I WRITE in reference to Mark Brown’s article published on January 19 about the future programme of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS). The article recognises the important work being done by NTS and in particular its adventurous 2020 programme.
It also makes reference to Creative Scotland funding for Untitled Projects (the designer and director Stewart Laing’s company) and suggests that one unsuccessful bid for funding in 2014 could have resulted in Mr Laing quitting the national scene.
READ MORE: National Theatre of Scotland isn't playing it safe with 2020 programme
The article does not, however, present the full picture of funding awards Creative Scotland has made to support Mr Laing’s work since 2014.
Mr Laing’s reimagining of Hamlet will be staged at the Tron Theatre in September 2020 and Untitled Projects has received £40,000 of Creative Scotland funding for this. The Untitled Projects production of Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner was presented in the 2015 programme of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). This production previously received £50,000 of funding from Creative Scotland for its creation, and EIF are funded by Creative Scotland with £2.3 million from which they commission presentations at the festival.
In 2018, Untitled Projects presented The End of Eddy at EIF, funded by £65,000 from Creative Scotland, plus a contribution from EIF. Mr Laing also co-created the production of Them! for National theatre of Scotland at Tramway. This production was previously awarded £20,000 towards its development.
In addition Untitled projects has recently been awarded £88,500 for We Are In Time, a co-production with Scottish Ensemble.
We appreciate that an unsuccessful bid for funding can be extremely disappointing for all involved. It is true that Creative Scotland’s funding streams are heavily oversubscribed, the pressures on the public purse are great and the organisation receives many more applications for funding for great work than we are able to grant.
However, it is also important to recognise the organisation is committed to supporting and developing Scotland’s vibrant creative sector using the resources available to it in the best way possible.
There is great breadth of work being developed and delivered for audiences across the country which is supported by Creative Scotland.
Laura Mackenzie-Stuart
Head of Theatre, Creative Scotland
THE launch of The National’s fact check rebuttal service is a welcome step to counter the ignorance, misinformation and downright lies about the Scottish economy and the performance of our Scottish Government perpetuated by the Unionist media and those like Boris Johnson who are opposed to Scottish self-government.
As part of this service, you should investigate claims made by Labour politicians such as Ian Murray, who says that local government has suffered cuts of 7% since 2013, as they are not comparing like with like.
For example, following the formation of Police Scotland in 2014 the Scottish Government assumed the vast bulk of funding. In 2014 Edinburgh City Council paid £46 million towards local policing whereas last year this amount was reduced to £2.6m.
It is disappointing that the SNP has not been more pro-active with such rebuttals, and their MPs should be highlighting the positive achievements of our government at every opportunity by working these into their Prime Minister questions, as we can’t rely on BBC journalists to put the record straight.
Fraser Grant
Edinburgh
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