Arts agency in £100,000 award for musical based on ghost story
A NEW musical, based on a 1930s comedy drama starring Robert Donat, has been funded by nearly £100,000 from Scotland’s arts agency.
The Sunshine Ghost, based on the 1935 film The Ghost Goes West, starring Donat and Jean Parker, directed by Rene Clair, will tour small venues later this year.
The musical, described by its producers as “fast paced, funny and very entertaining”, will be developed at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, before touring and being staged at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh in the autumn next year.
The story will be written by Andy Cannon, the founder of Wee Stories and a creative director of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. It will follow, like the film, the story of a rich American businessman who buys a Scottish castle and ships it to Florida, only to discover that the castle’s ghost has also been transported across the Atlantic.
The Ghost Goes West was the biggest grossing movie in the UK in 1936, and starred Donat as Murdoch Lourie, the Scottish ghost who “died a coward’s death” in the 18th century.
Creative Scotland has announced a grant of £99,969 for the show, a co-production between Scottish Theatre Producers and the Festival and King’s Theatres Edinburgh.
It will be directed by Ken Alexander, and music and lyrics by Richard Ferguson.
Duncan Hendry, chief executive of the Festival and King’s Theatres, said: “This is a really exciting project.”
The funding for the musical is part of £850,000 support for cultural projects announced by Creative Scotland.
A total of 41 funding packages have been announced for January, worth between £1,443 and £99,767 through the Open Project fund.
Glasgow-based AyeWrite! Book Festival, from March 9 to 19, has received funding for this year’s programme, which includes Ian Rankin, actor Peter Davison, Jenni Murray, Val McDiarmid, AL Kennedy and Frank Gardner.
The Scottish Review of Books has received £45,000 funding to “strengthen its editorial infrastructure”.
Novelist Jackie Copleton, historical fiction writer Margaret Skea, graphic novelists Metaphrog and David John Lumsden have all received funding towards new work.
Aly Barr, the acting head of literature at Creative Scotland said: “The breadth of projects that we’ve been able to support in this round is breathtaking.”