News, gossip and opinion _ ' Onwards and upwards: NVA
. Glasgow gets wrll return to The Path _ . theatre festwal
q' Psychics and psychotherapists line up. WOrds: Mark Fisher
Glasgow's Arches Theatre is to host a festival of Scottish theatre for three weeks in March and two April weekends. If it's a success. it'll become an annual event. The Arches Festival of New Scottish Theatre will bring together fifteen young companies — including a new show from the in-house company — performing throughout the building, in open arches and in basement corridors. together with rehearsed readings and special events.
The full programme will be announced on Thursday 7 February. but The List can reveal a number of highlights. Frank Deasy. author of the TV drama Looking After Jo Jo, which starred Robert Carlyle. will direct the Arches Theatre Company in his own new play. Swimming. a dark and violent study of the relationship between a psychotherapist and his patient (13—23 March).
Kate E. Deeming has taken an unusual route into theatre. having been a psychic for fourteen years. Her show. 8/0. is a psychic-psychedelic improvisation' that will delve into the audience's collective imagination (7—9 March).
After a sell-out premiere at Tramway last year. Pauline Goldsmith's Bright Colours Only is revived by Laughing Gravy (13—1 7 March). It's a recreation of an Irish wake based on a Belfast girl's Catholic childhood and was acclaimed on its opening run.
Finally, Health And Safety by Andrew Burt and Robert Green (6—9 March) is a full-length version of the group management skills comedy that premiered at the Arches last September.
Artistic director Andy Arnold said: ‘lt's as if the Arches was especially built to stage arts festivals. The range of spaces make for an amazing atmosphere when a cluster of events all come together. It is an indication of the energy that exists in Scottish theatre that so many young companies are experimenting With so many styles of work.‘
A. O o
ists get £350,000
Creative Scotland winners announced. ‘i‘v’oros: Mark Fisher
ike Watson. the minister for culture. called them 'reckless'. They are the Creative Scotland Awards. the Scottish Arts CounCii's scheme to invest in indiwdual artists with enterprising ideas. Unlike your average grant. as Watson put it at the presentation ceremony in Edinburgh. these 5:25.000 awards reguire a leap of faith. a beef that the artists will soend their time creatively. but with no guarantee that a partiCuIar artwork will be created.
The feiirteen winners in thzs. the third year of the awards. were: Christine Berland .n‘edical ethics through visual arti: Gina Czarnecka i‘video installation abOut genetic engineeringi; Angus Farguhar ia follow up to The Path. the environmental animation'. in another Highland or island locationi: Gillian Ferguson poems about Cloningi: Janice Galloway icollaboration with viSual artist Anne Bevani: Louise Hopkins ipaintings
based on topographyi; Alison Kinnaird iglass engraVingS and harp mUSiCl: Stewart Laing ireaI-time interaction between performers and animated imagesi: Dick Lee (music for bagpipe. quartet and orchestral: Alistair MacDonald lsomd installationi: Wendy McMurdo iphotographs of Scapa Flow in Orkney): Katrina McPherson lworkbook abetit filming dancei: Don Paterson la play in Scots ab0ut the Bosnian war) and Ian Stephen isea voyages leading to a book and exhibitioni.
James Boyle. chairman of the Scottish Arts COunCil. said: 'Our awards help established artists to take a risk. We are investing in their creativity and allowmg them the freedom to take a chance on something which is outwith the scope of what they wOuid normally tackle. In many cases. this involves the development of their artform in new directions and I am confident that their work will inSpire both audiences and other artists in the future'
‘We are investing in their creativity and allowing them freedom’
Coming quite soon . . .
4 THE LIST _,;i" ‘ '
Ewan may show his Nazi side
The two boys from Trainspotting with the hottest track record since 1.99:3 are being penCilled in for two big biopics. Ewan McGregor is being wooed by American producers at CBS who want lilll‘. to play Adolf Hitler in a inini-seraes about the fuhrer's early days.
Meanwhile. Robert Carlyle may throw himself into a slightly more believable role as Scottish boxing legend Benny Lynch . . . Another hot Scot Douglas Henshall seems to have been quiet for a while but he's set to pop up opposite Cathy Wson for a London
set psychodrama entitled Gene Theory
. . Former Steps legend Faye Tozer is teaming up With class‘ical pop sensation Russell Watson for duets filmed in Nevi/ Zealand which may appear in a TV special later this
. . On the big l-loinvi/ood front.
year .
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio are to make a biopic of millionaire recluse Howard Hughes. Apparently. Jim Carrey is also working on a Hughes movie . . . You know your long-running TV Show is struggling when you want a famous person's niece
to appear. Lauren Bush. relation of the pretzel-lovm' president. has been called up for a cameo on Friends. Tragic . . . The Chemical Brothers are working on a track for the soundtrack to Blade 2 which COuld see Wesley Snipes bear his teeth again . . .