Edinburgh International Festival to expand into Craigmillar

THE Edinburgh International Festival is to expand to Craigmillar and Morningside for its 70th anniversary.
Perfomers will include Blak Whyte Gray.Perfomers will include Blak Whyte Gray.
Perfomers will include Blak Whyte Gray.

London hip hop outfit Blue Boy Entertainment, one of the biggest stars of the EIF’s dance programme this year, will be staging two special shows at Castlebrae Community High in Craigmillar as well as performing at the Royal Lyceum in the city centre.

The group, who have just been nominated for an Olivier Award, will be performing in a pop-up venue in the school gym hall, which pupils will be helping to create and run.

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The two performances of the dance show will mark the culimination of a three-year partnership between the festival and the school, which has allowed senior students to secure work experience with the festival and seen performers like Alan Cumming visit Castlebrae.

Festival director Fergus Linehan said: “The school is in a much different place than where it was three years ago. It was in a very precarious place then, but it seems a lot more secure now. The programme has been as about professional development as it has been about attending performances.

“The students will be doing front of house work, serving teas and coffees in the interval and shadowing our production people, letting them drive the whole process of putting a venue together and putting on a performance.”

Meanwhile the Church Hill Theatre, in Morningside, will be deployed by the festival for the first time in 25 years, hosting the plays Flight and Krapp’s Last Tape.

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