Roots 24 returns to Inverness with four days of theatre festival events

Last year’s festival expands with panels, workshops and performances.

Roots Theatre Festival 2024 October 16-19

by Margaret Chrystall

The Roots festival is back and this year the second theatre festival based in the Highlands is a four-day programme of digital and in-person events celebrating and supporting local theatre-makers.

From Wednesday (October 16) to Friday (October 18) there will be six online workshops and three online panels, plus a day of in-person performances and events on Saturday October 19).

The idea of the festival is to create opportunities for emerging and Highland theatre-makers to: develop new skills; make new connections; and showcase their work.

People are invited to come along each day for free online coffee mornings and the chance to connect with other artists, team members and others attending the festival.

On the tickets page, you can book for workshops, panels, and the performances.

As the festival says itself: “Our goal is to create a festival that inspires and supports the next generation of artists.”

A performance from last year’s Roots 23, Never Meant To Be Sent. Picture: Alexander Williamson

The online events include:

Wednesday, October 16

Workshop: What does a Production Manager do anyway?

1pm-2pm

With Louise Gregory

Workshop: Working with Lighting Designers

4pm-5pm

With Adi Currie

Panel: Theatre design

6.30pm-7.30pm

With Isadora Gough, Daniel Pirie, and Parasol Wu

Thursday, October 17

Q&A: Dramaturgy & play commissions

1-2pm

With Ellen Bradbury and Hannah Low

Workshop: Listing to the actors, listening to the space

4-5pm

On directing with Ben Harrison

Panel: Acting in Scotland

6.30-7.30pm

With Helen Mackay, Megan Macdonald, and Glynis Wozniak

Friday, October 18

Workshop: How to sell your show

1-2pm

With Morna Ross

Q&A: Creative Scotland funding

4-5pm

With Creative Scotland

Panel: Producing theatre

6.30-7.30pm

With Emma Ruse, Ellie Davies, and Laura Walker.

Saturday sees a full day of networking and scratch performances from local theatre-makers being held at Inverness Creative Academy on Midmills Road.

Saturday, October 19

11.30am Coffee Morning (free-to-attend)

And the latest update reveals the performers and teams presenting pieces throughout Saturday:

2pm Budding Collective work-in-progress

4pm Scratch Night with Lucy Beth & Erin Elkin 

6pm Woman to Woman work-in-progress

7pm Networking Evening.

Budding Collective | 2pm-3pm

Budding Collective 2023 @ Alexander Williamson

Hunter Martin

Joanna Shand
Megan MacDonald
Catherine MacNeil
Stephanie Riffort
Lindsay MacLeod

This year’s performance is a devised work-in-progress which explores the experiences of women from one generation to the next, looking at how it feels to exist in a society which wants you to always feel alone. 

The Budding Collective is a strand of Vivid Roots Collective, facilitated by Sophie Wink, and supported by mentorship from Caitlin Skinner. This group creates a platform for local theatre-makers to connect and support each other’s professional development through skill and knowledge sharing. 

Scratch Night | 4pm-5pm

Lucy Beth’s Drookit

Forced to evacuate her home due to flooding, Pammy seeks refuge with her Granny. Pammy must rebuild her life after everything has been destroyed while navigating the haunting, life-altering effects that the flooding has had on her well-being and is seeking compassion, sanctuary, and support. 

Anticipating the comfort and guidance that she received during her childhood from her Granny, she is instead, confronted with the harshness of her once-heroic figure through the lens of adulthood. The performance explores intergenerational care, compassion, and the shifting dynamics of the family structure.

Lucy Beth (She/her/hers) is an emerging performer and theatre-maker hailing from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. She recently graduated with Distinction from the University of Glasgow’s MLitt Theatre and Performance Practices Course. She was awarded a PGT Excellence Scholarship by the university. 

As well as conventional performing, part of Lucy’s practice concerns dialect preservation. She speaks Doric and seeks to create and perform work in Doric to continue to render the dialect

present. She won the Best Newcomer Award at The Doric Film Festival in 2024.

Erin Elkin’s As Steady as the Tide
Mirren has returned home after a heartbreak and moves back in with her reserved Mother. Feeling alone in a village full of people three times her age, Mirren soon discovers most have been through a lot more than she could ever have fathomed. 

A multigenerational story of the folk living in Argyll- the relationships they share with each other and the landscape. 

Erin has worked in theatre and film, predominantly as an actor, and is now branching out after writing and producing for Children’s Theatre and other productions. 

Woman to Woman | 6pm-7pm

Stephanie Riffort
Catherine MacNeil
Jennifer MacRae

This performance will feature episodic work-in-progress excerpts and sketches which explore themes relative to our lives as women today.

We are a collaborative group of women making work with, by, and for women. We have worked on a series of projects over the past 12 years together and this is a development of that practice.

You can find more details at the Vivid Roots Collective website: ROOTS 24 – Vivid Roots Collective and on their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Twitter: @Vivid Roots Collective (@VividRootsHI) / X Facebook: (20+) Facebook @vividrootshighland Instagram: @vividrootshighland

Also there’s the chance to book tickets for the events at: Scratch Events (humanitix.com)

Roots 23 – a participant at the festival writes what excited them about the event. Picture Alexander Williamson

See an interview with Vivid Roots Collective’s co-founder, now CEO and creative director Laura Walker – on the eve of the second theatre festival, looking back to May’s premiere of The Wound, The Rag And The Inbetween plus future projects and challenges …