18 March, Edinburgh: Open To Ideas, part of Open@TheStudio kicks off its residency programme this week with the first of four brand new projects. Now in its third year, this unique residency from Capital Theatres continues to play a crucial role in nurturing innovation and creativity, providing Scottish theatremakers the space, resources and funding to develop brand new work.

The residencies are part of Capital Theatres’ Artist Support programme and aim to support both new and more experienced theatremakers providing complimentary rehearsal space in The Studio, Technical support and £2000 in seed funding, ensuring that theatremakers have a space to explore and experiment with new ideas.

The Residencies have been awarded to Louis Utieyin, Louis Barabbas, Isla Campbell and Amina Beg.

This month, Capital Theatres will host Louis Utieyin as he develops his first solo show, Diary of a DL Trade. Diary of a DL Trade is a one-man play about a Nigerian gay man navigating their sexuality in secrecy. Blending poetry, music, stand-up, and visuals, the show tries to give an answer to the question:” What does it cost to be your authentic self in a world of expectations.

This will be Louis’s first full project as a lead artist and he will be supported by Wonder Fools as he develops his script and performance skills.

Louis Utieyin is a comedian, theatre maker and filmmaker with a passion for developing stories around black queer characters through comedy and storytelling.

Louis Barabbas begins his residency in April and will explore ideas for new musical Wildfire Season.

Two firefighters negotiate a seemingly endless series of grass fires in the Scottish Highlands. During the quiet moments the pair strike up conversations, at first tentative, later more probing, finding areas of common ground and issues of conflict. Part Groundhog Day, part Waiting For Godot, part Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York, this show explores notions of belonging, vulnerability, privilege and what it is to matter in this world, all in the face of an unpredictable natural force that has no regard for any of us.

Songwriter Louis Barabbas is an on-call firefighter for the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, working as part of the Dunvegan crew on the Isle of Skye. His theatre credits as composer/lyricist include Coraline: A Musical (with Zinnie Harris) and Jocasta: A Musical Tragedy. Before working in theatre and the emergency services he was the lead singer for rock band The Bedlam Six and artistic director of independent label Debt Records.

Capital Theatres welcomes Isla Campbell in June when they will embark on the first phase of R&D on new drama The March.

In 1981, to protest the closure of Edinburgh’s washhouses, a group of working-class women staged a funeral march from Causewayside Washhouse to the City Chambers. Dressed in black, they carried a coffin marked “PUBLIC LAUNDRIES.” Isla Campbell’s Grandma was one of the pallbearers. The March (working title) is a piece of theatre exploring community, working-class women’s culture, and cuts to public services during the Thatcher era—paralleling today’s austerity.

Isla Campbell is a 23 year old non-binary writer and actor from Edinburgh, focused on telling authentic working-class Scottish stories through an accessible lens. As an actor they have appeared in BAFTA-winning FLOAT as Theo and they voice Clove in Valorant, while also being a founding member Shark Bait Theatre Company.

In July, Capital Theatres will support an experimental project Dada’s Mixtapes by Amina Aaliya Beg. This genre-blending one woman show uses tapes from her late grandfather, Mirza Islam Ullah Beg to create a show that mixes live DJing, poetry, animation and comedy to bring political and social commentary from 1984 to the present day. The tapes, which are an archive of her grandfather’s university research, touches on Palestinian land reform, institutional biases from his professors and proposes Islam as anti-capitalist.

Amina Aaliya Beg is the co-founder of ajeeb studios, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, director, poet, facilitator, and DJ using her platform to challenge social and political discourse around the representation of British Muslims. Amina has been part of the BFI Film Hub North Writers Programme (2024) and has developed and staged plays with Leicester Curve Theatre (‘Hope New Mill’, 2024) and Contact Theatre (‘My Mum Told Me Not to Marry an Atheist’, 2023).

Open To Ideas is part of Open@The Studio. Open@TheStudio is a unique, comprehensive programme of practical workshops, useful talks, R&D residencies and scratch nights designed to help those in the theatre industry: new graduates, independent artists, companies and self-producers, offering them a complete support package, from advice and networking, to workshops, free to use space and seed money.

Fiona Gibson, CEO of Capital Theatres said:

“We are thrilled to be hosting our Scottish theatremakers,  Louis, Louis, Isla and Amina at The Studio. We are excited to see their ideas grow and develop and to share in their creative journeys. We see this as a critical investment in the arts talent of the future, and we hope each not only has a valuable experience with us but they also have a lot of fun in the process.” 

Claire Swanson, Head of Creative Engagement at Capital Theatres said:

“The Studio has become a real hub for emerging creative voices and we are so excited to host our theatremakers as they bring their ideas to life. It is a real honour to be a part of their creative journeys. 

We received 155 applications for this programme and it was tremendous to see the range of creative ideas being developed by Scottish theatremakers. These four projects each have something exciting to say about where we are now and how we’ve got there. Open to Ideas offers artists the space, time and support they need to explore their ideas without the pressure to know all the answers straight away. We can’t wait to see what these theatremakers discover.”

Heather Marshall, past Open to Ideas recipient said: 

“Open To Ideas allowed us to see what this project could be and, almost more importantly, could not be. It allowed us to experiment and rule out a lot of ideas until we settled on the right form for the piece. That truly is a gift- it is so rare that artists are given the space and time to play and make those mistakes.”

Anonymous participant feedback from Open@TheStudio:

“Capital Theatres is a space that artists can trust.”

“Brilliant for newer practitioners to be supported this way.”

Open@The Studio is supported by Baillie Gifford.