The Stage

Edinburgh Traverse seeks 50 new playwrights for 50th anniversary in 2013

Published Tuesday 22 November 2011 at 10:55 by Thom Dibdin

Edinburgh’s Traverse is to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013 with a Scotland-wide initiative to encourage writers to create work for the stage, in a move that will see renowned playwrights engaged to mentor 50 new writers.

Details of the plans are published in papers to Edinburgh City Council’s culture committee, which meets on November 22 and is helping the “Traverse 50” anniversary celebrations with a £50,000 grant.

Traverse executive producer Linda Crooks told The Stage: “We are delighted that the city values so highly the Traverse’s contribution to the cultural life of the city, particularly in the field of new Scottish playwriting, and is giving this exciting new writing project due consideration.”

The Traverse 50 programme has two current objectives, according to the council papers. Ten new plays will be produced during 2013 and the Travrse will also identify five emergent writing talents and five new plays will be produced over the following five years. Details of how these objectives will be met are being worked out with new artistic director Orla O’Loughlin, who joins the company full time in January 2012 following her predecessor Dominic Hill’s move to the Glasgow Citizens in September.

Crooks added: “Since our beginnings in 1963, the Traverse has been a home to many of Scotland’s best-known writers, and has developed an international reputation for producing and presenting the very best new drama, particularly during the Edinburgh Festivals in August.”

According to the council papers “the initiative will celebrate the Traverse’s legacy of finding and enabling new talent (playwrights, actors, directors and designers) across its 50 year history, as well as opening up opportunities locally, nationally and internationally.”

Crooks did not give any further detail, but gave some indication as to where the focus might lie, as she highlighted Traverse’s involvement in Edinburgh’s festivals. She added: “In recent years, the Traverse has also become home to festivals celebrating new work from a diverse range of art forms: the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, the Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival and the Traverse’s own Autumn Festival.

“It is in acknowledgement of the Traverse’s key part in creating the Festival City’s internationally acclaimed cultural legacy and gives us a sound footing to step confidently into the next 50 years.”

Full details of Traverse 50 will be announced in 2012.