Audition dates updated for The Secret Rapture
There is new audition information for the poduction of The Secret Rapture
Gallery created for The Tempest
A gallery has been created for the production of The Tempest
Audition dates updated for The Secret Rapture
There is new audition information for the poduction of The Secret Rapture
Audition dates updated for The Tempest
There is new audition information for the poduction of The Tempest
Audition dates announced for The Tempest
Open auditions have been announced for the production of The Tempest
Triumph for Wit
A very gracious article from Mr Dibdin reviewing the great prize ceremony for Wit can be found on his blog. It's worth a read. http://thomdibdin.co.uk/?p=728 Thanks, Thom!
The Tempest AUDITIONS
Auditions for our festival show are fast approaching. We have a couple of dates scheduled in the middle of May though shout if you can't make them and we can reschedule. More information can be found on the productions page.
The Grads win 2009 SCDA Full Length Play Competition
Press Release - March 28, 2010
In a ceremony held on Saturday, 27th March 2010, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group (“The Grads”) were awarded the Fraser Neal Trophy as the winner of the 2009 SCDA Full Length Play competition, presented by the Eastern Division. The competition, open to all member organizations of the Scottish Community Drama Association, recognizes the best production of the year adjudicated on the basis of acting, directing, stage presentation and general achievement.
Wit, the Grads winning entry, was staged in the round at St. Brides Centre in November 2009. The 1999 Pulitzer prize-winning play, written by Margaret Edson, chronicled the emotional and spiritual redemption of Donne scholar, Dr. Vivian Bearing, juxtaposed with her prolonged death from ovarian cancer. Ron Nicol, the competition’s adjudicator, cited the production as being, “altogether a well planned, well executed, smoothly flowing production with sensitively handled scenes and expressive performances. Absolutely gripping throughout. An outstanding production of a most challenging play.”
The play, directed by David Grimes, featured Hilary Davies, Wendy Mathison, Lorraine McCann, John Kelly, Steven McFarlane, Gordon Craig, Ross Hope, Ricky Leighton and Vanashree Thapliyal, with lighting by Simon Hayes, sound by Sean Campbell, properties by Gillian Burnett and Heather Nicolson, costumes by Susan Wales and stage managed by Andy Ellis. In addition to entertaining and moving its audiences, The Grads were proud to raise money through post show collection efforts on behalf of Maggie’s Center: Edinburgh and Macmillan Cancer Support.
David Grimes, the Grads President and director of Wit, commented on behalf of the group: “It is so gratifying to have the passion and hard work of the cast and crew of Wit recognized in this manner. Based on the audience reaction during the run and all of the praise we’ve received afterwards, everyone involved with the production was convinced that Wit was something special. It is wonderful to have those feelings validated again. The quality of all the participating productions was exceptionally high, so to be awarded the Fraser Neal Trophy is truly humbling. We congratulate all of the participants from last year. The cast and crew of Wit are deeply grateful to the SCDA for this honour.”
The Grads next production, again directed by David Grimes, will be Closer by Patrick Marber. Closer will run May 5th – 8th at the Churchill Theatre. Tickets are now available at hubtickets.co.uk.
The Grads have been staging classic and cutting edge theatre since 1954. Originally formed by former members of the University Dramatic Society of Edinburgh University, The Grads have retained their affiliation through out the years, including producing the opening performance at Adam House Theatre as well as re-opening Adam House for their golden jubilee production. The Grads produce an average of four varied theatrical productions each year including participation in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the SCDA One Act and Full Length competitions.
Improvisation Workshop
The Grads successful Improvisation group will be taking on new members and
Edinburgh Evening News - You'll need your Wit about you with EGTG
Edinburgh Evening News
You'll need your Wit about you with EGTG
Friday, November 6, 2009
By Liam Rudden
AWARD-WINNING playwright Margaret Edson became a clerk on a cancer and AIDS ward at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, USA, in 1985.
Fourteen years later she won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Wit, which follows the journey of Professor Vivian Bearing, a woman diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer - there is no Stage V.
Edson actually wrote Wit eight years earlier, having spent just 12 months at the National Cancer Institute. "I learned so much there. The nurses really wanted me to help make things run smoothly, so they taught me a lot. I observed the people there, the patients and families, coping with cancer. I learned about character and about courage," she once recalled.
In Wit, which Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group present at the St. Bride's Centre next week, poetry not people has always been her priority. Faced with the inevitable progress of the disease and an experimental treatment, she applies her customary critical analysis to her predicament and is shocked to discover the failings of her normally reliable intellectual security - words. As she encounters alien emotions as she seeks to understand and accept her ever-growing need for forgiveness, dignity and compassion.
Funny and sad, tragic and life-affirming, complex and simple, Wit is an exploration of what transpires when words finally fail. Of how, inevitably, art and science are equally useless, equally detached.
Yet this is no tearful lecture on how to die. Instead, Wit is a dry-eyed lesson on how to live; with simplicity and kindness.
Not suitable for children under the age of 14 years.
Wit, St Brides Centre,
Orwell Terrace,
Wednesday - Saturday
8pm, £9, 0131-473-2000
