I can finally talk about it! The Tin Forest at National Theatre of Scotland!

As an Associate Artist with the National Theatre of Scotland, I’ve had to bite my tongue…until now! The Tin Forest has been publicly announced. So let’s talk about it.

 

The Tin Forest is a beautiful tale about an old man who lives in a desolate landscape surrounded by other people’s rubbish. Every night he dreams of a beautiful forest with animals and plants and decides to build what he’s imagining from the garbage around him. A bird lands on a tin tree he constructed, drops some seeds, and a real forest begins to grow around the trash. It’s a beautiful metaphor for Glasgow. A city that was run by industry and factories that has now been regenerated into a city that is full of culture, arts, vibrancy, and life.

 

We will be taking over the derelict South Rotunda structure along the river Clyde and creating an immersive journey for audiences to experience this story with puppetry, toy theatre, projections, and music. However the production has a massive community engagement portion in which we will be creating art with the people in Springburn, Hillington, Govan, and the East End that explores the stories from each area in relation to the Tin Forest. Since the show is running in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games, there is also an international component in which young artmakers from across the commonwealth countries will come together to devise a theatrical work that leads to the rotunda.

 

This project is massive and will cover the entire city of Glasgow. I’m beaming with excitement! The development work has been really strong, the artists involved are highly skilled, and the community engagement has been well received and fruitful. I’m looking forward to showing Glasgow as a city “near nowhere and close to forgotten, that was filled with all the things that everyone wanted.”