ELSPETH TURNER
Actor
Elspeth Turner is an actor and writer, and a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. UK theatre credits include Granite (National Theatre of Scotland), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Eastern Angles), Mischief (Oran Mòr / Traverse Theatre), A War of Two Halves (This Is My Story Productions). U.S. productions include Dial M for Murder and The Odd Couple (Engeman Theatre), The Pillowman (Theatre Row), and Titus Andronicus and Macbeth, (The Queens Players). Elspeth recently worked with Lewis-based company sruth-mara on the development of Soil and Soul, Alan Bissett’s stage adaptation of the acclaimed book by Alastair McIntosh, directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis. On screen, she can soon be seen in the forthcoming feature film Riptide, a schizophrenia love story from Lyre Productions.
Writing work includes plays The Idiot at the Wall (Directed by Emily Reutlinger) and SpectreTown (Directed by Matthew Lenton), both of which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before touring nationally. She is currently working on her new play, Savage Nation / Buaireas anns an Uisge, which deals with the legacy of the Gaels in North America, and has been commissioned and developed with support from Theatre Gu Leòr, Bòrd Na Gàidhlig, Glasgow Life, Gaelic Books Council, the National Theatre of Scotland, and Playwrights Studio Scotland. She is the recipient of playwriting awards from The Peggy Ramsay Foundation, Playwrights Studio Scotland, and the Tom McGrath Trust.
Elspeth recently wrote and directed her first short film, Marram. A contemporary Gaelic film, it was filmed on Berneray, North Uist, and is scheduled for release in Spring 2020.
ALASDAIR C. WHYTE
Actor & Writer
Dr. Alasdair C. Whyte belongs to the island of Mull. Music and singing are in the family and he has been singing in Gaelic for as long as he can remember. In 2006, aged 19, he followed in his mother Riona’s footsteps in being awarded the An Comunn Gàidhealach Gold Medal for solo singing at the National Mòd. He has released original and traditional Gaelic songs on various albums, including a solo album, ‘Las’ (2012), and two albums with current band WHYTE: ‘Fairich’ (2016) and ‘Tairm’ (2019). WHYTE received the Arts and Culture Award, sponsored by Creative Scotland at the 2019 Scottish Gaelic Awards.
Alasdair was awarded a Ph.D. in Celtic and Gaelic in 2017 by the University of Glasgow and, in 2019, he was awarded a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellowship by the same university to research the place-names of his native island of Mull.
Alasdair is President of The Mull and Iona Association; and an ambassador for the Gaelic dialects of Mull with Dòrlach. Alasdair was named Gaelic Ambassador of the Year by The Scottish Government in 2019.
EVIE WADDELL
Actor, integrated bsl interpretation
Evie Waddell is a skilled clarsach player, fiddler and singer from Stirlingshire, currently in her third year of a BMus course in traditional music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She learned her Gaelic through the Gaelic-medium school system. She was taught by the fiddle and singing tutor, Jo Miller, and was involved in the Riverside Music Project for ten years. She received an HNC in contemporary dance from the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee and is also a keen step dancer and promoter of step dancing. With support from Theatre Gu Leòr, Evie is developing her skills in British Sign Language. Evie has performed Scots and Gaelic song duets with Bethany Mackay and currently is part of a duo with Ciorstaidh Chaimbeul. She has participated in the Edinburgh Youth Gathering events and Tinto Summer School.
Having grown up attending Fèis music classes, Evie now teaches and assists with clarsach classes, and has toured twice with the month-long Fèis Fhoirt touring Ceilidh Trail. She has competed at the Royal National Mod and at the Stirling local mod, winning gold and silver medals for her duets. Her dream is to combine her musical and artistic skills, with work in BSL, Scots and Gaelic.
ross whyte
ACTOR, COMPOSer, & sound designer
Ross Whyte is a Glasgow-based composer, sound artist, and arranger. In 2012 he completed a practice-based PhD in Musical Composition at the University of Aberdeen where his field of research was concerned with impermanence in audio-visual intermedia and headphone-specific composition.
Since early 2016 he has worked as one half of the Gaelic ambient electronica duo, WHɎTE with singer-songwriter Alasdair Whyte. WHɎTE perform new arrangements of rarely-heard traditional Gaelic songs, original instrumental pieces and original Gaelic songs. Their acclaimed debut album, Fairich, was released in 2016. In 2017, their audio-visual stage show, Fairich: Live was selected as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase for Edinburgh Festival Fringe. WHɎTE released their follow-up album, Tairm, in May 2019 and they were awarded the Art and Culture trophy at the 2019 Scottish Gaelic Awards.
In 2016 he received a commission from the Gaelic choir Bùrach to write a new arrangement of the 19th-century song 'Leis A' Bhàta Dhubh Dharaich'. The choir performed the arrangement at the Royal National Mòd 2017 and were awarded the Sheriff MacMaster Campbell Memorial Quaich. In 2018 he was commissioned by Art Walk Porty to create a new work for Portobello Community Choir which featured as part of a digital app titled The Bandstand Project. In June 2018, he participated in a month-long arts residency at Arteles Creative Centre in Finland where he developed a methodology for analysing and transcribing the spoken word of different languages. His most recent project, Canto, is a dance theatre work which combines Polari with various cant languages and Scottish Gaelic. Ross is currently working on a new solo album www.rosswhyte.com
MUIREANN KELLY
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Muireann Kelly is originally from County Mayo in the west of Ireland. She studied drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Gàidhlig at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. She directed Theatre Gu Leòr’s most recent production Scotties, which was it was also co-written by Muireann and Frances Poet and co-missioned by National Theatre of Scotland and Theatre Gu Leòr. Scotties toured both Scotland and to Achill Island in the west of Ireland in Sept/Oct 2108 with the support of both the National theatres of Ireland, Abbey theatre and National Theatre of Scotland, Colmcille and Creative Scotland. She directed the award winning production of Shrapnel in 2016 and Doras Dùinte in 2014, both of which toured Scotland and also directed the National Theatre of Scotland’s Last Tango in Partick by Alison Lang at Oran Mòr in Feb 2017. At the Arches Theatre, Glasgow, she directed Lovers by Brian Friel, The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter and Bold Girls by Rona Munro,
She has taught dialect/voice work on the BA acting course and MA Theatre Studies courses at the Conservatoire and is currently completing level one course in BSL. Muireann is in her third year of a part-time MA in Learning and Teaching Gaelic Arts course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Muireann is currently on one of the Irish Art's Councils panel of peer assessors.
Muireann has most recently appeared as Màiri Ruadh in Theatre Gu Leòr's production of Cèilidh, directed by Lewis Hetherington, Outlander Season Three (Starz), Molly Bloom in the Tron Theatre's first ever adaptation for stage of James Joyce’s Ulysses which toured Ireland/Uk and China, Flora in Dundee Rep's In My Father's Words touring Scotland and off Broadway, New York, a one woman Scottish/Irish Gaelic translation of Pauline Goldsmith's Bright Colours Only, BAFTA nominated Gàidhlig drama Calum Dongle (Sorbier Ltd/BBCAlba), Leaving Planet Earth Grid Iron-EIF and Olga in John Byrne’s adaptation of The Three Sisters.
JESSICA kennedy
choreographer
Jessica Kennedy is an award-winning choreographer and dance artist based in Dublin. She is co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Junk Ensemble. Jessica trained in the United States, Dublin and London, completing a Bachelors Degree in Dance Performance & English Literature at Middlesex University London and a Photography Diploma at Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design. She has performed extensively with dance and theatre companies throughout Europe and the UK including Blast Theory (UK), Retina Dance Company (UK), Tanz Lange (Germany), Firefly Productions (Belgium). In Ireland she regularly collaborates with Brokentalkers and has performed in productions with The Abbey Theatre, The Ark and The Pavilion Theatre. She was awarded Best Female Performer for Dublin Fringe Festival 2006. Jessica co-created the internationally acclaimed short film Motion Sickness (2012), which has screened across thirty festivals worldwide, and has choreographed for and performed in numerous film works (Oonagh Kearney; Alice Maher) and opera (INO/Wide Open Opera). She works regularly in Scotland as a movement director for productions with The Tron (Glasgow/Beijing) & Theatre Gu Leor. Jessica has lectured at various universities and also performs in the band Everything Shook.
benny goodman
lighting designer
Benny Goodman studied Lighting Design and is a graduate of BA Production Technology and Management at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, also receiving the Simon Crowther Award for Excellence and Commitment to the Institution.
Since graduating, he has been working in theatres across the UK in a variety of projects and productions, and is a creative collaborator with the theatre company, Wonder Fools.
Selected credits include: Bana-ghaisgich/Heroines (BBC Alba, Stornoway); Humbug (Tramway, Glasgow); Snow Queen (Associate - RCS/Dundee Rep Theatre); Like Animals (Tron Theatre); Ayanfe Opera (Bridewell Theatre, London) Wired (Summerhall Fringe, Edinburgh); Immaculate Correction (Kings Head Theatre, London); Sideshow (West Beer Brewery, Glasgow); The Coolidge Effect (Tron Theatre/Traverse Theatre/Macrobert/Glasgow School of Art); Spring Awakening (Associate - RCS/Dundee Rep Theatre); 549:Scots of the Spanish Civil War, Lampedusa, Pleasure and Pain (Citizens Theatre); The Poetry House (Tron Theatre); Circle of Fifths (Tron Theatre/Cockpit Theatre London); Burial At Thebes, Scavengers, Coriolanus, Dearest Scott Dearest Zelda, How To Own The Room (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Lysistrata, Medea (Stanwix Theatre, Carlisle).
lana pheutan
creative learning artist
Lana grew up on the Isle of Skye and went to Napier University to do a degree in acting. She works in theater as well as televsion. She is interested in various kinds of drama, particularly new writing, and working in schools with young people.
RHONA DOUGALL
CO-ORDINATOR
Rhona Dougall is from Oban. She started working in community and arts development when she completed her degree at the University of Glasgow. Together with Aileen Ritchie, she set up a theatre company for you people, Ignite Theatre, which was three times part of Exchange festival with National Theatre of Scotland, which won a Philip Lawrence Award in 2008. In 2013 she started a new online magazine in Gaelic with other young speakers. Since 2014 she has been very much involved in establishing a new community cultural centre in Oban, The Rockfield Centre. She is also currently a member of the Touring Network board of directors. She learned Gaelic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
josie campbell
marketing placement
Originally from Barra. Previous theatre experience includes being part of Eden Court Young Company and also partaking in Fèis Theatre Òigridh a number of times. Following this she had the opportunity to work as an actor with Fèisean nan Gaidheal on a new project titled Dràma air Chuairt, which toured at the end of summer 2017. Further experience includes a spell as trainee stage manager in the Traverse Theatre for the Class Act Festival. Currently working towards gaining a joint honours degree in History and Politics & International Relations at the University of Strathclyde.