# Theatre Alba

Theatre Alba was a Scottish theatre company founded in 1981 by Charles Nowosielski and Richard Cherns. With the aim of promoting diversity in Scottish theatre, it produced plays in the Scots language and encouraged new Scottish writing. Some of its most successful productions were works which drew on folklore or fairytale.
The company's first production was Edward Stiven's Tamlane, staged in the open air on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, in 1981. It then moved to The Astoria, a former dance hall in Abbeymount, where it presented The Jeweller's Shop by Karol Wojtyla, The Passion, Part One by Bill Bryden, Swanwhite by August Strindberg, and the world premiere of The Shepherd Beguiled by Netta. B. Reid. Programmed to run until 28 February 1982, the production was extended until 6 March by popular demand. It was revived at the Braidburn Park open-air theatre on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, and subsequently staged at the Traverse Theatre from 28 September to 2 October.
Theatre Alba's production of The Puddok an the Princess by David Purves won a Fringe First Award in August 1985, was staged again at the Traverse Theatre in December, and was taken on national tours by the company in 1986 and 1988. After he was appointed Artistic Director at the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, in 1986, Nowosielski continued to direct Theatre Alba productions at the Assembly Rooms on the Edinburgh Fringe. The company toured Edward Stiven's Tamlane in the Borders during the Borders Festival of Ballads and Legends in the auntumn of 1987. Stiven's The Cauldron was taken on tour in the spring of 1988. David Purves' Whuppitie Stourie was taken on a tour of the Central Belt in the autumn of 1989. Robert McLellan's The Carlin Moth was staged at Theatre Workshop on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1990 and toured South-West Scotland in the Autumn.
In 1998, the company was invited to mount its Festival Fringe productions in Duddingston Kirk Gardens. Its first production there was a revival of Netta B. Reid's A Shepherd Beguiled, and it continued to use the gardens as an August venue for more than twenty years. In 2002, the company introduced work for children under the direction of Clunie Mackenzie and Keith Hutcheon.

## Productions

* 1981: Tamlane, by Edwin Stiven
* 1981: The Jeweller's Shop by Karol Wojtyla
* 1981: The Passion, Part One, by Bill Bryden
* 1981: Swanwhite, by August Strinberg
* 1982: The Shepherd Beguiled, by Netta B. Reid
* 1985: The Shepherd Beguiled, by Netta B. Reid
* 1985: The Puddok an the Princess, by David Purves
* 1986: The Puddok an the Princess, by David Purves
* 1986: The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou, by Alexander Reid
* 1987: The Warld's Wonder, by Alexander Reid
* 1987: Tamlane, by Edwin Stiven
* 1988: The Cauldron by Edward Stiven
* 1988: The Puddok an the Princess, by David Purves
* 1989: Whuppitie Stourie by David Purves
* 1990: The Time Gairden, by David Swan
* 1990: The Carlin Moth, by Robert McLellan
* 1998: The Shepherd Beguiled, by Netta B. Reid
* 1998: Wallace's Women
* 1998: Good Morning Mr. Burns, by Donald Mackenzie
* 1999: Shakespeare at the Sheraton
* 1999: The Thrie Sisters, by Anton Chekov, translated into Scots by David Purves
* 1999: Tamlane, by Edwin Stiven
* 2000: Josef, by Raymond Ross
* 2001: Thenew, by Margaret McSeveney
* 2002: The Tragedie o MacBeth, by William Shakespeare, translated into Scots by David Purves
* 2002: The Faery Queen, by Howard Purdie
* 2002: The Carlin Moth, by Robert McLellan
* 2003: The Burning, by Stewart Conn
* 2003: The Enchauntit Gairden, by Charles Mackenzie
* 2004: The Magic Quest, by Clunie Mackenzie
* 2004: A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare
* 2005: The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare
* 2006: The Death of Arthur, by Donald Smith
* 2006: The Quest for Excalibur, by Clunie Mackenzie
* 2006: The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
* 2008: Little Red Riding Hood, by Eugene Schwartz
* 2008: Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw
* 2009: The Fairy Queen, by Howard Purdie
* 2009: A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt
* 2009: The Ootlaw, by August Strindberg, translated into Scots by David Purves
* 2010: The Seagull, by Anton Chekov, adapted by Jo Clifford
* 2011: The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekov
* 2012: Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel
* 2013: The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
* 2013: The Garden o' Delight, by Clunie Mackenzie
* 2016: The Quest for Excalibur, by Clunie Mackenzie
* 2016: The Shepherd Beguiled, by Netta B. Reid