The Traverse and The Edinburgh Festivals
The Traverse Theatre was founded in 1963 by John Calder, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco with the mission of continuing the spirit of the Edinburgh Festivals all year round.
During the Festivals in August, the Traverse continues to present cutting edge new writing, as well as new work of all kinds to an international audience. The Traverse is occasionally referred to as 'The Fringe venue that got away', reflecting its current status as a permanent and integral part of the Edinburgh arts scene throughout the year.
Today August remains the busiest time for the Traverse. During the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Traverse played host to 18 shows. In a first for Scottish theatre, a series of specially commissioned rehearsed readings by Enda Walsh, Linda McLean, David Eldridge, Simon Stephens and Marina Carr were broadcast live on the 23 August 2010 to cinemas across the UK. One third of 2010 Scotsman Fringe First Award Winners were shows performed at the Traverse.
The Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner has described the Traverse's programme as, "The backbone to the Fringe programme. What you see there will often set the tone and tenor of the rest of the Fringe."
Read more about this topic: Traverse Theatre
Famous quotes containing the words traverse and/or festivals:
“Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)