What the awards meant to me

theatre staged in a hotel room in the Caledonian hotel. National

Theatre of Scotland opened on the Fringe in 2006 in a former Drill hall. Playwright David Greig’s Fringe First-winning production has played to packed houses all over the world, won multiple awards and continues to tour.

cast of

liked – a Fringe First winner for New York company the TeAM – so much that they went to see it repeatedly. It led to

a collaboration between the TeAM and Davey Anderson (who wrote the music for which won a Fringe First in 2008.

company Ontroerend Goed won a Fringe First in 2007 for a show in which each audience member is blindfolded, and taken in a wheelchair through a range of encounters. They have continued to push the boundaries of theatre on the Fringe, and return this year with

a production by Scottish Company Catherine Wheels aimed at two- to four-yearolds, won a Fringe First in 2010. It has toured all over the world, including to the New Victory Theatre on Broadway.

Free Theatre, outlawed by the regime in their own country, won a Fringe First in 2011, for

They return to the Fringe this year with

hannah eidinow won Fringe Firsts in 2011 for very different plays; Dave Flores’s

GREGORY BURKE IN 2001, a Fringe First was awarded to a Traverse show by a completely unknown writer called Gregory Burke.

a play about a botched kidnapping at a Fife factory directed by John Tiffany, immediately became the talk of the Fringe.

There was a good reason why Burke was unknown: he had never written for the theatre before.

– which one critic called his “blistering, brilliant, crazily confident” first play – transferred to the National Theatre in London where it went on to win a constellation of awards; it has now played in 25 countries.

“I was so naïve about what was going on, I just assumed that was the natural order of things,” says Burke. “I remember getting the award, but it didn’t register in my brain until a long time

JO cliFFORd afterwards. All of that festival is a bit of a blur. People thought I was being blasé but it was just that I didn’t know anything.”

Five years later, he was back on stage with John Tiffany receiving another Fringe First for “another little play”, the National Theatre of Scotland’s

Since then, it has played to sell-out houses around the world and won multiple awards. “After

my agent said, that won’t happen again, but it did happen again, bigger.”

Burke now writes mainly for film and television. “I wasn’t a writer until and since then it’s been my only form of income. That tells you all you need to know.” WINNING a Fringe First had a particular resonance for Jo Clifford, as she knew what it was to work on Allen Wright’s review team. “I discovered I was a playwright in 1980, but I knew nothing about contemporary British theatre. A friend suggested I should get in touch with Allen Wright, who took me on to review on the Fringe in 1981, and I continued to write for him, first about theatre and later dance. he was very supportive and encouraging of me as a writer.”

Poacher turned gamekeeper, however, in 1985 when – as part of a memorable season at the Traverse which launched the careers of several writers – Clifford (then John) won a Fringe First for

“I remember my second daughter was just born and I took her along to the Fringe First awards, I remember holding her and the Fringe First, it was an extraordinary time.”

Clifford continued to produce plays, translations and adaptations, including for Scottish Opera, and and for the Lyceum. She will perform new work as part of the Forest Fun Club on the Fringe this year. “was a huge hit, it was invited to about 20 international festivals all over the world, it was hugely exciting. That set me up, it established me as a writer, it was incredibly important. That’s what got my career off the ground.”