Scottish Performance in Development
Take Me Somewhere aims to champion & advocate for exceptional performance work being developed in Scotland.
The following Scottish projects are currently in development and actively seeking co-production and presentation partners. These projects are due to premiere in 2027.
If you have any questions or would like any further information on these projects, please email Festival Manager Karl Taylor karl@takemesomewhere.co.uk.
Thulani Rachia - The Land wants Us back
The Land wants Us back explores grass lawns as a symbol of colonial land appropriation and environmental control - it uses live performance, original choral composition, and site-specific scenography to collapse past, present, and future, enabling a reimagining of our relationship to land. Drawing on their home country of South Africa, Thulani will examine the lawn as a legacy of British colonisation and associated with suburbia and institution.
Scale: Large-scale
Space: Theatre or outdoor version on garden lawn
Kirstin Halliday - Desert Grassland Whiptail Lizards
Desert Grassland Whiptail Lizards is an absurdist dance-drama about the "lesbian lizard" species of the same name; an all-female species from the deserts of New Mexico, who reproduce without fertilisation, but still stimulate each other to bring on ovulation. Currently existing as a 20 minute duo, the work will be developed to a one hour group work; reimagining this species as an all-lesbian fantasy world, exploring the fetishization of lesbians and the active reconfiguration of the cisheteronormative male gaze.
Scale: Mid-scale
Space: Small/mid scale black box
Adam York Gregory and Gillian Jane Lees
Performance duo Adam York Gregory and Gillian Jane Lees are developing a durational performance. Gillian stands on one end of a balanced plank and on the other end is a large block of concrete. She walks along the plank to the concrete and chips away with a chisel, occasionally returning to the other side to check their relative weights until the see-saw balances perfectly. The concrete becomes a sculptural equivalent of Gillian. A likeness in mass. A self portrait, baring all the scars of the work that made it. A durational performance, centered around the performer’s relationship with their body, the work is designed for gallery or industrial spaces.
Scale: Small-scale
Space: Gallery or site specific
Aby Watson - Folx
Folx is a new work-in-development from Scottish-English choreographer Aby Watson. By envisioning folk dance through a neuroqueer lens, Folx reembodies the English tradition of Morris dance to disrupt its stale, male, pale legacy and provoke its contemporary, radical, and inclusive potential. By jingling with bells and striking with sticks, Folx forms a critical and sensorial investigation of nationalism and gender in our turbulent contemporary times. A choreographic exploration into folk dance as a collective act of co-regulation and togetherness, Folx forms a rhythmic, repetitive, and stimulating ritual performance for those who often find themselves outside of tradition. Folx was awarded the Unlimited Large Award; supporting disabled artists in the UK.
Scale: Mid-scale
Space: Black box or Community hall
Rosana Cade - Speech of Freedom of Speech of Freedom
Rosana Cade is developing a text based solo work exploring the idea of 'freedom of speech'; looking at the way it is being hugely weaponised by the right-wing in the UK and across the world, in desire to open dialogue around the idea of freedom of speech within the arts, in a time of increased censorship and fear coming from multiple directions. The work will also explore the artist’s own experience of using their voice in public, as well as neurodivergent speaking patterns and modes of expression.
Scale: Small scale
Space: Black box
Dæmon Clelland - Charged Encounter / No Silence No Saints
Dæmon Clelland presents a dual project that invites audiences to navigate the friction between the physical and the fantastical. Through the XR experience Charged Encounter and the immersive theatre production No Silence, No Saints, Dæmon explores interactive performance and AV storytelling. Linked through a shared digital architecture and original musical score, these two works form fluid narratives of resilience and reclamation. Combining 360 video, spatial audio, ambient and hardcore soundscapes, audiences are invited to navigate through both real and fantastical scenes, confronting their own identities, biases, and participation.
Scale: Adaptable
Space: Charged Encounter - adaptable / No Silence No Saints - Black Box
Craig McCorquodale - State Banquet
State Banquet is a public intervention and audacious new piece of civic theatre, asking how many lives can find their place at one table. Audiences gather around a monumental banquet table installed in a closed street, city square or site of national significance. Six paid local performers cook and share one dish that reminds them of home, preparing their dish live en masse for a dining public and telling the stories bound up in that plate. The form is modular and scalable, designed to tour internationally.
Scale: Adaptable
Space: City/Town centre; public squares; adaptable to context