Storytelling PR

Festivals

Storytelling PR Fringe 26 – Press Team Jobs Available

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Storytelling PR are seeking two Press Office team members to join us for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026. We work from buzzy and busy offices in Summerhall, Edinburgh and our team operate the Summerhall Arts Press Office, as well as our working roster of Fringe clients. One of these roles is dedicated to Summerhall Arts, the other will work across Storytelling PR clients.

Storytelling PR provides a challenging and exciting environment to work in, requiring a range of skills and personal qualities, encouraging professional and personal growth.

As Press Assistant in the Summerhall Arts Press Office, you will be part of a small but efficient team that is the first point of contact for thousands of journalists and industry visiting Summerhall in August. Looking after these journalists and companies, you will also be trusted to manage admin tasks, tickets and publicity for the building as a whole.

As Press Assistant in the Storytelling PR Office, you will be part of a team representing over 40 fringe clients, in a diverse range of genres and venues across the city. Primarily ensuring that media monitoring and cuttings are completed timely and efficiently, you will also be trusted to manage admin tasks, tickets and guest lists, supporting our Publicists as they work to deliver great campaigns for our clients.

The deadline for applications is 6pm, Monday 11th May 2026.
Interviews will be held the w/b Monday 25th May 2026.
Rate of pay: £13.45 per hour + holiday pay.

Download the Job Description doc here.
Have a look at our equal opportunities doc here.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023

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August is our busiest and best time of year here at Storytelling PR. Just before Scotland’s (often very rainy) summer begins its slow wind-down into autumn, we have the world’s most exciting culture and performance festival left to enjoy: the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, right here on the doorstep of our city. 

Having worked with artists performing at the Fringe since 2013, the Festival is particularly special for us. Over the years, we’ve seen friends and family perform their work, we’ve met countless brilliant emerging artists, we’ve seen and supported hundreds of shows; and we’ve forged a name for ourselves as distinctly artist-led in everything Festival-based that we do. 

And this year is no different. Back and bigger than ever, the Storytelling team has been working flat-out since the start of 2023 to support 50+ artists with their upcoming shows – including 22 performances at Summerhall, running Summerhall’s bustling Press Office, and 3 performances at the Royal Lyceum Theatre (Nova; An Oak Tree; FORGE), in addition to supporting shows across Assembly, Dance Base, Greenside, Scottish Storytelling Centre, ZOO, Monkey Barrel, Gilded Balloon, Traverse, and Pleasance. 

The Purple Pill – Nabil Abdulrashid | Image Credit – Matt Stronge

With a list spanning the Festival’s most iconic places to be, Storytelling PR is proud to support an eclectic mix of Festival legends, returners, debut performers, international artists, groups, and solo acts this year. 

Our bread and butter is theatre and performance – and this year’s selection is gripping, entertaining, and fresh. From experimental and emerging to large-scale productions, small casts to big, we’re working with the likes of Tim Crouch (An Oak Tree), Tortoise in a Nutshell (Concerned Others), Jade Anouka’s raw and honest exploration of love, loss, and self-discovery (HEART), Fishamble (Heaven), Elle Dillon-Reams (MEAT, HoneyBEE), Obehi Janice’s new theatre-storytelling show on her romantic-sexual entanglements and Casanova (NOVA), Ben Noble (Member), Raymond Wilson’s comedic storytelling work on masculinity and nature (I Hope Your Flowers Bloom), Guido Garcia Lueches (Playing Latinx), DARKFIELD’s gripping shipping-container experiences, Adam Scott-Rowley (YOU ARE GOING TO DIE) and more. 

I Hope Your Flowers Bloom – Raymond Wilson | Image Credit – Jassy Earl

In cabaret and comedy shows, we have the pleasure of supporting the brilliant Gail Porter on her stand-up show and Festival Fringe debut (Gail Porter: Hung, Drawn, and Portered), Reuben Kaye’s double-show return as a Festival favourite (The Butch is Back!, The Kaye Hole), Nabil Abdulrashid’s comedy show about trying to be a good person while staying a badman (The Purple Pill), Stuart Goldsmith’s climate-crisis stand up (Spoilers), and others. 

For dance and movement-based work, we’re so excited to support Solène Weinachter’s comedic dance-storytelling work on death rites and family funerals (After All), Foster Group Dance (Double Goer), Jian Yi and Journey to the East (Weathervanes), Max Percy’s powerful butoh dance, performance art and circus rope show (BAKLÂ) Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips (Lost Soles), Gözde Atalay (NOMAD), Katie Armstrong’s new double-bill on movement, music, turntablism, and multimedia (SKETCHES/GLISK), and more. 

BAKLÂ – Max Percy | Image Credit – Northwall Arts Centre

We’ll be working at full-speed until the end of August, but we always have time for a chat and a coffee with artists and friends. You can find our Fringe-time press office team inside Summerhall (just opposite the Gallery Bar & Cafe), or head through the Summerhall courtyard to the Cairns Lecture Theatres for our year-round office team – we look forward to saying hi!

After years of lockdown and post-Covid anxiety, ongoing international disputes and war, the climate crisis, and the general instability of the international stage, we hope for this Fringe to be one punctuated by hope, compassion, bravery, pride, strength, and unbridled creativity. To use art to look to the future is a gift – and we couldn’t be happier to carve out positive, meaningful forward-looking paths with some of the best artists around. 

From all of us at Storytelling: enjoy the Festival, and see you after! 

Puppet Animation Scotland announce line up for
MANIPULATE Festival 2023

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MANIPULATE Festival 2023 returns to the capital with one of its most ambitious programmes to date – with shows at the Traverse Theatre, Summerhall, The Studio at Festival Theatre, Fruitmarket, online and outside across the city.

Image: Un-retained (composite image). Courtesy of Sandman.

Edinburgh’s international festival of visual theatre and animated film, MANIPULATE, is a celebration of visually stunning work, with a focus on artworks which breathe life into the inanimate or tell stories primarily through imagery. 

The 16th edition of the festival will offer audiences a rich palette of events across a range of visual artforms, including large-scale illuminated hands which will roam across the city; intricate live micro-cinema featuring over 2000 miniature animals; an aerial work inspired by lobster fishing; and theatre simultaneously performed and livestreamed between Scotland and Argentina.

There are an array of themes and ideas to uncover, with much of this year’s programme speaking to the stories that we tell ourselves, and one another, about who we are. Further themes of the programme include migration, the resilience of the human spirit, memory, celebrations of life and of death, and our relationship with a changing climate.

MANIPULATE Festival 2023 will run from Thursday 2  – Sunday 12 February, presenting a dynamic programme of live performances, installations, workshops, and film screenings – taking place in person and online, with shows at Summerhall, The Studio @ Festival Theatre, Traverse Theatre and, for the first time, Fruitmarket. The Festival will also see outdoor installations take to the streets of Edinburgh. Acclaimed international artists will share work alongside Scotland’s own leading artists, including the return of MANIPULATE favourites and brand-new companies. 

Alongside a diverse programme of brand-new work for MANIPULATE Festival 2023, some elements of the programme are finally coming to the stage after being rescheduled from 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dawn Taylor, Artistic Director and CEO of Puppet Animation Scotland, says: 

“We are thrilled that 2023 will see the return of a full MANIPULATE Festival programme for the first time in three years. By expanding across Edinburgh into new venues, the city streets and online, we can reach and connect with new audiences and spark new conversations. We are looking forward to celebrating the sheer magic that puppetry, visual theatre and animation can offer during these challenging times; a spark of hope and light that MANIPULATE has come to represent in the dark of the Scottish winter. 

With a more varied palette of artforms than ever, and featuring work which is playful, bold, interrogative and joyful from a dynamic group of visually-driven artists, 2023 promises to be one of our most ambitious programmes to date. We can’t wait to share it with you!” 

Jaine Lumsden, Creative Scotland’s Theatre Officer, says: 

“MANIPULATE is all about bringing together Scottish and international visual theatre and animation of the highest quality and artistic ambition. The Festival plays a central role in the physical performance sector and we’re so glad to be behind its return to full programming next year.” 

The 2023 Programme includes: 

MANIPULATE Festival 2023 will open with a roaming performance on the streets of Edinburgh, created by Fergus Dunnet and Ronan McMahom. The Dab Hands are large-scale illuminated puppets specially commissioned by MANIPULATE Festival to usher in the 2023 Festival and welcome all those they come to pass. Following this will be an exuberant Opening Night Party in celebration of their first full festival in three years, offering exclusive pop-up performances, music and sneak peeks into highlights across the festival, and a visit from specially commissioned giant illuminated puppets for all to enjoy. 

Raw Material & Vanishing Point present the World Premiere of Love Beyond (Act of Remembrance), by renowned theatre artist Ramesh Meyyappan. This tender and visually creative new show is a love story that follows Harry, who has dementia and uses sign language. Events from the past and present intertwine as Harry moves into a new home. Just as his nurse begins to learn his language, Harry begins to forget, leaving him in a unique world alone with only himself. 

Also exploring distorted memory are Vision Mechanics, who will present The Fantastic Life of Minnie Rubinski. Part installation and part filmed puppetry show, this intimate experience is a funny, moving and sometimes nonsensical journey through the title character’s life, synapses and fragmented memories.

Relationships and their complex dynamics are the forefront for Scottish aerial theatre company Paper Doll Militia, who return to MANIPULATE with the World Premiere of Arthropoda – gripping aerial circus theatre that unpacks the unravelling of a relationship through aerial performance. The piece is told through the visual analogy of lobster fishing, and a lobster stuck in a creel who can leave but chooses not to.

Scotland-based Shotput question Hollywood norms in Ferguson and Barton, as they awake in a filmic dream world exploring the power dynamics of their own relationship. Inspired by Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the show explores communication and miscommunication, voyeurism, gender roles, and sensuality. 

Also inspired by Hitchcock are festival returnees Agrupación Señor Serrano’s with their show Birdie. The Spanish masters of micro-cinema explore migration through multimedia performance – thousands of migrating birds draw impossible shapes in the sky in between two mirages; one with wars, droughts and deforestation, the other with safe streets, stability and renewable energies. 

Continuing the theme of refuge and migration, performance maker Tashi Gore, visual theatre expert Ross Mackay, and playwright Will Gore create a hybrid live performance and digital animation with The Yellow Canary an epic true story and leap into the imagination of a young child exploring love, loss and what it means to flee your home. 

In a further exploration of migrant identity, Katherina Radeva of award-winning, bold performance art duo, Two Destination Language, presents 40/40 – fresh from its World Premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022. Katherina is a woman, a migrant and now, a dancer. 40/40 is an unapologetic celebration of 40 years of joy and hardship. 

In an exciting development for 2023, MANIPULATE will take to the streets of Edinburgh, with the Scottish Premiere of Sandman’s Un-retained. A collaboration between choreographer Sabine Molenaar, multimedia artist Gertjan Jiasion and composer Jochem Baelus, it combines dance, audiovisual production and projection mapping to tell the timeless, weightless story of being human. Un-retained will be projected onto the architecture of Edinburgh (with an exact location to be announced at a later date) for the duration of MANIPULATE 2023. 

Free public installation work at the Festival also includes A Rock and a Hard Place, from puppetry and micro cinema theatre expert Gavin Glover. This kinetic sculpture work initially premiered as part of Restless Worlds at MANIPULATE in 2021. A collection of mini dioramas made up of the Earth, Sky, Sea and the Mind, this installation imagines a parallel world, with accompanying audio to be enjoyed by headphones. 

Into the Long Green Jaws is another World Premiere presented by Long Green Jaws – artist/musicians Sarah McWhinney and Fergus Hall. Combining experimental, ambient improvised music with installation, puppetry and performance art, Into the Long Green Jaws is a piece of visual gig-theatre which explores the intricacy and balance of coastal environments as multi-layered meso-ecosystems. A free drop-in installation will accompany the piece. 

Continuing MANIPULATE’s tradition of presenting high-quality puppetry for adults, festival favourites Ljubljana Puppet Theatre return to MANIPULATE with Moč (The Power), which uses intimate puppet-object theatre to question different motives of power and weakness, the public vs the private.

International puppetry work is also the focus of VOX Muziektheater, who present the UK Premiere of Poor Thing, a soul-stirring performance that combines opera and object theatre as three musical funeral directors try to reconstruct the forgotten life of an anonymous woman through her belongings. It is an ode to melancholy and an embracing of life. 

Scotland-based live performance artist Suzi Cunningham performs a double bill of Rules to Live By and Eidos. The first is a celebration of transformation, a requiem for one of Suzi’s teenage idols, Mark E. Smith; a rebellious aspiration to a hero’s punk anarchy. The second, Eidos, is a tribute to Suzi’s punk-in-her-own-right Grandmother. 

Pioneer of self-suspension rope performance Kasia Zawadzka explores the idea of the obsessive inner voice that keeps you from being at peace in aerial performance Ill Lit. Returning after a digital work-in-progress as part of MANIPULATE 2021, this full production using the Japanese art of Shibari explores mental health, repetition and the struggle to break out. 

Anna Nekrassova presents Before Thumbelina, an everyday fairytale for adults which beautifully unfolds into a touching story about a person’s struggles with infertility. Carried by song and rhythm as well as puppet and object theatre, the solo performance by Nekrassova focuses on the moment before H. C. Andersen’s renowned story of Thumbelina.

Clown Cabaret with Plutot La Vie invites audiences to share a drink as part of an evening of cabaret. Across an hour and a half, four clown performances will lead audiences through the weird, wild and sublime stupidity, with a drink included in your ticket. 

In animation, MANIPULATE 2023 will see the return of Animated Womxn: International Shorts, screening the work of extraordinary, award-winning female and non-binary animators from across the globe. Animated Highlights will pack in a dizzying array of animation styles and untold stories, featuring new work from established and emerging talent from around the world, in partnership with Edinburgh Short Film Festival. For the first time, these screenings will take place in-person at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket, as well as being available digitally. 

Works in Progress will also continue with SNAPSHOTS, a first look at exciting new visual theatre workshops from six Scottish artists. Sand, from director Daniel Livingston and performer Petre Dobre – is a highly visual performance that uses movement, object manipulation and shadow puppetry to explore our dreams and face our nightmares; also supported by the Surge Bursary Programme, Noah Tomson’s Between Earth and Moon will be performed simultaneously in Argentina and Scotland, taking inspiration from Italo Calvo’s surrealist short story, Distance of the Moon.  

Workshops throughout the Festival will give an insight into creating your own work with Conceiving Visual Theatre with Al Seed; Micro Cinema Theatre with Gavin Glover; and developing your own multi-operator puppetry skill with Mervyn Millar in Working as One.

Tickets for the 2023 Festival will be on sale from 5pm, Thursday 10 November: manipulatefestival.org.

ENDS.

Puppet Animation Scotland announces MANIPULATE Festival’s 15th anniversary programme for 2022

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28 January – 5 February 2022
Tickets on sale at 6pm, Thursday 4 November 2021

Today, Puppet Animation Scotland is excited to announce the programme for MANIPULATE Festival 2022 – a year that marks its 15th anniversary, and sees Scotland’s international festival of visual theatre, animated film and puppetry return with its first live series of events in two years.

Presenting a dynamic programme of live performance, film, installation, workshops and events, and additional content online, the 15th edition of the award-winning MANIPULATE Festival will run from Friday 28 January until Saturday 5 February 2022 across Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and Summerhall; bringing together leading Scottish and international artists from 15 countries including Canada, China, Brazil, England, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain and the USA.

Acclaimed for presenting outstanding visually-led work that engages and challenges audiences, the 2022 edition of the festival will centre its artists and audiences with a curated programme from around the world. The programme will see MANIPULATE favourite artists return, alongside brand-new artists who will present live performances, work in progress, film, immersive installations and industry-focused workshops and events. 

MANIPULATE will mark its anniversary year by looking at the current and future landscape, with a programme of cutting-edge and boundary-pushing work that surrounds timely themes including feminism, gender, identity, queer culture and sexuality, alongside relevant issues including the environment, faith, mental health, power and war. Together, the programme explores the relationship between the individual and society, asking of its artists and audiences, how do you build back better as we move forward as one?

Programming her first live festival since taking up the helm as Puppet Animation Scotland’s Director in 2020, and talking about MANIPULATE Festival, Dawn Taylor said:
“We are so thrilled to bring live work back to Scottish audiences in 2022 and also to continue developing the digital programme initiated in 2020. As we progress through to this next phase of the global pandemic, it’s clear that artists are interested in questioning the status quo and asking big questions about the society we are part of and each of our place within it. Questions of identity, climate, global unrest and the contract between individual and collective resonate through the work and in our conversations around it. 

MANIPULATE 2022 is a moment for audiences, artists and industry to come back together for moments of escapism and joy as well as provocation and challenge. We’ll share spaces, both live and virtual, and engage in dialogue, learn from one another and explore questions about our shared future. That’s why for the first time this year we invite our audiences to connect in new ways, whether walking together or sharing a meal, and we’ll host more open spaces than ever to demystify the work of MANIPULATE and create points of access for emerging artists. We can’t wait to welcome you back.”

The 2022 Programme includes: 

Live performances throughout the festival comment on economic, political and social issues. The festival will open with Edinburgh born artist and performer Sadiq Ali who presents his first-full length show The Chosen Haram,  dealing with themes of addiction, connection, faith and sexuality. The Chosen Haram tells the story of two queer men and their chance meeting through a dating app, portraying the highs and lows of their relationship and the barriers they face, both social and cultural, in seeking happiness and personal fulfillment.

Each weekend, the festival will see a special new strand Dinner with… which invites audiences to a two course meal in Summerhall’s gallery bar, hosted by some of our favourite Scottish performance artists. Audiences are invited to Dinner with LARDS, an ensemble of Scottish theatre artists with specialisms in clown, bouffon and character work who celebrate liveness, risk and joy in their work. The following weekend, join MANIPULATE for Dinner with Plutot La Vie, a mesmerising evening of intimate performance, an evening of illusion where everything may not be what it seems.

Jean Daniel Broussé (JD) explores themes of family, queer culture and sexuality in his performance (Le) Pain – a show about breadmaking, physical heroics, growing up queer in a boulangerie in the south of France, endings and new beginnings. It includes circus, dance, storytelling, Béarnaise folklore video, karaoke and laughter.

From sexuality and queer culture, to celebrities and drag culture, award-winning Rambert-trained British dance theatre company Thick & Tight take influence from a wide range of historical, political, literary and artistic subjects, with a focus on promoting queer culture and accessibility within dance. Created by Eleanor Perry and Daniel Hay-Gordon, the company present Short & Sweet; a modern variety show that mixes dance, drag, lip-syncing and satire, bringing together a host of famous and infamous characters to life including Sid Vicious, Twiggy, Grace Jones, Rasputin, Edith Sitwell and everyone’s favourite avant-garde duo, John Cage & Elaine Paige.

From icons to idols, Scottish-based dance artist Suzi Cunningham presents double-bill Rules to Live By // EIDOS that veers between anarchy, punk music, heroism and how idolatry and loss can shape a life. The idea for Rules to Live By came in 2018 after the death of one of Suzi’s teenage idols, Mark E. Smith of the band The Fall, whose collaboration with Michael Clark led her to train as a dancer. It is a requiem for heroism, hedonism, rebirth and dark disturbing humour.  EIDOS is a tribute to Suzi’s grandmother, who was a punk in-her-own-right. She is the hero, the stalwart, Suzi’s personal Vivienne Westwood, the treasure hunter and the curio-with-a-cause. 

Scottish female-led theatre collective Snap-Elastic is led by Alice Mary Cooper, Eszter Marsalko, Isy Sharman and Claire Eliza Willoughby, and together they create bold physical performance work. Exploring themes of predatory behaviour, EAT ME is a luscious, incendiary theatre show about unconventional love, chaos, control and the shifting complexities of power.

Also exploring themes of power and control are festival favourites Ljubljana Puppet Theatre / Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana who return to MANIPULATE two years after their visit with the extraordinary Open The Owl. An intimate puppet-object miniature exploring power, weakness and control, Moč / The Power draws the audience into a strange, distorted world, asking the question: ‘Who is manipulating who in this work, which plays with varying notions of power and weakness, as well as of public and private?’

Looking at the impact of war and displacement is the world premiere performance of The Yellow Canary that opens following its work-in-progress presentation as part of the MANIPULATE digital festival in 2021, and animated documentary My Favourite War (MANS MĪĻĀKAIS KARŠ).

Presented by performance maker Tashi Gore, with visual theatre expert Ross MacKay and playwright Will Gore, The Yellow Canary will be presented in a hybrid format of live performance and digital animation. It is both an epic true story and a leap into the imagination of a young child desperate to escape the horrors of war, exploring love, loss and what it means to flee your home.

From stage to screen, Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen’s My Favourite War (MANS MĪĻĀKAIS KARŠ) – tells the personal story of its director, Ilze, about growing up in the Cold-War USSR. Winner of awards including Annecy Contrechamp Competition, French Critics Prize and Latvian National Film Prize- Animator Of The Year, it is an exciting coming-of-age story about finding one’s own identity, truth and loyalty.

The theme of displacement is also pertinent to the work of theatre company Agrupación Señor Serrano, Spanish masters of micro-cinema Señor Serrano who blend live feed video, scale models, text, performance, sound and objects, and return to MANIPULATE following their critically acclaimed performance of A House in Asia in 2017. Presenting the Scottish premiere of their theatre work Birdie, the multimedia performance highlights the plight of refugees through the lens of migrating birds, and includes live video, objects, Hitchcock’s The Birds revisited, scale models, 2000 mini animals, wars, smugglers, a massive migration and three performers handling this messy world with wit, criticism and commitment with humankind.

In another performance which asks searching questions about the relationship between the individual and society, physical theatre artist Lewis Sherlock and performance writer Ali Maloney present After Metamorphosis; a dramatic reworking of Kafka’s classic which puts toxic workplace culture and its effect on the individual under the lens. The piece weaponizes the surrealism of the original text into a wild rumpus, unveiling a satire of identity and conformity. Scuttling around between micro-cinema, physical theatre, and spoken word burlesques, it explores imposter syndrome, individuality in the corporate hive mind, and our relationship with the insect ecosystem.

From physical to aerial theatre, Ill Lit is a powerful performance that uses the Japanese art of shibari (rope bondage) exploring mental health, cycles of repetition and the struggle to break out. Performed by Kasia Zawadzka, one of the pioneers of world self-suspension rope performance who has worked with some of the world’s leading rope practitioners including Kinoko Hajime, Saki Kamijoo, Garth Knight and Esinem.

For the second year running, the festival will platform and celebrate the work of womxn and non-binary animators from around the world. First initiated in 2020 to champion the work of women (cisgender, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer or intersex), with the aim of improving visibility for women in the film sector and addressing the current gender imbalance in animated film, the programme features work employing a wide range of techniques, textures and styles and includes some of the most decorated shorts in this year’s festival season.

Looking to legends of the animation world, Animated Women: Aaronimation will include a compilation of seven short experimental animated films by legendary American artist and animator Jane Aaron (1948-2015). Aaron’s experimental animations, compiled in the half-hour Aaronimation, are quintessentially cinematic. One frame at a time filmed with her Bolex camera, the films explore qualities unique to pre-digital movie-making augmented by Jane’s own handmade production tools and techniques. The works capture an era of 16mm filmmaking that is now frozen in history by obsolescence of the film medium.

With a dizzying array of animation styles and a packed programme of untold stories and exciting talent, MANIPULATE once again partners with Edinburgh Short Film Festival to bring audiences award-winning short animated films from around the globe. Featuring new work fresh onto the festival circuit, the programme offers something for everyone whether new to animated film or an avid fan.

All animations in the programme will be available for audiences to watch online as well, keeping the programme accessible to those outside of Scotland, or who cannot attend in person.

From film to installations, French artists Adrien M & Claire B present two immersive digital experiences that use interactive augmented reality in Acqua Alta – The Crossing of the Mirror and FAUNA. Acqua Alta is an interactive virtual reality installation that invites audiences to look through a tablet or a smartphone to discover the story of a woman, a man and a house. It traces the odyssey of those involved, facing the rising waters, among storms, ink seas, breaking waves and jellyfish. 

Visual artist and scenographer Claire Bardainne and computer scientist and juggler Adrien Mondot also showcase their creativity and skill in second installation FAUNA, which allows people to go on a treasure hunt to find and explore the imaginative worlds hidden behind the graphic prints. Fauna is a series of ten large-format posters with a custom-built Augmented Reality application that can be discovered via your smartphone, and presents animals roaming in beautiful landscapes and subtle soundscapes hiding behind city walls. 

Continuing  the programme of installations, audiences can discover Forest VIDEOLAB in the Meadows adjacent to Summerhall. Led by Mettje Hunneman, a Scottish-based videographer/editor and video artist hailing from Amsterdam’s dynamic art and VJ scene, the installation is a series of unique, site-specific, public artworks using immersive video projections with original soundscapes to highlight and transform public green spaces and question our place in nature.

Celebrating and supporting artists who play with form and challenge perceptions is central to the work of Puppet Animation Scotland, and this year’s MANIPULATE will see 3 programmed work-in-progress performances, working once again in partnership with SURGE and their bursary programme.

Firstly is Between Earth and Moon by Noah Thomson – a Surge bursary award recipient who will present this Scottish-Argentinian work-in-progress collaboration, performed live between the two countries using livestream technology. The piece is inspired by Italo Calvino’s short story ‘The Distance of the Moon’ and will explore relationships across distance.

Secondly is Sand, presented by multi-skilled artists Petre Dobre & Daniel Livingstone which tells of a very old mythical being – the Sandman. Sand is a highly visual work-in-progress performance that blends theatrical styles to bring the Sandman’s world to life through movement, object manipulation and shadow puppetry. Through this lens, they’ll explore dreams and face nightmares. 

Next up is MANIPULATE’s SNAPSHOTS that gives audiences a first look at exciting new visual theatre works from five Scottish artists, presented in the early stages of their development. Featuring puppetry, object theatre, physical theatre and dance, the lineup promises insight into the process of a diverse group of artists working with a wide range of techniques. Presenting work at this early stage is an invaluable opportunity for artists to share their work with an audience and receive feedback which can play a key role in shaping the work as it evolves. 

From work-in-progress to professional development opportunities, MANIPULATE Festival has 2 workshops from leading practitioners Al Seed and Green Ginger.

Al Seed presents What Makes a Good Idea for a Show? This is a question that can be deceptively difficult to answer at any stage in one’s career, but more so when there is the agenda of creating a show that is visually / physically driven. In this workshop Al will work with participants to explore approaches to identifying, developing and pitching concepts for future shows with presenting partners, audiences and collaborators in mind.

Green Ginger presents TRASH-HACK Puppetry Workshop, a full day workshop for both experienced and emerging puppeteers with the inimitable Chris Pirie of leading UK puppetry company Green Ginger. Trash-Hack is a masterclass in re-purposing domestic and industrial junk to create and animate instant puppet creatures.

And finally, in a series of events programmed to help artists, practitioners and producers connect with other puppeteers and enthusiasts, MANIPULATE Festival presents Netwalk (puppetry) – a practical way to connect with other professionals by walking and talking around Edinburgh’s iconic Meadows. Proven to increase creative thinking, as well as to encourage honest and productive conversations, one member of the Puppet Animation Scotland team will join each walk with ticket holders entitled to a free hot chocolate to keep them cosy as they stroll.

Tickets for the 2022 festival go on sale at 6pm, Thursday 4 November and can be booked by visiting MANIPULATEfestival.org.

ENDS.

Northern Lights Festival

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A brand new outdoor projection and arts festival celebrating the far north coastline of Scotland – announces its inaugural programme

8 – 16 October 2021 

Northern Lights Festival is a brand-new arts festival produced by Lyth Arts Centre, celebrating the stunning Wick Harbour and Caithness Coastline in the far north of Scotland, taking place from Friday 8 October to Saturday 16 October. The festival will blend together film screenings, exhibitions, performances, talks and a showcase on local, sustainable food, all centred around a show-stopping, free series of outdoor projections, running throughout the eight day event. 

Charlotte Mountford, co-director of Northern Lights Festival said: “We’re really excited to be able to host this event as part of Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020/2021. More than ever people are looking to celebrate their local landscapes and come together as a community – Northern Lights Festival is really a chance to shine a light on this most beautiful corner of Scotland.”

At the centre of a diverse and exciting programme is Northern Lights, a light and projection installation that will bring Wick Harbour to life with visually stunning projections across the harbour. Created in collaboration with Moray based Wild.bird, using archive footage and contemporary material, a new film will be turned into seven distinctive, striking installations that will be projected at iconic locations across the harbour. Each visual feast for the eyes will be accompanied by audio installations that will share stories and music for a truly immersive experience. Each night of the festival, from 7:30pm – 9pm, audiences will walk through the harbour, from old former salt stores of the Herring boom, modern day oil tanks, the iconic  lighthouse and the historic  Herring mart,  for a journey through Caithness’ coastal history marking Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020/2021. 

Carrying forward the message that we must protect and care for Scotland’s Coasts and Waters, Vision Mechanics 10 metre tall mythical goddess of the sea, Storm, will walk through Wick harbour on Monday 11 October, as part of her tour around Scotland. Made from entirely recycled and natural resources her eyes are the colour of oyster shells, her hair thick strands of kelp, her voice the chorus of the waves. Storm is accompanied by a beautiful soundscape created by the pioneering Scottish folk singer Mairi Campbell. 

The festival will have a strong focus on local food and drink, showcasing local suppliers and sustainable seafood. Running throughout the festival, The Printer’s Rest Pop Up will provide pop-up food by the harbour, inspired by the Caithness Coastline, all from The Printers Rest. The Dunnet Bay Distillery presents Coastal Botanicals: Gin-tasting with Rock Rose which will explore the botanics of their award-winning gin including kelp, rhodiola, rose and berries. 

Much of the festival is inspired by the harbour itself, created to draw on and celebrate the local community and existing arts and culture in Caithness. Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive centre will curate an exhibition offering a rare chance to delve into the Harbour’s archive, including the Harbour Master’s Log Books  – WK: History of a Harbour, running each weekday throughout the festival. Tours around the harbour from local groups will include a historical tour from The Wick Society and the Wick Riverside Tour of the Solar System from Caithness Astronomy Group. The newly-reopened Victorian sea-bathing pool North Baths will host Tunes in the Tides – your swim soundtrack by a local folk trio – and local storyteller and wild swimmer Alex Patience will lead an afternoon Family Storytelling Dip, as well as an evening of Storytelling & Starbathing. 

Further performances will include George Gunn reading from his new collection Between Two Beaches – his first poems since becoming Caithness Maker. Local singer, songwriter and ‘cultural crofter’ Nancy Nicolson will share stories and songs from Wick. Culture Collective Artist in Residence Sinéad Hargan will share a participatory, audio performance from We Can Move With The Sea If We Like which takes audiences on a journey of appreciation and reflection of our seas. 

A series of online talks and events include director of Seawatch Foundation Dr Peter Evans, who  will give a talk exploring how we can protect our local marine life – How to Conserve and Protect the Caithness Marine Environment – while Chris Aitken of Caithness Broch Project asks, were the Iron Age inhabitants of Keiss broch really cannibals? in The Coastal Cannibals of Keiss Broch. Shetland poet Roseanne Watt will read from her award-winning collection Moder Dy / Mother Wave and Lyth Arts Centre Associate Artists Morna Young and Catriona Lexy-Campbell will discuss their new play Salt Quines, inspired by the East Coast Herring Girls. 

The film programme will include a programme of ocean-inspired films at Pulteneytown People’s Project, including: Launch! On The Sea With Scotland’s Lifeboats, which dives into archive film and videos of RNLI crews and communities, accompanied by an immersive soundtrack from some of the UK’s best contemporary musicians. Shore Short Film Night will see an evening of short films inspired by the sea, featuring new Scottish documentary and international animation. A screening of Vitamin Sea follows Cal Major’s 2 month long journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats by stand up paddleboard, and Lyth Arts Centre Artist in Residence Morag Currie will premiere her new audio visual exploration into the Pentland Firth tidal streams. 

A series of family-friendly workshops and crafts which celebrate our seas will take place throughout the October half term festival, including nautical themed drawing and family friendly sea-watching around Wick Bay. 

Northern Lights Festival takes place from 8 – 16 October 2021. For full programme information and tickets visit https://lytharts.org.uk/northern-lights-festival/. 

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