Perth Theatre has named Shilpa T-Hyland as the first recipient of its Cross Trust Young Director Award.

Funded by the charitable body which gives grants to Scottish charitable organisations and young Scots and decided by a panel of Scottish theatre sector professionals, The Cross Trust Young Director Award has been created to give an emerging Scotland-based director the opportunity to stage a fully supported show at Perth Theatre.

Shilpa has chosen to direct Zinnie Harris’s adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in Perth Theatre’s Joan Knight Studio in Spring 2019.

A recent graduate with an MA in Classical and Contemporary Text at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Shilpa is a pioneer board member for Stellar Quines, and is co-founder of the company Modest Predicament. She has previously worked as a trainee director for the National Theatre of Scotland on 306: Day and NTS/The TEAM at Edinburgh International Festival on Anything that Gives off Light.

Shilpa said:

“I am delighted to be receiving The Cross Trust Young Director Award to direct Zinnie Harris' Miss Julie at Perth Theatre, a fantastic adaptation which really resonates for me with contemporary issues of intersectional conversation and the moments where we fail to reach each other. The award will allow me to expand my directing practise in a supported and challenging environment which I have no doubt will form an indispensable part of my learning as a director. I couldn't be more thrilled!”

Playwright Zinnie Harris said: 

“I am looking forward to working with Shilpa. The Cross Trust Young Director Award is a great scheme, a real innovation and fantastic opportunity for emerging directors; I’m very glad to be a part of it.”

Lu Kemp, artistic director of Perth Theatre and a member of the selection panel said:

“Shilpa gave a first-class interview about her ideas on directing and her love for the text and how she intends to bring it to life. She spoke beautifully for and about her generation, and I think she will prove to be an exciting voice in Scottish theatre.”

Dougal Philip, Chairman of the Cross Trust, said:

"We are delighted to encourage young directors in a sphere of the Arts which has been continuously supported by the Trust and in our 75th Anniversary to provide support for someone to train and direct in Perth Theatre with which the Trust has had a particular interest since its inception."

Since reopening in November 2017 after transformational restoration and redevelopment, Perth Theatre has reclaimed its place at the centre of Scotland’s cultural stage. Through initiatives like The Cross Trust Young Director Award and the creation of the Joan Knight Studio, Perth Theatre is making good on its commitment to supporting emerging talent and new writing, giving its audiences the opportunity to enjoy the best work in one of the country’s top theatres.

Zinnie Harris’s adaptation of Strindberg’s nineteenth century classic sets Miss Julie in 1920s Scotland where over the course of a single sweltering midsummer’s evening a maid, a butler and a mistress reach out to one another. Dreaming, fighting and loving in the few hours they have before their master returns, they grasp at possibilities of a different life until it is too late and only one desperate choice remains.

Miss Julie, directed by Shilpa T-Hyland, will be performed in Perth Theatre in Spring 2019, more information will follow at www.horsecross.co.uk.