Belt Up wins Edinburgh International Festival Award

Published Thursday 28 August 2008 at 11:30 by Thom Dibdin

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York-based Belt Up (Nothing to See/Hear) theatre company has won the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival Award for its immersive theatre concept The Red Room at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The award gives the company £5,000 towards developing a new project which will be brought to next year’s EIF as a workshop performance in the Behind the Scenes strand. Last year’s inaugural award was won by New York-based John Clancy Productions, which presented a workshop production of Captain Overlord’s Folly, or the Fool’s Revenge at this year’s festival.

Commenting on the award, EIF director Jonathan Mills told The Stage: “This is an award for potential, it is not an award for achievement. We are not expecting fully finished products or anything like that.

“We are looking forward to having the conversation with Belt Up about what form this workshop might take, what kind of mentorship, what kind of use they will make of this opportunity and I can only say, watch this space. In August next year, we anticipate something really interesting in motion.”

Belt Up is a five-strong collective of students at York University. Set up in 2007 to produce new writing, established texts, adaptations and installation pieces, the company scooped five awards at this year’s National Student Drama Festival.

In The Red Room, the company took over a whole space in C venues, turning it into an immersive boudoir theatre with the audience in amongst the action. They staged five full shows daily, including new versions of Tartuffe and Women of Troy, with additional random short plays and theatrical events.

Belt Up’s Alexander Wright told The Stage: “By this time next year, we will all have graduated, and by this time next year we want to be working as a professional theatre company.”

He added: “To have someone saying they will put time, money, space, investment into what we are trying to do is absolutely incredible. For somebody to express that amount of trust in you saying your theatre is kind of fun and help you out, is great.”