Last weekend saw the annual Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) celebrating Scottish theatre from the past year, and we were delighted to have been in attendance as a double-nominee for Same Team alongside our partners and colleagues to recognise - and celebrate - our sector.
Friends and close partners A Play, A Pie & A Pint took home two awards (Best New Play and Outstanding Performance) for Douglas Maxwell's The Sherriff of Kalamaki, which we co-presented with in our 2023 Autumn season. We are, of course, excited to be bringing Maxwell's writing back to our stages this August with the World Premiere of So Young, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Gareth Nicholls.
Other CATS 2024 winners also found a home within the Traverse programme in the past year, notably Tron Theatre's Escaped Alone and Tortoise In A Nutshell's Ragnarok, both picking-up several awards.
There is no better time to mark the power that collaboration brings in presenting new work.
Since we've been back staging live performances following the pandemic we have - like many artists, companies and venues across the country - faced challenges in producing new work. Against reduced budgets and rising costs one of the strongest ways for us all to move forward is in partnership across the industry, collaborating on projects and share resources to continue offering the best work for artists and audiences alike. This was seen in no stronger way than nine of the thirteen productions presented during TravFest23 featuring a Traverse Theatre producing credit - as lead producer credit, co-producer or in association.
As we celebrate the CATS winners we also look forward with fellow collaborators to forging new relationships to continue presenting dynamic, challenging and entertaining new work. In working together we aspire that every performance on the Traverse stage, and stages nationwide, will be vital to the long standing artistry that makes us who we are.