Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre: Our Story

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre

Our Story

Dundee Rep Ensemble was established in 1999 with the mission of bringing together a permanent full-time company of actors, the only company of its kind in Scotland.

Dundee Rep Ensemble has created a number of award-winning productions, establishing a reputation as one of the UK’s foremost theatre companies.

Touring

Co-productions

Creative Learning

Dundee Rep has a burgeoning international reputation, being the first UK company in 30 years to tour to Iran with Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. In 2005, it visited the prestigious Cerventino Festival in Mexico with a new version of Jarry’s Ubu the King and in 2006 it took David Greig’s Dr Korzcak’s Example to Tokyo and Hiroshima.

Dundee Rep has developed co-productions with some of the UK’s other leading producers including the Barbican, the Young Vic, National Theatre of Scotland, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, The Traverse Theatre Company, Paines Plough and the Tron Theatre, performing in all of Scotland’s major venues.

At the heart of the Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre vision is the belief that artistic and creative experience should be open and available to all.

In 2007, Dundee Rep Ensemble created Sunshine on Leith featuring the music of The Proclaimers.

Sunshine on Leith soon became a Scottish favourite and has been seen by more than 200,000 people. In 2013, a film version of the musical premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Successes include the première of the cult classic Let The Right One In with the National Theatre of Scotland, collaborating with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Time and the Conways, and presenting the Scottish Premiere of David Greig’s Victoria.

For the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, Dundee Rep produced the play In My Father’s Words, which toured the Highlands and Islands, Glasgow and Dundee. Dundee Rep was then invited to take part in the Brits Off Broadway Festival, held at 59E59 Theatres in New York in June 2015.

At the beginning of 2015 Dundee Rep undertook a ground-breaking new version of the classic tragedy Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca in a reworked contemporary script by David Ireland.

The play is a celebration of diversity and featured a range of actors from a mix of backgrounds, including ethnic minorities and people of all abilities. Co-produced with Derby Theatre and Graeae Theatre Company, which champions accessibility and provides a platform for talented disabled and non-disabled actors, Dundee Rep was inspired to invest £12,000 to improve access to the building ahead of the production.

In 2015, Dundee Rep Theatre was granted permission to stage John McGrath’s The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, one of Scotland’s most influential plays. The iconic play, widely considered to be a cornerstone of contemporary Scottish theatre, had not been seen professionally for almost 20 years.

Talent “…arguably the single most Developing Graduate Scheme important show in the whole The Ensemble is a crucible of talent, creating history of Scottish theatre…” the new artists of tomorrow through a 15-yearThe Scotsman, Joyce McMillan.

Following the sell-out of the run in Dundee, the production embarked again in 2016 on a Scottish tour visiting Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow and of course, Dundee.

Image: Tommy Ga Ken Wan Great Expectations, 2015

old Graduate Scheme. Dundee Rep Theatre’s Graduate Scheme offers drama school graduates the opportunity to join Dundee Rep Ensemble for up to one year.

The scheme offers actors a wide range of varied and challenging roles in an eclectic mix of plays with the aim to give them the opportunity of working with leading directors and offers continual professional development opportunities.

“Everyone here is so kind, they help you be the best you can be” 2016 Graduate

The theatre seeks to share a diverse programme of theatre and dance across Dundee and beyond by taking its work out of the theatre and into the wider geographical and cultural communities.

By reaching out across Dundee and beyond to engage with those groups who are the most difficult to reach, Dundee Rep provides a forum for their voices to be heard. This close working in a variety of settings enables Dundee Rep to have a better understanding of the needs and wants of prospective audiences and empowers those communities to engage with the Theatre to produce unique content.

The creative learning teams work with nearly 30,000 people each year, delivering 2,000 workshops alongside the provision of work experience, skills and training opportunities, drama as a therapeutic intervention and apprenticeships.

We offer work experience, education, skills and training, Dramatherapy (the only service offered in theatres in the UK and supported by Dundee City Council and Comic Relief) and apprenticeships.

Seeking engagement with the hardest to reach communities - children and young people, especially those not in education or employment, people with learning difficulties, those living in areas of multiple deprivation and people living with long-term health conditions - enables the Theatre to create rich content, content which comes from a new and dynamic viewpoint, and which creates work highlighting issues and concerns outwith the mainstream.

As a leader in the Scottish arts, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre have a responsibility to create capacity within the arts sector. In partnership with other key players in this area, Dundee Rep works to attract and develop new graduates into the industry through the creation of Young Creative roles - training opportunities to equip aspiring arts practitioners with the skills and most importantly the experience needed to pursue and flourish in an arts career.

Left Image: Brian Hartley Miann, 2015 Above Image: Maria Falconer Innocence, 2013

Scottish Dance Theatre is Scotland’s principal contemporary dance company and is a valued research engine for dance. Pioneering new ways to create and distribute dance across all scales, the Company commissions work by leading artists in many fields whose practice is outstanding and assured in its relationship with audiences. The Company was created as part of the Rep in 1986.

The organisation is a dancers’ company and our artists’ development is essential to the organisation - professional growth is harnessed to deepen the Company’s ethos as performers and teachers, and innovate skills as contributors to an increasingly recognisable artistic signature. The Company tours throughout Scotland and nationally across a range of venues from large theatres to community halls.

Scottish Dance Theatre is part of a strong international discourse and has authored a range of international projects both professional and educational - recent highlights include: • The Blinding Light tour in 2014 to India and China, reaching an audience of more than 9,000 people across both countries.

• SCALE, an outdoor interactive community project, which was part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland, reached over 4,000 people in Dundee and transformed the city square into a colourful park.

• New productions such as YAMA, Dreamers and Process Day have taken UK and international audiences by storm, garnering five-star reviews and recruiting new fans to the Company’s work.

The international reach of our work has also extended to engagement in India with participants with additional support needs as well as socially and economically excluded groups. Our artists come from a range of different countries and create a uniquely polyglot perspective that helps shape our organisational culture and artistic practice.

We strive to bring the most significant artists to Dundee to make work that inspires Scotland and communicates with the world.

Creative Learning Scottish Dance Theatre creates projects that harness dance’s transformational power and brings dance and creative play to communities that are currently underserved by performing arts companies or experiencing higher levels of deprivation.

Dance can uplift, inspire, tune our sensibilities, and enrich lives. Scottish Dance Theatre aims to promote and develop access and appreciation of contemporary arts by bringing a life-enhancing experience of dance to as many people as possible.

We contribute to the vibrancy of our community and seek to inspire people of all ages, with a particular focus on Dundee, where more than a quarter of children are living in poverty according to the Child Poverty Action Group.

Creative Learning, when combined with physical activity, benefits the health and well-being of both children and adults and has a long-term impact on communities. Scottish Dance Theatre works to engage adults (including parents, carers, and nursery staff) in supporting children’s development needs encouraging greater bonding between adult and child, which in turn leads to greater confidence and a sense of security.

“A company at the top of its game” The Herald.

“An unqualified success.

Still being talked about over a week later” Workshop participant.

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre sit at the cultural heart of Scotland and the City of Dundee.

Founded in 1939, the Rep is a centre of creative energy, a space for engagement with a wide range of art forms, while also playing a lead role in arts education and engagement across the city and beyond.

Proud of its Scottish roots, the Company looks outwards, producing dance and theatre of national and international significance, for and with a diverse audience.

Sited in a purpose-built art space, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre create and deliver work for a local audience, as well as on a national and international scale.

To find out more, please contact: Dundee Rep Theatre info@dundeereptheatre.co.uk dundeerep.co.uk

Scottish Dance Theatre sdt@scottishdancetheatre.com scottishdancetheatre.com

Dundee Rep Theatre Foundation Charity Number SC046517

Scottish Dance Theatre Foundation Charity Number SC046515

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre Ltd, Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB | Company Number 21201 Charity Number SC017315

Cover Image: Brian Hartley YAMA, 2015 Left Image: Tommy Ga Ken Wan The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, 2015 Right: Image: Brian Hartley Dreamers, 2015