A reflection from Debi Pirie - Federation of Scottish Theatre Assistant Directors Bursary copy

'Getting artists and audiences together to share ideas, ambitions and aspirations is at the heart of what we do at the Traverse. And through the FST Assistant Director Bursary, Debi became an invaluable member of the team, helping to push forward the development of two plays (with songs!) as we move towards full production. Her insights, questions, comments and reflections became a crucial part of our artistic process and I hope she gained as much learning from her two weeks with us as we did from having her on the team.'
- Gareth Nicholls, Traverse Theatre Artistic Director

Debi's reflection on the process:

I first approached Gareth about partnering for the FST Assistant Director Bursary after Lucy Mason from EPAD [Edinburgh Performing Arts Development] helped me set up a meeting with that goal in mind.

After a very quick turnaround for the application I was thrilled to receive the bursary for two weeks of funding. I had expressed interest in the development process on new works on a bigger scale as well as involvement with production design. The Traverse offered me a place assisting on two separate research and development projects that each culminated in a rehearsed reading with an audience. This bursary was all about professional development, so prepare yourself to read those terms a lot!

Both new plays had music heavily integrated into them, and were by two of the most exciting women creating work in the UK right now, with direction led by Gareth Nicholls. First was Isobel McArthur’s Grand Opera House Hotel, which gave us a farcical mystery that becomes a hilarious and touching Opera exploring the opposition of isolation and sanitisation with music, love and humanity.

The second project was Apphia Campbell’s new untitled play, surrounding a tight-knit church community that combines the big, complex narratives of a classic American play with Gospel and soul music.

Both sessions of development culminated in rehearsed readings that included some of the music from each.

About the Bursary

The bursary requires that the projects fulfil several outcomes that will help the development of the participant. I wanted to broaden my knowledge of the new writing process, script development and dramaturgy and this was an excellent opportunity to so with artists at the top of their game. I was eager to expand my understanding and experience of working with elements of production design so I was thrilled when Apphia's project enabled me to work closely with sound designer Richard Bell. Isobel’s project also augmented my insight into the writer/director/musical director relationship with Isobel MacArthur, Gareth Nicholls and MJ McCarthy. The inclusion of music being intrinsically tied to the play was something I had experimented with during my MFA and would like to take with me as I develop.

Grand Opera House Hotel

In just three days of rehearsal a cast and team created an exciting rehearsed reading of a section of the piece, including several operatic compositions. The intention was to give an audience and the theatre industry a taste of where the piece could go, and to discover what the musical language was. Like previous works by Isobel, this piece gives those of us who’ve given their life blood to customer service roles, a play where that world is broken up to let music and love and art seep in. We began immediately with the music, which was complex and the centre of the reading. The first day was dedicated to building the duet and scenes between the lovers of the piece. They worked with Isobel and MJ to work out harmonies, melodies and how the accompaniment would work - MJ editing the complex compositions in real time (basically a magic trick). Eventually we brought the rest of the cast in to the room and worked through a medley that acted as a climax to the reading. The focus was on getting everyone comfortable and confident with each section, enough that when they were layered over one another it was joyful and ridiculous and clear to an audience.

A new play by Apphia Campbell

Whilst Isobel’s project was a 30 minute extract directed over 3 days, Apphia's was a rehearsed reading of a new full length American saga with original Gospel over just 4 days. The precision and technicalities of the previous were matched here by joy, energy and also a lot of precision. The discoveries of the piece were how big of a play this was and needed to be and what role the music could play in the story-telling. A personal highlight was a section of story-telling where one character teaches the allegory of Job with the help of the rest of the cast, adding harmonies, flare and the voices of God and Satan in a direct audience address.

My first day on the piece was solely a script development day that happened a few weeks prior to the rehearsals for the reading and was composed of a slightly different cast of actors. This was invaluable! These were all experienced actors with excellent insights into their characters, the logic of the play and the questions the audience might have. It was genuinely inspiring hearing their swift, thorough and challenging responses.

The rehearsals began with a new draft. The first day focused on the script, the character arcs and the non-musical elements. It was invigorating beginning the rehearsal with new voices in the room, some with experience of growing up in religious communities. The scenes of this play were juicy and chock full of subtext so it would have been easy to get the red string and white board out for each one but with only four days to put the piece together we focused mainly on pace and the character immediate circumstances.

Inputting the music was a huge challenge within the time constraint. Decisions had to be made about whether to include every song, whether Apphia or the actor would perform it, whether it would be played live or pre-recorded and then queued by Richard. In the end it became a mixture of performances of a selection of the songs, all pre-recorded and queued by Richard.

On the final day it was decided that in order to streamline the stage directions, previously given to cast members not in the scene, that I would read them from the side of the stage beside Apphia. Although I enjoyed the task and it was very much within my skillset I’ve never been more aware of my broad Scots accent next to the smooth Standard American being used by the cast.

Both readings went extremely well and I was in awe of how much could be achieved in such a short amount of time despite battling COVID, train strikes and photo-shoots! I feel I achieved the objectives I had going into the bursary partnership and it was tremendously encouraging to know that high quality work can be swiftly achieved in rehearsal rooms that are also nurturing, open and warm.

The Traverse Theatre is funded by Creative Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council, and has received additional support from the Scottish Government's Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund and Creative Scotland’s Recovery Fund for Cultural Organisations.