Traverse Welcomes Four Emerging Theatre Companies for Hothouse 2015 This Week

The Edinburgh-based theatre companies and performers who will present work at this year's Traverse Hothouse showcase are set. They are Urban Fox, Heather Marshall, Melanie Jordan & Caitlin Skinner and Trig Point. They will perform their work in Traverse 2 this week, 10 - 13 November. The pieces are at various stages of development and audience input is being sought by the artists as part of their development process.

Since its inception in 1963, the Traverse has been a hothouse for new talent; cultivating and nurturing both emerging and established artists. Traverse Hothouse showcases home- grown, Edinburgh-based emerging theatre companies and artists. Traverse 2 becomes a place where the four selected companies can explore their work with an audience by sharing their newest creations at varying stages of development.

Executive Producer and Joint CEO of the Traverse, Linda Crooks, stated, "We believe that by nourishing Edinburgh's creative talents and offering support to take artistic risk, we can help grow a confident and ambitious grassroots theatre culture. Our common goal is to produce some of the best and most challenging new work for the Edinburgh audience, for the Traverse, and develop theatre for the audiences of the future at home and abroad".

Urban Fox will perform Heartlands by Dave Fargnoli on Tuesday 10 November. When things fall apart, you go back home. Swept up in a public scandal, jaded humanitarian Charlie rehashes the past and hashtags his way to the moral high ground. Dark, daft and subversive, Heartlands asks if optimism always has to break your heart. The piece features music by Rebecca Herd and is directed by Amy Gilmartin.

Wednesday 11 November sees Heather Marshall present Wasting my Womb, a deeply personal piece that playfully looks at the way "Heather wastes her womb". "I am 34. I am female. I have no children. I was told that I am a waste of a womb. This was meant as a compliment as I am good with children. I'm just going to leave that here.... I am a waste of a womb." Heather will direct the piece which examines the societal pressures experienced by women all over the world.

Melanie Jordan and Caitlin Skinner, in association with Gunshow Theatre, explore human love in their work At a Stretch. Are some people just meant to be together? Connected by fate and maybe something else. Something that's even harder to control and impossible to predict. Can you help who you fall in love with and will you know it when you see it?

Melanie Jordan and Caitlin Skinner, whose piece Sanitise won a Scotsman Fringe First in 2014, present a very early work-in-progress performance of their new show for young people about two women who fall in love.

In Capital Converse, Trig Point invites us into Frank and Malky's Leith flat to witness their witty and often scathing exchanges during a very skint time. It's a bitterly cold December night in Edinburgh and the twenty-somethings are together in the flat at the foot of Leith Walk. Malky's only recently been kicked off the dole and has all but a single pound coin to his name. To make matters worse, he's also still reeling from being dumped by the love of his life and woman of his dreams. He is, however, about to discover that his best pal Frank may have had something to do with his current desperate state. The piece is performed on Friday 13 November.

The Traverse is Scotland's foremost theatre company dedicated to new writing. Founded by a group of passionate arts enthusiasts seeking to extend the spirit of the Festival throughout the year, the Traverse Theatre Club opened in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket in 1963. Now, a half century on, the Traverse is an established part of Scotland's arts infrastructure, yet retains that essence of innovation and excitement. It remains committed to the original spirit of its founders, and to presenting audiences with a good story, well told. Under Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin it continues to produce vibrant theatre for, and of, our time, further building its reputation with award-winning productions such as The Artist Man and the Mother Woman, Quiz Show, Ciara, Spoiling and Swallow.

Internationally acclaimed as a powerhouse of new writing, the Traverse has launched the careers of some of Scotland's most celebrated writers - John Byrne, David Greig, Gregory Burke, David Harrower, Liz Lochhead and Zinnie Harris. Many of today's finest actors have appeared on its stages, including Tilda Swinton, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Bill Nighy and Alan Cumming.

The Traverse's impact is truly international: it frequently tours overseas, engages in artistic exchanges and partnerships - most recently in Québec, Turkey and South Korea - and, every August, it holds an iconic status as the theatrical heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is also the home of the manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, the Imaginate Festival and the Traverse's own New Writing and Dance Festivals.

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