First Middle East theatre group to attend the Edinburgh Showcase, which features the most innovative UK theatre

3rd June  2007 (Dubai, UAE): Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the British Council's Edinburgh Showcase will stage more than 30 productions from the experimental to the established with a diverse mix of new writing, physical and visual theatre, live art, and mixed-media installations. The showcase takes place alongside the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's biggest performing arts festival, so overseas delegates will experience the excitement of Edinburgh as a festival city.

From 20-25 August, 2007, more than 200 leading international theatre promoters from over 50 countries - including a contingent of delegates from the Middle East visiting Edinburgh for the first time - will descend on the world's biggest festival of performing arts to see a range of exciting British productions, many of which ask pertinent questions about individual and national identity at the start of the 21st century.

The British Council will be bringing to Edinburgh a group of around 20 theatre promoters and Arts colleagues from the Middle East with the aim of kickstarting a British Council theatre programme in the region. For the first time, the British Council is looking to identify UAE talent to invite to the Edinburgh Showcase.

Cathy Gomez, Drama and Dance advisor at the British Council's head office in London, will visit Dubai next week to meet organisations which are active in the theatre: "The Edinburgh Showcase will feature 30 UK theatre productions in just one week, within the exhilarating setting of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Edinburgh Showcase represents a major networking opportunity for theatre people from across many regions directors, companies, playwrights and so on - with the aim of aiding intercultural understanding through the arts. I am looking forward to learning more about local culture and to meeting prospective theatre partners in the UAE."

Cathy Gomez will meet with organisations and individuals involved in the theatre, to test the interest level in the Edinburgh Showcase, through which relationships with UK theatre contacts can be established and potential joint projects initiated.

Yara Moualla, Arts Projects Manager at the British Council in the UAE, adds: "The British Council is putting more emphasis on the Arts in the UAE, and the Edinburgh Showcase is a great example of how theatre can help increase the level of engagement across cultures. This programme follows on from other cultural events we have run in the UAE recently, including the Common Ground multimedia art exhibition last year. We hope to use the Edinburgh Showcase to build a regional theatre programme in the Middle East, in the future."

British Council Director of Drama and Dance, Sally Cowling, said: "Over the last 10 years the Edinburgh Showcase has provided an important marketplace for British theatre makers looking to build an international profile for their work, and an exciting gathering point for international theatre presenters from over fifty nations. They all come to Edinburgh to watch, buy, discuss, and argue over theatre and its unique capacity to illuminate shared emotions and preoccupations."

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Director, Jon Morgan, said: "I'm delighted to welcome the British Council's Edinburgh Showcase; a benchmark of quality work that attracts influential international promoters and ensures that many performers continue to return to the Fringe. While the comedy and music sections of the programme have grown over the years, the Edinburgh Showcase has helped ensure that theatre retains a high profile."

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Notes to editors
Cathy Gomez, Drama and Dance Adviser to the British Council UK Cathy Gomez is a drama and dance specialist at the British Council with responsibility for arts programmes working with overseas colleagues in the Middle East, and other regions. She previously worked as editor of British Council drama/dance publications and websites, at the National Resource Centre for Dance, and The Place dance centre, as well as at venues and festivals in the US and Canada.

Edinburgh Showcase
The Edinburgh Showcase includes performances from over 30 British theatre companies and daily networking events. As a global meeting point for theatre professionals, it encourages UK artists and overseas promoters to talk, make links, book tours and develop long-term partnerships.

Since the inaugural Edinburgh Showcase in 1997, the British Council has presented more than 150 productions to an invited audience of international theatre programmers with 90 per cent going on to tour globally as a result. The first Edinburgh Showcase featured David Harrower's Knives in Hens, which has been translated for performance in more than 25 languages whilst Improbable - whose early production 70 Hill Lane was presented at the 1997 Showcase - has built on connections first forged in Edinburgh to develop a whole series of international relationships. The company's most recent production will be staged at New York's Metropolitan Opera this year.

Issued on behalf of the British Council by WPR

Media contact:
Jonathan Walsh
WPR
Dubai
Tel: 050 4588610
Email: jon@wprme.com

© Press Release 2007