It's not over yet!

What a year for the Wheels! Two new shows, another four awards for White, celebrity fans in New York and our wonderful friend and associate artist, Shona Reppe, got married. It’s not just us who think we’ve had a bumper year. The List noticed, and put us in their Hot 100 for 2011.

The year got off to a great start with Caged, our take on Beauty and the Beast, which was nominated for a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland. It didn’t win though because it was beaten by our own show White. The CATS was a great way to round off a wonderful weekend. Shona Reppe got married at her sister’s farm in Aberdeenshire and threw one of the most spectacularly theatrical weddings ever. The next day White won three CATS awards, making it the most successful show of the year (stv.com). Sarah Jessica Parker certainly agreed with that when she saw the show at the New Victory in New York. She said it was the “best 40 minutes of my life”!

August saw another successful fringe for us. We worked with director Lu Kemp for the first time to produce her beautiful show One Thousand Paper Cranes. Audiences and critics loved it and it won the Scottish Arts Club inaugural award for outstanding Scottish contribution to theatre on the Fringe.

Kes took flight in September and Rob Evans’ adaptation of Barry Hines’ novel was a huge success, with sell out houses in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. White flew off to New York and we helped Shona produce her brand new show, The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean which has been a hit and we can’t wait to tour it again. As if White creator, Andy Manley, wasn’t busy enough, he jetted over to Sydney the day he closed White on Broadway, to perform The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk at the Sydney Opera House. While he was away, White won another award, this time the Theatre Award UK for best show for children and young people.

It’s not over yet! The multi-award winning White runs until the end of the year at the Southbank Centre.

And it’s going to be a White New Year as the show flies off to Australia and New Zealand. Cotton and Wrinkle will be back in the UK to take White on a massive twelve-week tour of the UK – starting off in Scotland with dates at macrobert, Dundee Rep and the Traverse.

What else does 2012 hold in store? We’re delighted to welcome back a dear friend, Martha. Martha was the our first show, and was performed every single year from 1999 – 2010. She had a bit of a break last year, but she will be back in the spring for an Easter run at the Southbank Centre. White goes on further adventures in 2012 and, in the autumn, we’ll be taking The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk on tour around Scotland. There’ll be lots more too, but more of that in the New Year.

Have a wonderful festive season.

From all at Catherine Wheels.