Gilmartin and Edwards take ART
Scribble wins first Assembly Roxy Theatre award
Scribble, a play which “explores mental health in a brave and unique way”, has won the first Assembly Roxy Theatre award for developing Scottish performance companies at the Fringe.
Written by Andy Edwards and directed by Amy Gilmartin, Scribble is an attempt to to understand the intersections between mental health, disability and the author’s own ethnicity, gender and class.
Andy Edwards. Photo Scribble.
The award is worth £5.5K of support in kind from Assembly to ready the production and present it at the fringe 2017. This includes payment of various fees as well as use of rehearsal space and development and promotional support. As announced in December, the award was open to any currently unfunded Scotland-based theatre company or practitioner.
The play grew out of a mentorship from Playwright’s Studio Scotland last year, supervised by Rob Drummond. The resulting script was awarded a Small Grant Award from the Tom McGrath Trust and performed as a rehearsed reading at the Traverse Hothouse showcase in November.
Speaking of the award, Gilmartin said: “Scribble explores mental health in a brave and unique way and I am delighted that Assembly are giving us the opportunity to share the play with a Fringe audience. As emerging artists in Scotland, without this award, we would not be able to present our work this year. We’ve got lots of hard work ahead of us and we simply can’t wait!”
key issue
William Burdett-Coutts, Assembly’s artistic director said that the large number of applications for the award gave Assembly the opportunity to engage with new creative voices in Scotland.
Amy Gilmartin. Photo: Scribble
Of the winners, he said: “Mental health is a key issue for all areas of society, young and old, and theatre is proving itself to be an important forum to openly explore this complex and personal subject. The script is written in a really interesting graphic way which leaps off the page and shows great promise as a production.
“The Fringe offers one of the most challenging but potentially life changing opportunities for emerging theatre makers and we’re pleased to offer Andy and Amy an opportunity to make that step within the supporting framework of one of the Fringe’s most well-regarded presenters.”
Andy Edwards’ first play Killing Time was performed at the fringe in 2012. Amy Gilmartin is the co-artistic director of Edinburgh company Urban Fox. She is currently assistant director on Grid Iron’s Dr Stirlingshire’s Discovery, and assisted Orla O’Loughlin on Milk in 2016. She has directed a number of well-received small scale works, including Globophobia Safeword, Heartlands, Warrior and Miss Julie.
Scribble will be presented in the Roxy Downstairs during the Fringe 2017.
ENDS
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