Gestate rehearsed readings

GESTATE REHEARSED READINGS

During Diaspora, the National Theatre of Scotland will hold five rehearsed readings of new plays by Scottish writers. These plays are the culmination of the Gestate project – a unique nine month writer development initiative. The scripts will showcase our five writers at their most daring and inventive and will be a chance for our audience to see the results of this intensive and challenging process.

Our five Gestate writers are Selina Boyack, Pamela Carter, Andy Duffy, Paul Higgins and Lynsay Sinclair. During Gestate, we encouraged our five writers to open up to new possibilities within their writing. We took them to see more than thirty shows from around the world and gave them the opportunity to meet and be inspired by some of the most revered British and international artists. Finally, we facilitated a five week writing period for them to create a piece that they would never have written before the process began. The result will be showcased here at Diaspora.

Our five writers were all given the same brief: a photograph, which they could interpret in any way they chose. The final pieces will be performed by professional actors, and directors will include Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany.

SELINA BOYACK
Selina graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1993.  She has worked a lot with new writing, with Anthony Neilson on Stiching and The Menu and on his film, The Debt Collector, and with Suspect Culture on 8000 Metres, A Different Language and The Escapologist and recently at Òran Mór on several new works. Selina also works with Scene and Heard, a mentoring project that partners children of Somers Town, London with volunteer theatre professionals to write and perform plays.

PAMELA CARTER
Pamela is a playwright, director and dramaturg. Her writing credits include Slope (Tramway, July 2006), Game Theory (co-written with Selma Dimitrijevic, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2007), The Last of Us (Òran Mór), An Argument About Sex (Traverse/ Tramway/ Untitled Projects, October 2009). She is the founder of Ek Performance and will be directing her new play What We Know in a co-production between Ek and the Traverse Theatre in February 2010.  Pamela was writer on attachment at the National Theatre Studio in 2008, she is a member of Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Group and the Royal Court Writers' Group, and she is currently under commission to Magnetic North Theatre Company. She has worked as a dramaturg with Vanishing Point Theatre, Malmö Opera, Ben Wright Dance Company and the National Theatre of Scotland.

ANDY DUFFY
Andy’s debut as a professional writer was Nasty, Brutish and Short at the Traverse Theatre in November 2008. It was directed by Dominic Hill and produced by the Traverse/ National Theatre of Scotland as part of Debuts – a short season of new plays by first time writers. This was followed by Waterproof which was directed by Selma Dimitrijevic and performed at Òran Mór’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint in May 2009.   

PAUL HIGGINS
Paul’s first play, Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us was performed at the Traverse Theatre in November 2008. It was directed by John Tiffany as part of the Traverse/ National Theatre of Scotland Debuts season. His other writing credits are two short films, Peripheral Vision and Opera Lovers, for the BBC2 series Table Twelve. As an actor, theatre work includes Damascus (Traverse, Tricycle), Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, New York City), The Tempest (Tron), Paul, An Enemy of the People, The Hare Trilogy (National Theatre), The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman he once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (Donmar Warehouse), Night Songs (Royal Court). Television work includes Low Winter Sun and The Thick Of It. Film work includes In The Loop, Red Road and Complicity.

LYNSAY SINCLAIR
Lynsay graduated from Queen Margaret University where she studied Drama and Theatre Arts, with a specialisation in Playwriting. In January 2009 she was involved in the Traverse development programme New Year, New Futures. She currently lives and works in Ayrshire.