Showcase programme

THE programme for this year’s Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was unveiled by Scottish Government Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop in the roof garden of a swish capital hotel on Tuesday.

The initiative receives £590,000 from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund and provides an opportunity for promoters from outside Scotland to see work being created here with a view to its further life elsewhere.

Now encompassing music as well as theatre and dance, Made in Scotland is in its sixth year and in August 2014 embraces 29 companies and artists, many of whom will be familiar to readers of review coverage in The Herald. These include theatre and performance work by David Leddy, Caroline Bowditch and Amy and Rosana Cade, music by saxophonist Brian Molley, singersongwriter Amy Duncan and chamber group Daniel’s Beard.

It also includes dance by Scottish Dance Theatre and Barrowland Ballet, as well as a growing number of collaborations across artforms.

As Hyslop noted, the programme has become as valuable as a guide to quality in the vast Fringe programme for the general public as it is a sales brochure for further touring opportunities.