October 2011, where the Theatre's main house was transformed into a simulation of an opulent Parisian salon. The audience played a central role in the event each evening, and were dressed in period costume, specially sourced by the production team from the wardrobe departments of some of Scotland's most iconic theatres. A quite extraordinary theatrical experiment...genius. **** The Daily Telegraph The Salon Project was devised by then Traverse Artist in Residence Stewart Laing, a Tony award winning designer and director...Thursday, May 10, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/imaginate-lands-at-the-traverse/Catch the very best of theatre for children and young people at this year's Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival, which kicks off from Monday 7 May at its Traverse home, with shows to see all over the city. Here at the Traverse, we've got the meaty but moving  Titus for the over 10s, coming-of-age tale  Mikey and Addie (pictured above) for the over 8s and the eponymously named  Traverse, a high-octane dance treat for the over 6s (check out the video  here). If your kids are a bit younger, check out the magical adaptation of Ted Prior's  Grug.  This year Imaginate sees the Festival celebrate its 23rd year with fourteen world-class productions by companies from Australia, England, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and of course  some brilliant new work made right here in Scotland. Over 10,000 children and young people, their friends and families will be offered the opportunity to...Thursday, May 3, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/write-here,-a-look-back/Our festival celebrating the Traverse's work with new writing closed last night, with an exhilarating, one-off performance of Tim Price's verbatim play, Demos, which saw our new Associate Director Hamish Pirie make his directorial debut. No mean feat considering the audience of 100 all had parts in the play, reading sections of script and collectively acting out proceedings of an Occupy General Assembly at St Pauls Cathedral in London on 13 December, 2011, and a Q&A session with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons a day later. One of the most exciting new writing festivals Edinburgh has seen in years." The List The closing event summed up what the Write Here festival was all about - getting audiences, writers and artists in on the action, and really involving everyone who attended the festival in the events. Curated by Orla O'Loughlin (pictured at a script workshop, above) the festival ran for nine days. We saw 100...Monday, April 30, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/roadkill-win-at-olivier-awards/ We're delighted that Roadkill has won the Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre Olivier Award. Conceived and directed by Cora Bissett, who is currently touring Midsummer [a play with songs] in Austraila, and with text by Stef Smith, Roadkill began life at the Traverse Festival during the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it picked up a slew of awards including the Amnesty Freedom of Expression Award, a Scotsman Fringe First, a Herald Angel, the Holden Street Theatres Award, a Total Theatre Award, The Stage Award for Acting Excellence and the Edinburgh International Festival Award.  Based on real experiences, Roadkill told a brutal story about sex trafficking today, sharing the harrowing details of a young woman trapped in a living nightmare. The most recent production of the show began at Theatre Royal Stratford East, which produced the London season in association with the Barbican and the Traverse Theatre.     Tuesday, April 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/what-sort-of-government-is-best/We're excited to release more details about Demos, our immersive live theatre event where you, the audience, will play a key role. Inspired by the global Occupy Movement, Demos is a verbatim play which presents two examples of working democracy. To create the play, author Tim Price used recorded minutes from a General Assembly for Occupy London Stock Exchange camp at St Paul's Cathedral on 13 December 2011, and the Hansard record for Prime Minister's questions the next day. With over 50 parts, audience participants will play a key role in the performance, with each audience member reading out a small number of marked-out lines from the script of Demos, which is available to read and download here. This is a one-off production, and the closing event of our Write Here festival. The Demos event will be followed by a post-show discussion with Saskia Kent, a supporter of Occupy London Stock Exchange.  We're welcoming director Hamish Pirie to the Traverse...Friday, April 20, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/eiff-at-the-traverse/The home of innovative and exciting cinema is making the Traverse the home of their Talent Lab and new Delegate Centre. The Talent Lab offers up-and-coming filmmakers a fantastic opportunity to learn from the world's key film industry players through a series of group and one-on-one discussions and networking events. All Talent Lab events will take place at the Traverse and we'll also play host to a full programme of Industry events, information services and networking opportunities for all filmmakers, delegates and press. Chris Fujiwara, EIFF Artistic Director is excited about showcasing this year's new talent at the Traverse, and Our Executive Producer/Joint CEO Linda Crooks is too: "The Traverse is thrilled to be in a position to host the EIFF 2012 Delegate Centre.  It has been a long held ambition to work more closely with our Cultural Quarter neighbours. EIFF is a perfect and timely fit.   Both the Traverse and EIFF have a lot more...Tuesday, April 10, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/for-once-author-on-travcast/For Once has just begun a two week run at the Traverse. Its author, Tim Price, is our guest for April on the Traverse Writer's podcast. Tim is one of the most commissioned writers in the UK right now, and it's a very busy April from the Welsh writer. Along with For Once, he will be staging Demos at the Traverse this April, and elsewhere his Wikileaks-inspired The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning  opens as the highlight of National Theatre Wales current season. He talks to Jennifer Williams about political activism as a deep source of inspiration, and the relationship between writing for the stage and the screen. Listen here. For Once is Tim's first full-length play. It's a funny and touching story of a life in a picture-postcard town. Through a series of beautifully crafted monologues, the play cuts to the heart of a family, and a community, turned upside down by unimaginable tragedy. Tim's play marks the first chance for Scottish audiences to sample...Thursday, April 5, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/write-here-festival-announced/Next month the Traverse will host Write Here, our festival in celebration of new writing. We'll give you a peek behind the scenes to the work of the Traverse literary team and playwrights in a series of readings, talks, workshops and performance. The full festival brochure is available to read on Issuu, here. Last minute programme changes mean that the performance times of plays by Peter Arnott, Rob Drummond, Uma Rajah and Dave Fargnoli have changed from those advertised. Check our What's On page for the most up-to-date info.   There are open views into rehearsals and readings of work in progress by Peter Arnott (The Fly Room), Morna Pearson (The Artist Man and the Mother Woman) and Rob Drummond (Too Far Gone), along with a presentation of new talent in Traverse Introducing, with plays from the Helene Cloete (Dragon Mountain), Jamie Laing (This Little Piggy), Nichola Daunton (RSVP), Rhiannon Grist (Dog Days), Uma Rajah (The Dubai Papers) and...Wednesday, April 4, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/new-work-from-the-arab-world-one-day-in-spring/From April 24, a brand new season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint kicks off at the Traverse. The six-week season of new work from the Arab world is curated by David Greig, who says, "I'm thrilled about One Day in Spring. It's absolutely the right time for us to hear young voices from the Arab world. These plays are hot off the press and they reflect a world view which is far away from 24 hour rolling news and CNN. It's the inside story of a generation who are trying to shape their world in the streets and squares of Damascus and Cairo and Tunis." The six lunchtime shows are written by artists living through turbulent political times in Lebanon, Morocco and Syria. The penultimate show at the Traverse, One Day in Spring directed by David Greig, will be an hour long collection of 24 different scenes by 24 young writers from cities all over the Middle East. The shows will come direct from Glasgow's Òran Mór, where a weekly Arabian Night event will...Tuesday, April 3, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-lewis-hetherington/ 2401 Objects co-writer Lewis Hetherington is our guest in March's episode of TravCast, the Traverse Writer's podcast.He talks to Jennifer Williams about collaboration, his love of immersive theatre and about the joy of writing within creative constraints. Listen here. Lewis is an associate artist of Analogue. Before the Fringe First award-winning 2401 Objects,  he worked on their first two shows, Mile End and Beachy Head. He is Associate Artist with Imaginate, where he has been exploring the creative possibilities of making theatre with and for young deaf blind adults. 2401 Objects is at the Traverse 30 & 31 March, Visit the show page, here.   Wednesday, March 7, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/translating-the-genome-into-a-play/We're very excited to announce a brand new Traverse commission. Peter Arnott, who has been our Playwright in Residence at the ESRC Genomics Forum for the past year, will continue to explore the relationship between art and science, and write a Genomics related play for the Traverse. During his residency, Peter worked alongside Forum members, experts and Fellows as he explored the social aspects of genomics, which cover areas as diverse as designer babies, synthetic blood, DNA profiling, identity politics, plant and animal genetics, personalised medicine, stem cell research and garage biology. He has been blogging furiously about his discoveries, and sharing his findings and ideas at monthly discussions in the Traverse bar,  Steve Yearly, Director of the ESRC Genomics Forum, said, "He entered into our world of engagement with the life sciences with an infectious enthusiasm and inspired new audiences to consider both the science itself and its...Thursday, February 23, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/manipulate-visual-theatre-festival-2012/Visual Theatre can be anything from puppetry and physical theatre to animation and film, and we're delighted to be hosting some of the best examples of these art forms at the manipulate festival next week. Now entering its fifth year, manipulate is a one-off event in the Scottish cultural calendar, when the  Traverse becomes home to some of the most avant-garde visual theatre, puppetry, object and physical theatre to be seen anywhere in the UK, and a film programme which offers a snapshot of the best international contemporary animation. Performance The performance programme begins with Hamletmachine by Compagnie Sans Soucis (France). Dynamic video projection and highly theatrical object manipulation capture the tensions and urgency of Henrik Müller's play (Monday 30 Jan, returns only). Invisible Thread (England) present their first ever production, Plucked…A True Fairy Tale, which uses object theatre, live video-feed painting, puppetry and animation to...Wednesday, January 25, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/reading-of-strangers,-babies-in-istanbul/ Linda McLean is in Istanbul today for a reading of her play strangers, babies, which was first produced by the Traverse in 2007. Part of the New Text New Theatre project, the reading of strangers, babies will be at Muammer Karaca Theatre in a translation into Turkish by Seçil Honeywill, directed by Artistic Director of VeDŞT Theatre Company, Yeşim Özsoy Gülan. Linda will also take part in an discussion after the reading.  strangers, babies (Yabancılar, bebekler) at the Muammer Karaca Theatre Wednesday 25 January (8.30pm) Translated by Seçil Honeywill Directed by Yeşim Özsoy Gülan Performers: Esra Bezen Bilgin, M.Ergün Işıldar, Deniz Özmen, Batur Belirdi, Mark Levitas, Tansu Biçer. www.galataperform.com www.vedigerseyler.com Picture: Gillian Kearney (May) Gavin Marshall (Roy) in the Traverse Theatre Company production of strangers, babies by Linda McLean. Photo by Douglas Robertson  Wednesday, January 25, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/midsummer-australian-tour-2012/One of our best-loved and most travelled works of recent years is on the road again. Midsummer will begin an Australian tour as the international highlight of Sydney Theatre Company's 2012 Main Stage season, before taking in dates Canberra, Wollongong and Brisbane (25 Jan-29 April). We are staging two special performances of the show before this to help raise funds for the tour, on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 January. One of the Traverse's biggest hits of recent years, Midsummer [a play with songs] is the story of Bob and Helena and a great lost weekend of bridge burning, car chases, wedding bust ups, bondage miscalculations, midnight trysts and horrible hungover self loathing misery. Midsummer began life as the pilot project of the Traverse Theatre's experimental strand of work, Traverse Too. David Greig and Gordon McIntyre were asked to create a piece of work using a small budget and very short rehearsal time, which allowed them to take greater risks....Tuesday, January 24, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/iash-traverse-creative-fellowship/We are delighted to announce our continued partnership with Edinburgh University's Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities in a Creative Fellowship to be based within the University. IASH and the Traverse will commission a play on or inspired by any aspect of the proposed topic, Difficult Dialogues.  Based at IASH, the tenure of the Fellowship will be between three and nine months, working towards a complete play which will be submitted to the Traverse at the end of 2012. The playwright will have access to dramaturgical support from the Traverse's Literary Department and will play a part in the artistic life of the theatre. Jo Clifford and Linda McLean were the IASH / Traverse Creative Fellows for 2011, and focused on the life and work of David Hume during their Fellowships. Jo Clifford's resulting play, The Tree of Knowledge, was staged at the Traverse as our 2011 Christmas production. Visit our Job vacancies page for more information on how to...Tuesday, January 10, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/spring-summer-brochure-out-now/ Our Spring Summer brochure has just arrived at the Theatre. Copies should be hitting doorsteps in the next few days. In the meantime, you can pick one up from the Traverse, take a look at an online version on Issuu, or download a PDF version.  Inside, you'll find a fantastic programme that covers six jam-packed months. There is visual theatre, drama from top Irish companies, work exploring multi-cultural Britain today, revivals of Fringe hits, six weeks of lunchtime theatre, the best new work for children, and more besides.  We'll also be announcing details of our mini-festival of readings, writing events and worshops, Write Here, in the next few months. So for now, happy reading! Friday, January 6, 2012http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/christmas-opening-times/ The Traverse Theatre box office and Bar Café will be closed from 2.30pm on 24 December to 10am on Wednesday 4 January.  Tickets can still be booked online. The administration office will be closed from 23 December to 4 January.  TBC, our ground-floor coffee shop will be open after Christmas from Wednesday 28  - Fri 30 Deccember, 8am - 2.30pm, then closed until 4 January. We'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and thank you for your support in 2011. Wednesday, December 21, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/spring-season-announced/We're delighted to announce our Spring Season 2012, six jam-packed months featuring the best new drama, writing events and dance. We also welcome our new Artistic Director, Orla O'Loughlin, to the Traverse in January. One of Orla's first projects at the Traverse will be curating Write Here, a mini-festival of readings, workshops and writing events which will run in April. We'll be announcing details later on in the season, so keep an eye out. The Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival is back in early February, with some of the most avant-garde physical theatre, puppetry and animation to be seen anywhere in the UK this year. Highlights include work from France, Germany, Austria, England, Czech Republic and Russia. Other highlights from the season include Grid Iron's Barflies  (pictured), drawn from the stories of Charles Bukowski and set in Edinburgh's Barony Bar, and the return of Catherine Wheel's White, one of the most universally-loved shows at the 2010...Wednesday, December 21, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-autumn-festival/The Traverse Autumn Festival kicks off from 18 November. For the third year, we'll be presenting the very best in live performance, from the worlds of dance, visual theatre, contemporary classical music, and puppetry. For ten days, the Traverse will become a hub for artists of all kinds, and for audiences who want to immerse themselves in the power of live performance.  From BalletLORENT's transformation of the Traverse Bar into a hazy club, and Cryptic's fusion of music, film and dance, to the latest object theatre from Shona Reppe Puppets, there is something for everyone at this years festival.  Also back is the Traverse Wassail, a party for artists, audiences and all Traverse friends to celebrate the Autumn Festival in style. An invitation to the party is free with any ticket to the festival. Traverse Autumn Festival 2011 Friday 18 & Saturday 19 November (8pm onwards) balletLORENTla nuit intime Sunday 20 November...Tuesday, November 22, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/la-nuit-intime-get-in-bar-closing-early/The Traverse Bar closes early today as BalletLORENT begin to transform it for la nuit intime Bar opening hours will be 11.00am to 2.30pm on Thursday 17, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 November.  Both evenings will see the Bar transformed into a hazy club as ten dancers weave their way about the space in a performance that combines pole dancing, flaminco, ballet, and an array of exotic burlesque costumes! You'll be free to move about the venue, get a drink from the bar, chat to friends or just sit back and enjoy the specticle.  The show opened in The Arches in Glasgow earlier this week - some people liked it so much they're coming to see it again at the Traverse. You can get some of the audience feedback on this great video montage.  la nuit intime is the opening show of the Traverse Autumn Festival, ten days of genre-defying, collaborative art featuring dance, film, contemporary classical music and object theatre.  Check out the...Thursday, November 17, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/delicious-news!/ The finest cup of coffee in town will soon be available right here at the Traverse. A new coffee kiosk, run by the Traverse Bar Café is set to open next week, serving coffee by Edinburgh's top coffee roasters, Artisan Roast. TheTBC kiosk opens on Monday 25 July, just inside the theatre's foyer, and will be serving gourmet coffee, pastries, scones and rolls with, outdoor seating also available.  Watch out for special promo vouchers around the building this week. TBC Kiosk open Mon - Fri 8am - 2.30pm     Wednesday, October 26, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/a-play,-a-pie-and-a-pint/A Play, A Pie and A Pint enters its fifth season at the Traverse. From tomorrow, you'll be able to enjoy the very best new writing from Scotland and the UK, with a delicious pie and a drink from our bar. The season kicks off with three great new shows from Paines Plough and Òran Mór, a medley of some of the most exciting new writers north and south of the border. Dig by Katie Douglas follows the story of Tommy, the self-made business man. With the economic crash, Tommy's world begins to crumble, but his wife still wants a new hoover and a two week trip to Butlins. To what lengths will he go to stay on top? (11 - 15 Oct). David Watson's You Cannot Go Forward From Where You Are Right Now scans the radio airwaves, using contemporary music and beautifully poetic writing to create an uniquely aural experience. (18 - 22 Oct). Our third play of the season, Leo Butler's Eternal Source of Light has been changed to a new play by the same author - Juicy Fruits:...Monday, October 10, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/salon-ready/ Preparations for one of the most ambitious projects the Traverse Theatre has ever hosted are well underway. The seats have been removed from Traverse One, and the theatre's main house now has a roof in place, as the space is transformed into an opulent room from 19th century Paris. Backstage, there are hundreds of Victoriana corsets, shoes, coat-tails, waistcoats, bow-ties, dresses, sashes, scarves, gloves, trousers that have been sourced from wardrobe departments of Scottish Opera, Citizens Theatre and more.  You can keep an eye on what's going backstage on over on The Salon Project's Tumblr,   And be sure to check out director and designer Stewart Laing's  blog, where he regularly posts incredible images that are inspiring him. Booking for this one-off experience closes on Friday 30 September. For more info and booking, click  here.    Monday, October 10, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/west-port-book-festival/ The West Port Book Festival kicks off this week from 13 - 16 Oct. Four days of free literary events around the city of Edinburgh, for people with a passion for books, bookshops and fun. Over the festival, local shops will be transformed into intimate venues with a variety of great events. We'll be hosting two as part of this: An Open Mic night for all literary forms on 13 October, and TraVerses Playwrights as Poets night on 16 October, where some of our top playwrights reveal their secret poems. Hope to see you there! West Port Book Festival, 13 - 16 October www.westportbookfestival.org Monday, October 10, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/peter’s-natural-selection/Peter Arnott has been blogging furiously about his findings at the Genomics Forum, holding open discussion groups at the Traverse, and working on ideas for a Genomics related play.  He also took part last week in our Writers podcast, TravCast. Peter has been our Playwright in Residence at the Genomics Forum for six months now, working alongside some of the leading researchers in the field of Genomics. - which covers areas as diverse as DNA profiling, identity politics, plant and animal genetics, personalised medicine, stem cell research and synthetic biology. In his latest blog entries, Peter shares thoughts on synthetic biology, nanotechnology and the manipulation of natural substances, source material from Genomics texts and of the notions about the play he's going to write for the Traverse. We're intrigued! Alongside his regular blog on his residency, Peter  holds open discussion groups in our Bar Café at the end of each month, Translating the...Monday, September 12, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-autumn-season-2011/Welcome to the Traverse Theatre's Autumn Season 2011 From September until the end of the year, we will be celebrating the best, the most innovative and the truly alternative from within the world of theatre-making in Scotland. Our two main shows this season offer revolutionary examinations of past events and personalities. The Salon Project will without doubt be something you've never experienced before - totally immersive, entertaining and thought provoking, it transports the audience into the world of the 19th century French Salon. And in Jo Clifford's extraordinary and hilarious new play,The Tree of Knowledge, David Hume and Adam Smith awaken in modern day Edinburgh. This show is refreshingly different, offering a real In addition, there is award-winning work for young people, lunchtime theatre, cabaret, theatre that takes place totally in the dark as well as our Autumn Festival which celebrates dance, puppetry and alternative performance. As ever, there...Tuesday, September 6, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/new-artistic-director-for-the-traverse/We're delighted to announce that Orla O'Loughlin of Pentabus Theatre willl join us as Artistic Director in January 2012. Orla O'Loughlin is currently Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre. Orla joined the company in 2007, moving from the Royal Court Theatre where she was the International Associate. Directing work includes: For Once (Hampstead Theatre Studio); Tales of the Country, Origins (Pleasance/Theatre Severn); Relatively Speaking, Blithe Spirit, Black Comedy (Watermill Theatre); Kebab (Dublin International Festival/Royal Court Theatre); How Much is your Iron? (Young Vic); The Hound of the Baskervilles (West Yorkshire Playhouse in association with Peepolykus - National Tour and West End); Shuffle (National Youth Theatre); Underland (Clearwell Caves); Small Talk: Big Picture (BBC World Service/ICA/ Royal Court Theatre); A Dulditch Angel (Eastern Angles - National Tour) and The Fire Raisers, sob stories, Refrain (BAC). Orla was winner of the James Menzies...Friday, August 26, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/talking-in-verse-travcast-with-david-greig/ In the third week of Festival interviews, David Greig talks about his plays The Monster in the Hall and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. We've just recorded the final Festival TravCast, in which Tim Crouch talks about I, Malvolio. Keep your ear out for this next week. Read more about TravCast here. Get the latest episode with David Greig, here.  You can download and listen to TravCast on SoundCloud and subscribe through iTunes. Thursday, August 25, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/another-fringe-first-for-the-traverse/ Its another win for the Traverse Theatre Company at the Fringe's most sought-after awards. Ten Plagues has picked up a Fringe First in the second week of the Scotsman's awards for the best new work at the Fringe.  The production joins last weeks winners,Futureproof, The Wheel and Mission Drift.  A big congratulations to Mark Ravenhill, Conor Mitchell, Marc Almond, Bob Broad and Stewart Laing - and to the creative team and crew who have made this exciting project a reality. Ten Plagues is at the Traverse until 28 Aug. Friday, August 19, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/travcast-the-traverse-writers-podcast/ Last week, we launched TravCast, an ongoing series of podcast interviews with Traverse writers. This week, Jennifer Williams, the Traverse's Literary Officer, talks to Zinnie Harris about her play The Wheel. You can subscribe to TravCast through SoundCloud and itunes. If you missed last week's interview with Lynda Radley, you can still get it here. Thursday, August 18, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/last-nights-performance-of-the-wheel-cancelled/ Last night's performance of The Wheel had to be cancelled due to a technical issue in Traverse One. This mornings performance of The Wheel, which was due to start at 10.00am, will now go up at 10.30am. If you booked for last nights performance of The Wheel through the Fringe, you'll receive an automatic refund. If you booked directly with the Traverse, please contact us on 0131 228 1404 to organise a refund. This will not affect other performances scheduled in Traverse One throughout the day. The next performance in Traverse One is, Last Orders, which will start at 1.15pm. Thanks for your patience! Wednesday, August 17, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/week-two-openings-at-the-traverse/ We said goodbye to three brilliant companies on Sunday night, as the Corn Exchange headed back to Dublin and the TEAM and Bluemouth inc. made their way back across the pond. To take their place, we've got three equally brilliant companies and shows opening here tomorrow: Tim Crouch's I, Malvolio, David Hughes Dance with Last Orders and over at the Point Hotel, the Arches and Adrian Howells' May I Have the Pleasure..? Week Two of the Fringe is shaping up to be a good one. Now if only we could do something about all this rain.. Tuesday, August 16, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/herald-angel-awards/Another day, another round of awards at the Fringe. We're excited to announce that we've picked up two Herald Angels at this morning's awards ceremony - the winners are National Theatre of Scotland's The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and the TEAM's Mission Drift. The news comes after the first round of Scotsman Fringe First awards yesterday, in which Mission Drift also triumphed - the TEAM have just two performances of their "shiny journey into the dark heart of the American dream", their, "most fully realised cohesive and mature work yet," says The Herald's theatre critic Neil Cooper. Keep up to speed with this extraordinary group of theatre makers through their website and blog, theteamplays.org. We certainly will be. Over in our off-site venue, Traverse@Ghillie Dhu, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is holding critics and audiences alike rapt with it's "terrific script, great music, inventive staging and a superb ensemble cast." (The Herald). You...Saturday, August 13, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/scotsman-fringe-first-awards/ The first round of Scotsman Fringe First Awards was announced this morning, and we're delighted to say the Traverse has picked up three. Among the winners: our co-production with Dundee Rep Ensemble, Futureproof; National Theatre of Scotland's The Wheel and the TEAM's Mission Drift. Well done to all! Saturday, August 13, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-festival-reviews/The reviews are coming thick and fast for Traverse Festival shows! Check out the links below. Ten Plagues "A thrilling triumph… Almond declares himself an unusually gifted and charismatic participant. Bravo!" ***** whatsonstage.com "A moving journey." **** The Herald "Almond's bittersweet songs are a triumph… genuinely beautiful." ***** The Independent "Startlingly effective and gloriously full throated." The Guardian "Marc Almond has a hypnotic quality… It grips. It is an event." The Times "Astonishing." **** The Scotsman Futureproof "Lovingly human." **** The Herald "In Dominic Hill's assured and sensitive production, Radley's story achieves a beautiful narrative arc … magnificent." **** The Scotsman "Dominic Hill's production with the Dundee Rep strikes exactly the right note." **** Financial Times "There are not enough stars for this utterly draw-you-in drama." *****...Thursday, August 11, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/festival-news-week-zero/Week Zero of the Traverse Festival has been an adrenaline-fueled affair. Dance Marathon had its first outing on Wedensday, and our first Fringe audience were more than up for the three-and-a-half-hour-challenge. The reviews for this extraordinary feat of endurance are beginning to roll in today - The Herald and The Times both awarded the show four stars. Read more about Dance Marathon here. Shows in Traverse Two open today, with Monster in the Hall, Man of Valour, The Golden Dragon and Wondrous Filtting making their debuts. We'll keep you posted on what the critics think over the next few days. The Traverse One shows premiering on Sunday include Dundee Rep Ensemble / Traverse Theatre Company production of Futureproof (pictured). Dominic Hill's final production for the Traverse is a magical and deeply human story of a family of freaks who have hit hard times. Read Dominic and writer Lynda Radley's interviews about the show with The List and The Scotsman. Next...Friday, August 5, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/dance-marathon-at-the-traverse-festival-call-for-dancers/We are looking for volunteers with training in modern or swing dance, or an interest in interdisciplinary theatre, to work with bluemouth inc. as embedded performers within their Fringe Festival show - Dance Marathon.  Dance Marathon is an interactive, duration based performance event inspired by the physically grueling spectator sport from Depression-Era North America. Volunteer dancers will mix with bluemouth inc. performers and audience members under the direction of floor judges and the merciless movement of the clock to shape participation theatre. Volunteers will have an opportunity to work closely with this international collective, gain valuable experience and be part of a truly invigorating piece of theatre in the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dancers do not need to be professional but do need some movement skills. Dancers need to be available for all: - Day rehearsals 26 -28 Jul & technical rehearsal 2 Aug 2011 - Evening performances...Wednesday, June 29, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/the-traverse-at-avignon/The Avignon Festival will this year feature two of our most exciting writers, Sam Holcroft and Linda McLean. Cancrelat, a translation of Sam Holcroft's play Cockroach will feature in the official programme of the 2011 Festival, directed by renowned French theatre director, Jean-Pierre Vincent. The play originally premiered at the Traverse in 2008, in a co-production with Traverse Theatre Company and National Theatre of Scotland. There will be four performances of Cancrelat, plus post-show discussions with the Artistic Team on 8 & 9 July. Cockroach was translated into French during the Traverse Theatre's 2009 residency exchange with Parisian theatre, Theatre Ouvert, which was originally founded at the Avignon Festival on 23rd July 1971. These events are part of the Avignon Festival's programme marking Theatre Ouvert's 40th anniversary. Sam Holcroft developed her extraordinary talent when she joined the Traverse Theatre's Young Writers Group in 2003 at the...Tuesday, June 28, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-artistic-director-recruitment-begins/ The Board of the Traverse Theatre seeks to appoint a visionary and dynamic Artistic Director to succeed Dominic Hill in leading Scotland's acclaimed home of new writing for the stage. For more information and a job application pack, click here. Monday, June 27, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-festival-2011-brochure-now-hitting-doorsteps/ The Traverse Festival 2011 Brochure is hitting doorsteps as we speak! Sorry again to all of you on our postal mailing list for the delay, we hope it was worth the wait. Let us know what you think: tweet to @traversetheatre, using the hashtag #TravBrochure. Monday, June 27, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/the-metaphor-in-question-more-from-peter-arnott-at-the-genomics-forum/"I live in a world of poetry," she said. "Everything seems significant to me. Everything has meaning. It's what gets me into trouble" Una Persson in The Entropy Tango by Michael Moorcock. 1. History, besides BEING a metaphor Is MADE of metaphors. I want to EMPHASIZE that. Evolution is a metaphor - one that Charles Darwin much resisted. The word does not appear In the eighteen fifty-nine "Origin of Species" ("The survival of the fittest" Didn't turn up till the fifth edition and there as a quotation from the work of Herbert Spencer) Being classically educated (led-out) Darwin knew that "evolution" means "a rolling out from" He didn't like that a bit Implicit in the word is the idea that the organic present has rolled - progressively, Whiggishly and inevitably - from out of the past. That's what his predecessors (and successors) Meant by the use of that metaphor That's not what Darwin thought he saw...Monday, June 20, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/welsh-wonders-more-from-peter-arnott/Another recommendation for reading…Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life…not an essay on the cinema of Frank Capra…but a radical, readable exposition on the fossils of early Cambrian creatures found by Thomas Walcott in the Burgess Pass in the Rockies more than a hundred years ago now…and reclassified in the 70s and 80s by Simon Conway Morris inter alia… Gould uses the bizarre (to us) features of these creatures to propose a radical new model for evolution…that instead of the story of life on earth being one of simplicity evolving into complexity…we all of sudden STARTED complex…and have been getting simpler ever since… (Conway \Morris's own book on the Burgess Fauna - and more recent discoveries in China - The Crucible of Creation, I also recommend. Morris thinks that Gould's use of the fossils to turn all of conventional evolutionary thought on its head is "premature" - which is science speak for "bollocks") I love a good fight, me. A wee note…Cambrian...Monday, June 20, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/a-playwright-be-serious!/The other reaction I'm getting is from the other pole of this sphere…from the scientific types with blue sparks emerging from their frontal lobes (which includes my own brother, actually) looking at me with deep scepticism…a playwright?…engaging with genomics? That's nice, they say…dismissing the idea as a bit of cross-cultural-public- engagement- blah blah blah-box ticking. (They're far too nice to SAY that, of course.) And they go back to their work. Back to "reality". Hang on…I say…(or I'm saying now)…I'm here to learn things.  I'm here, first and foremost to read and to listen… And anyway, I don't think you can divorce the personal politics of moral values, from scientific discourse…you can't put moral questions and scientific questions into discreet monadic boxes…any more than who owns the copyright on my chromosomes is none of my business. I don't think that scientific work can ever be divorced from the society it happens in, any more than...Monday, June 20, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/what-im-doing-here-peter-arnott-resident-playwright/I'm planning to write a play for the Traverse called The Fly Room - about power, property and knowledge - at the end of all this, but in the meantime I'm going to be putting together what I hope will be a series of provocative public events that share and invite comment on the thinking I'm putting into it. Me and some actors will be presenting and interrogating key texts and events from the making of the modern world of genomics…not simply as a subset of techniques of biological and medical enquiry and innovation…but as a way of understanding "life"…whatever that turns out to mean. These are found texts…to be culled and winnowed…and debated between…I've already got a pile of books and pdfs to read. Over the next few weeks I'll be letting you know what I'm reading and a bit of what I'm thinking. The first of these events is hopefully going to be towards the end of June…a kind of trial balloon we're going to send up…maybe in the Traverse Bar…? (hint to...Monday, June 20, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/what-forum-genomics-what/I've got a residency at the Genomics Forum I tell people. And the ones who nod wisely and avoid saying "Eh?" are just pretending they have any idea what that means. (I should know. I was bluffing when I got the gig.) "Genomics Forum" - people do keep asking me what that is. They're mostly puzzled about the genomics bit. I'm getting a bit of a handle on that, maybe. It's the Forum bit I'm still wondering about. Anyway I'll start with the first bit: Genomics - this is: EITHER a catch all term for techniques and research developed in the life sciences since the specific event of the sequencing of the human genome. OR a bold new all inclusive paradigm for the understanding of absolutely everything…honest! Hum…my patchy recollection of Thomas Kuhn suggests to me that a paradigm shift cannot be willed. It happens or it doesn't. Maybe it has happened, or IS happening…I hope to find out. What does seem to be rock solid already in the papers I've...Monday, June 20, 2011http://www.traverse.co.uk//news/traverse-festival-2011/Welcome to the Traverse Festival 2011. Join us on a journey through the best new British performance this festival and discover a programme packed with big ideas and epic storytelling. Highlights include Marc Almond in a new piece of music theatre by Mark Ravenhill and Conor Mitchell set in a plague-ridden 17th Century London. Siamese twins and a bearded lady are just two of the characters in Futureproof, Lynda Radley's extraordinary first play for the Traverse. David Hughes Dance will enthral and unnerve you in the nightmarish Last Orders while Dance Marathon explodes onto the dance floor of the reconfigured rehearsal room at the Lyceum Theatre - one of the most exhilarating shows I have ever experienced. And if you missed the hit of last year's festival - Roadkill - then it's back by popular demand. The first festival I programmed at the Traverse featured a major new work by Zinnie Harris. I am thrilled that my fourth and final programme contains her latest play...Tuesday, June 7, 2011