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Scotian News

Sept 2010

Edition 67

Congratulations to the following Former Pupils who have reached milestone birthdays this month:-

70  Phil Doherty; 

65  None 

60  Giles Wynn-Williams;  

50  Martin Fox; Joseph Rogers;

 School News

New e-mail contacts this month:- Martin Black, in London; Eddie Douthwaite; and Mike Donelan, in Texas. Mike writes to inform us that his father, Lt. Col. Mattias F. Donelan, was the senior American Air Force officer sent to close the USAF base at Kirknewton in the 1960s after it was in service since the Second World War. He advises that one of his father’s proudest moments was presenting a bench with a plaque about the Air Base to Edinburgh Town Council. The bench is still on Princes Street, near the Scottish American War Memorial.

Can anyone help? Leo Stone has changed his e-mail address. Does anyone have his new one?

Aidan Bremner has opened a new studio. You are all welcome to visit

Jim McCabe has just advised of a new website.

Hi there

My brother and  I have just launched Limerick Central, a website promoting limericks as a way to get a laugh out of the news.  There’s a prize of an Amazon gift voucher for the best limerick each week and the chance for the winner and other good entries to get their name in lights.  It’s an opportunity to share your creativity with the world and can be found at www.limerickcentral.co.uk.  You can bookmark this and pop back each week (or more often if you want) to see the winning entry and the others which gave us a laugh.

You can also find us on Facebook at  Limerick Central and on Twitter.  Not much content in these at the moment but it will grow!  If you are a Facebook member you can hit the ‘Like’ button on our website and be kept updated.

Even if this isn’t your thing, please feel free to pass it onto anyone else you think may be interested - the more users we have the better the quality of entries and the funnier it should be.

We’d also be happy to receive your feedback either directly or through the site.

Cheers
Jim

Raymond Ross has sent information of his new play.

                                    A PROMISED LAND AUTUMN TOUR 2010
After its popular and successful world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe 2009, Theatre Objektiv is touring A Promised Land to Scottish venues in September/October 2010 in partnership with The Scottish Storytelling Centre supported by Creative Scotland (formerly the Scottish Arts Council) and the National Lottery.
Playing to packed houses at the Scottish Storytelling Centre last Festival, A Promised Land was shortlisted for the Amnesty International (Scotland) Freedom of Expression Award.
The play opens in Edinburgh in 1947. There is a Europe-wide refugee crisis, bitter conflict in Palestine, and the British Empire is crumbling. Yet amidst it all the influence of a quiet but dedicated woman, who unintentionally became one of the 20th century’s greatest Scots, is still being felt. This woman is Jane Haining, sometimes referred to as ‘the Scottish Schindler’ because of her achievement in saving hundreds of Hungarian Jewish children from the gas chambers, and the only Scot honoured as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
As the play opens Rivka Feldman, a Holocaust survivor and Jane’s friend, is under interrogation by a British Captain. She has entered Scotland illegally, armed with a gun. Rivka’s fictional story centres on the plight of Jewish refugees (and the struggle of Jewish dissidents) while becoming testament to Jane’s true-life courage as the play takes us back to Budapest and to Auschwitz where Jane paid the ultimate price for protecting children.
A Promised Land is a story of freedom and captivity, loyalty and love, idealism and self-sacrifice. Not without irony or humour, this is a play about hope and reconciliation which raises many issues of relevance today in a challenging way through a controversial story.
What the Press said:
“a powerfully beautiful and very real story of courage and survival” British Theatre Guide
“passionate.. deeply moving.. extraordinary.. intelligent, funny and heartfelt..  a powerful experience” Edinburgh Guide
“an exemplary piece of Fringe theatre, which demonstrates how brilliant dramatic art can be.. tightly constructed, perceptively written and well-balanced” Three Weeks
“a strong, moving and enjoyable piece of drama, performed with great commitment, and directed with sober intelligence” The Scotsman
“thought-provoking.. much originality and skilful performances” The List

Written by Raymond Raszkowski Ross, directed by Donald Smith, the play is a two-hander with one actor, Corinne Harris, playing both Rivka and Jane; another, John McColl, playing a British Intelligence Captain, a Nazi Officer and Rivka’s brother Daniel. Music is by Corinne Harris.
.
A PROMISED LAND on tour Autumn 2010

Thursday 16th September – 1.30pm (schools) 7.30pm at Paisley Arts Centre
Friday 17th September – 8.00pm at East Kilbride Arts Centre
Saturday 18th  September – 8.00pm at The Wynd, Melrose
Wednesday 22nd  September – 8.00pm at macrobert, Stirling
Saturday 25th  September – 7.30pm at Universal Hall, Findhorn
Wednesday 29th September – 7.30pm at The Byre Theatre, St Andrews
Friday 1st October – 7.30pm at The Swallow Theatre, Whithorn
Saturday 2nd  October – 7.30pm at The CatStrand, New Galloway
Tuesday 5th October – 7.30pm at Queen’s Park Church, Glasgow                                       
Wednesday 6th October – 7.30pm at The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
Thursday 7th October – 7.30pm at The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
Saturday 9th October – 7.30pm at Woodend Barn Arts Centre Banchory
Wednesday 13th October – 7.30pm at Ayr Town Hall
Monday 18th October – 7.30pm Maccabi Centre, Giffnock
Theatre Objektiv are particularly pleased and honoured to be asked to play Queen’s Park Church in Glasgow which was Jane Haining’s church.
Following an interval each evening a short new work set in present day Jerusalem, Can You Dig the Temple Mount, Man?, also by Raymond Raszkowski Ross, will be performed as a focus for audience discussion.

We have received a memo from Richard Demarco giving details of the rest of his calander for the year.

September has come;  all too soon the Edinburgh Festival has ended, leaving me with inspiring memories of the Rose Bruford College contributions to the Fringe programme devised with Michael Earley and Rupert Thomson at The Roxy Art House.   Rose Bruford students, past and present, gave a new dimension to the Fringe with their productions of ‘Cabaret Chekhov’ and ‘Kabaret Kantor’.

I have been commissioned by Bill Williams, editor of ‘Artwork Scotland’, to write a review of the 2010 Edinburgh Festival in relation to my personal memories of all 63 Festivals which preceded it, from 1947 onwards.    Of course, this review will include not only the Rose Bruford productions but also Caroline Wiseman’s play ‘The Leonardo Question’.

At Craigcrook Castle, there was the outdoor ‘promenade’ production of ‘King Arthur’, an ambitious use of Craigcrook Castle’s parkland by ‘Siege Perilous’ company, and the exhilarating sound of the music played by The Farleigh School jazz band – ‘The Thundering Herd’, as well as the extraordinary singing of Leslie Goldman and Catie Greener: a true blend of opera and jazz – and the contribution of music from Glenalmond College under the direction of Graham Robb.

There was also the one-day symposium on ‘The Past, Present and Future of the Demarco Collection and Archive’ and new contributions to the Collection, especially for the Festival exhibition of ‘installations’ by Steven Earl Weber and Andrzej and Teresa Welminski, two leading members of Kantor’s Cricot 2 Theatre.

Now I must look forward to the private view of the exhibition at Lyon and Turnbull’s gallery, Edinburgh, on 23rd September.   So far, the artists represented are: Donald Addison, Barbara Balmer, Elizabeth Blackadder, John Byrne, James Cumming, Victoria Crowe, George Devlin, William Gillies, William Gear, Ian Howard, Peter Howson, John Houston, Jack Knox, George Mackie, Ian Mackenzie-Smith, David McClure, Sandy Moffat, James Morrison, Robin Philipson, Charles Simpson, Barbara Rae, Anne Redpath, Susan Winton.

The viewing days are as follows: Friday 24th September – Wednesday 29th 10am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday 2-5pm.   I am indebted to Lyon and Turnbull for their generous support for this fund-raising exhibition.   It is hoped that the resulting sales will enable the Demarco Collection and Archive to be further developed.   

The exhibition I am planning at Craigcrook Castle, opening in November, will have a special focus on Scotland’s dialogue with Poland, Italy and Germany.   Therefore, there will be an emphasis on the art of Tadeusz Kantor and his fellow Cricot 2 artists, particularly Andrzej and Teresa Welminski, as well as Polish artists, Boguslaw Schaeffer, Wojtek Bruszewski, Joanna Przybyla and Sonia Rolak, and Italian artists connected with Galleria del Cavallino and the Collection of Count Panza di Biumo, and German artists such as Joseph Beuys and Stefan Wewerka.   It will be complementary to the exhibition which the Royal Scottish Academy will present in The National Gallery Complex on The Mound which is entitled ‘Ten Dialogues: Richard Demarco, Scotland and the European Avant-garde’ from 28th November to 17th January 2011.

As the result of the meeting I had yesterday with Bill Williams as publisher of Northern Books, I am now working on a Northern Books publication which will be illustrated by my landscapes and townscapes made on my travels on ‘The Road to Meikle Seggie’ over the past six decades.  Hopefully, this publication could co-incide with my one-man exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in December.

Today, I received the good news from Dr. Klara Kemp-Welch of the Courtauld Institute that she plans to collaborate with Edinburgh University to hold a symposium in December at the National Gallery of Scotland inspired by the Demarco Archive.

If anyone would like to visit Lyon & Turnbull on the 23rd, please contact Ricky.

We have recently been contacted by a friend of Joseph Shaun Kelly.

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