Hands Up for Trad’s Women in Music and Culture 2024 list has been announced to celebrate just some of the women working in Scotland.
Launched as part of International Women’s Day 2023, we shine the spotlight on 12 women who all contribute towards Scotland’s cultural landscape through their work. Read the 2024 list here.
We asked Cora Bissett to tell us more about there work, influences and ambitions for the future.
How did you first get involved in the arts and who were your early influences?
I guess I just always had an interest in creating shows. Even as a kid, my friend and I made summer concerts, cabaret style, a range of short pieces and the nieghbours would come round and sit in rows. My mum was a beautiful singer/ guitarist and was a big inspiration too. I went to Lochgelly youth theatre in Fife as a teen which I loved then got in a band at 17 which took me off in a whole other direction. We landed a 5 album deal at that age and that pretty much set me off for an adventurous life in the arts. Even though it ended disastrously, by the time I emerged from the rock n roll debacle, I knew I couldn’t live any other way.
At a time which has been very challenging for many people working in the arts, how did you use the last 3 years to develop your creativity?
It has, and I have been very lucky. Before lockdown, my autobiographical show ‘ what Girls are made of’ played at the Edinburgh Fringe and created a big stir. I was approached by Black Camel Productions, a brilliant film production company who commissioned me to develop the show as a film. So I was living off that through lockdown and writing part of the time/ home schooling/ trying to quickly teach myself how to write for screen. I read as much as I could, watched tutorials, bought software and just tried stuff.
At the same time, a show I had directed in London ( the adaptation of Emma Donohue’s bestseller ‘ ROOM’ was bring produced in Canada. I would direct the cast on zoom from a tiny box room in my flat. They were all masked, I was 3000 miles away, and I was working til 11pm every night. It was kinda surreal but that also kept be going. So I guess I learned to direct a team and hold a company together on another continent.
The stage production of ADAM originally produced by NTS was also picked up by BBC Scotland and we adapted that for TV. Again, learning so much on the hoof, and had to work with my editor virtually from my little box room. We went on to win the Scottish Bafta, which was such an incredible feeling considering what we had been up against to make it.
Who or what interests you creatively?
Oh so many things. I’m curious about most other forms of creativity. I love watching really well crafted TV, great documentaries,,and film ( from art house to mainstream….I have a very broad spectrum. Recently I found the WHAM documentary incredibly moving, as much as I did the beautifully made ‘ electric Malady’ . By Marie Liden…… films of course.
I love live gigs when I get the chance ( harder with a little girl now with her own social life!) I saw Kathryn Joseph recently and James Graham of Twilight Sad, both of whom were phenomenal. I love seeing highly visual/ physical theatre work. I recently went down to catch the National/ Improbable theatre production of ‘ My Neighbour Totoro’ which was a stage adaptation of the studio Gibley animated classic which was absolutely beautiful. But community artists fascinate me too….their ability to make creativity so accessible….some of the brilliant initiatives locally, like the Strathbungo winter wanderland, the beautiful creations people make in their windows just simply for others to walk around and enjoy. Similarly going to alot of fundraisers and demos to demand a ceasefire in Gaza right now. Community artists coming up with such brilliant ways to involve kids like leading workshops on creating kites, flags, flying flags together on a beach. I’m in awe of people making these things happen so quickly, so responsively, at such low cost. My shows can take so long to build, I really admire these people’s ability to just say ‘right next Saturday, this is what’s happening and it will be stunning’. I love a good inspiring TEd talk, where science meets art in crazy hybridised intersectional thinking. I deliberately choose topics which are out of my normal domain, just to spark my own neurons in surprising ways. I love all sorts of films, and enjoy children’s films sometimes as much as my own choice. Watching my daughter’s choice of films is interesting. You are aware of when they are most absorbed, and it’s when the storytelling is immaculate. Animations are some of the most moving films I’ve watched in recent years!
What are your plans for the next year or so and/or what are your longer term creative ambitions?
I’m working on three different screen projects right now. I made a short film last year ‘ The Singer ‘ which I co wrote with the brilliant deaf actor Jamie Rea, who also starred. We are looking to develop that into a longer screen form. It’s all about ye at in which this young deaf man appreciates music and sign sings to it I am incredibly evocative way. I’m trying to learn BSL, though I find it hard without constant practice but I’m determined to keep trying to learn little by little. I’ll be directing Charlene Boyd in her first play as a writer- the NTS / Grid Iron Theatre production ‘ June carter Cash- the woman, her music and me’ at Summerhall this Fringe. Charlene has been researching and working on this for years, and I’m delighted to be supporting her through that process. Longer term, I want to write and direct my own feature films which I am developing ideas on right now, I want to create another personal stage show as a follow up to ‘ WGAMO’ so that is brewing away in the background. I want yo keep evolving as a maker/ storyteller/ collaborator whichever form that takes.
Find out more about Cora Bissett here.
Read the Hands Up for Trad’s Women in Music and Culture 2023 List
Hands Up for Trad are an organisation who work with Scottish traditional music, language and culture. If you would like to support our work you can donate here.
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