Robbie Gordon is a theatre-maker and creative engagement specialist based in Scotland.
WHO I AM:
I am the Creative Engagement Director at the Traverse Theatre and joint Artistic Director of Wonder Fools alongside Jack Nurse.
My arts practice was born out of the idea that high-quality theatre should be for everyone. Growing up in Prestonpans there was seldom access to quality theatre and arts experience compared to what the cities in the central belt had to offer.
I found my love for the creative industries from teenage experiences in Youth Theatre at the National Festival of Youth Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland’s Exchange Festival. I went to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where I met fellow Wonder Fool Jack Nurse. We realised our joint passion for making work for communities that don’t usually access theatre that also had the ambition to draw regular theatre-going audiences too. We then went on an adventure that led us to make work for fields, festivals, town halls, major theatres and form the company Wonder Fools.
I’m a creative thinker, and I’ve turned my hand to all kinds of work over my career to date with communities always being at the heart of the work I make. Over the last few years I’ve led departments, created an international participatory project, drawn a sand portrait for a Danny Boyle project, movement directed a National Theatre of Scotland show and written a touring production about the Spanish Civil War. At heart, I’m an organiser, problem-solver, optimist and I love a challenge.
CREDITS:
Robbie is the co-creator of Positive Stories for Negative Times, an international participatory project by Wonder Fools in association with the Traverse Theatre, which has engaged over 8500 young people in 16 different countries and commissioned 16 new plays by Tim Crouch, Robert Softely Gayle, Leyla Josephine, Bryony Kimmings, Hannah Lavery, Sabrina Mahfouz, Douglas Maxwell, The PappyShow with Lewis Hetherington, Sara Sharaawi, Stef Smith, Debris Stevenson, Chris Thorpe, Bea Webster, Wonder Fools and Traverse Young Writer Ellen Bannerman. The work culminated in four festivals at the Traverse Theatre, Ayr Gaiety, Eden Court and Pert Theatre in association with Youth Theatre Arts Scotland. All three Seasons of the PSFNT have been published by Methuen Bloomsbury.
For Wonder Fools: Writer and Movement Director of 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War (Wonder Fools in association with the Citizens Theatre); Writer and Movement Director of The Coolidge Effect (Wonder Fools); Writer and Director of McNeill of Tranent: Fastest Man in the World (Wonder Fools): Producer of Meet Jan Black (Ayr Gaiety in association with Wonder Fools); Associate Director of Lampedusa (Citizens Theatre in association with Wonder Fools); Engagement Director And Then Come The Nightjars (Wonder Fools).
Selected creative Engagement work: Project Lead for the Positive Stories for Negative Times Festivals (Wonder Fools, Traverse Theatre, Eden Court, Ayr Gaiety, Perth Theatre in association with Youth Theatre Arts Scotland); Director and Producer of Class Act On Tour (Traverse Theatre); Director of Ayr Gaiety’s Culture Collective projects with Jack Nurse; Co-creator of the New Scottish Companies Programme (Ayr Gaiety); Speaker at the 2022 Edinburgh International Culture Summit at the Scottish Parliament; Producer and Director of Traverse Young Writers 2022 (Traverse Theatre); Creator of Open Your Lugs (Ayr Gaiety); lead artist (Ayrshire) on Danny Boyle’s Pages of the Sea (National Theatre of Scotland and 1418 NOW); Assistant on Jeremy Deller’s we’re here because we’re here (National Theatre of Scotland and 1418 NOW).
Other selected theatre work: Writer of When the Sun Meets The Sky (Traverse Theatre and Capital Theatres); Co-movement Director of The Enemy (National Theatre of Scotland); Movement Director of Eve Nicol’s Svengali (Pleasance Theatre in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre); Associate Director of Square Go (Francesca Moody Productions); Movement Director of the Lost Elves (Citizens Theatre in association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Assistant Director for Julius Caesar (Company of Wolves); Assistant Director on Graham McLaren's Dream On! (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Research Assistant on Locker Room Talk (Traverse Theatre).