Elizabeth arrived at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in 2018 after eight years at Bolton’s Octagon, five as associate director and three as artistic director. Now in her second season as artistic director of the self-styled “theatre in the hills”, she has increased the annual number of productions to nine, a figure in Scotland rivalling only that of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum. Not bad for a town with a population of less than 3000. She talks to Mark Fisher about opening doors to the local community, forging links with the Scottish theatre industry – and hitting a quota of 65% comedy. Recorded at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 14 March 2020. [LISTEN HERE]
By Mark Fisher
MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).