The Boy and the Bunnet Blog

Come to your senses

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:49:20 +0100

We’re all looking forward to attending the Royal Blind School of Edinburgh’s fundraising event at the Queen’s Hall, 7pm on Thursday 20th June. There will be music and songs from The Boy and the Bunnet. Here’s the flier:

Edinburgh Fringe shows: book your tickets

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:34:24 +0100

Here’s a link to the Edinburgh Fringe brochure, with all the information you need on how to book tickets for this year’s shows.

https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/childrens-shows/boy-and-the-bunnet

We’ll be at in the Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s, Orwell Terrace, 12 to 18 August at 2.30pm, and we’re:

We're Made in Scotland

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:53:08 +0100

We are absolutely delighted to be included in the Made in Scotland programme at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Made in Scotland is a curated showcase of high quality performance from Scotland at the world’s biggest ats festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. It is a partnership between the Festival Fringe Society, the Federation of Scottish Theatre and Creative Scotland.

. The Boy and the Bunnet is part of this programme, as well as established companies like Scottish Dance Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland, and emerging artists such as Junction 25 and Keiran Hurley.

This year, for the first time, the Made in Scotland programme features music - jazz, electronic, classical and experimental as well as us trads.

All the information you need is right here: www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com

We’ll post up separately information on how to buy tickets for the shows.

Follow us on Twitter

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:38:55 +0100

For all our news over what looks like being a very exciting summer, follow us @boyandthebunnet

The Urisk meets the Gruffalo

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:49:06 +0100

James Robertson will be conducting an event for schools as part of the University of Aberdeen’s May Festival, this coming Tuesday 7th May.

It’s called Twa Scots Monsters in the Widds. James will be talking about The Gruffalo, which he has recently translated into Scots, and our very own Urisk - the mysterious creature who bides in the deep, daurk widds in The Boy and the Bunnet.

You can find out more at www.abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival/events/2465/

The Boy and the Bunnet returns to the Edinburgh Fringe

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:42:55 +0100

We’re delighted that we’ll be putting on a few performances of The Boy and the Bunnet at the Edinburgh Fringe, this coming August 2013. We can’t say much before the official launch in a few weeks time. So for more details, check back here or follow us on twitter: @boyandthebunnet

The Bunnet tours Fife - in one day!

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:38:57 +0000

We are very grateful to Fife Libraries for asking James Robertson to host three story-telling sessions in Fife this Thursday, 24 January 2013.

James will be introducing folk to The Boy and the Bunnet at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, then the Library in Glenrothes and Benarty Library in Ballingry. Nearly 1,000 adults and weans will attend the three sessions all together. All the events are now sold out.

Would you like to see a Boy and the Bunnet storytelling session in your local library? E-mail us, and we’ll do our best to arrange it: info@big-sky.co

Bunnet's on at Royal Blind School and St Crispin's

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:23:09 +0000

The young folk at Edinburgh’s Royal Blind School and St Crispin’s are planning two very special performances, inspired by The Boy and the Bunnet. They will take place at the Edinburgh Festival of Music on 27th February and the Queen’s Hall on 20th June - more information will follow.

In the meantime, the students are practising their ‘doukin and joukin’ under the inspirational leadership of music teacher Jill Reeves and drama teacher Aine Murphy.

Scots Language Week

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:43:13 +0000

It’s great to see lots of book orders coming in from teachers. Perhaps you are planning to use The Boy and the Bunnet to deliver Scots Language Week topics? If so, you’ve made a very good choice! There is lots of information on lesson planning in the Teachers section of this website. And you can order books from the Shop section.

If you’d like to see your school’s work featured on the website, please contact us by e-mail: info@big-sky.co

The Boy and the Bunnet at Aye Write!

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:48:25 +0000

James Robertson will be conducting a storytelling session at the Aye Write! Festival in Glasgow on Wednesday 13th March 2013. It’s part of the Schools Programme. Full details have yet to be announced - but keep an eye on the Aye Write! website for more details: http://www.ayewrite.com/programme/pages/default.aspx

The Bunnet birls in Morningside

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:35:00 +0000

A big thank you to class 5b of South Morningside Primary School in Edinburgh for today inviting me in to talk to them about book and music publishing. It gave me a great opportunity to tell them about The Boy and the Bunnet, and hopefully some of the young folk will be listening to the CD tonight.

The class teacher, heid and I are hoping to put together a visit from James Robertson in the new year, which will help with their Scots topic.

Creative Scotland Awards

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 11:49:38 +0000

Delighted that The Boy and the Bunnet has been named as a Finalist in the Creative Scotland Awards, which will be decided at a ceremony in Glasgow on 13th December 2012. We are in the ‘Traditional Arts, Scots and Gaelic’ category, with Manran and Dannsa. We’ll let you know how we get on!

Wigtown - imagine that!

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:57:53 +0100

Our two events for schools at Wigtown Book Festival went well yesterday. They were attended by around 600 schoolchildren and their teachers from the Dumfries & Galloway area. James Robertson was very impressed by the range of Scots words in their vocabulary and their vivid imaginations!

Performance in Dingwall

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:33:55 +0100

Our Highland schools project reached Dingwall last night with a public performance at the Town Hall - standing room only! The group play their last performance at Bishop Eden Primary School this afternoon. They can be really proud of their achievement over the past few weeks - well done everyone!

From a Bunnet to a Tam O'Shanter ...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:59:00 +0100

Gerda Stevenson, our Narrator, has been appearing in a very successful run of Tam O’Shanter. Time is running out if you’d like to see a performacne. This message from Gerda:

Just to let you know - in case you’ve missed it, or know someone who has! - there are only two performances left of our Communicado production of Tam O Shanter, directed by Gerry Mulgrew! They are at the MacRobert Theatre, Stirling, tomorrow and Saturday - i.e. Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd September, 7.30pm, (duration 1 hour and 30 mins).

The show was nominated for Best Music Theatre production and Best Score for MTM Awards, and Best Ensemble for the Stage Awards on the Edinburgh Fringe. Hope you can make it! Here’s a link to one of our many excellent reviews:

www.whatsonstage.com/reviews

It’s billed as suitable for 12 years and up, and young people seem to really enjoy it.

Please feel free to let folk know!

Under canvas

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:12:38 +0100

Already a month has passed since the final performance of The Boy and the Bunnet in The Famous Spiegeltent on the Edinburgh Fringe.

We had great, appreciative audiences every day of our 13-date run. Thanks to everyone who came along.

On their way to Wigtown

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:00:09 +0100

A large box of books is now heading down to Wigtown, for the Book Festival which starts a week tomorrow - the 28th of September. There will be a Boy and the Bunnet schools event on Tuesday 2nd October. James Robertson will be reading the story to around 600 schoolchildren.

James will also be presenting ‘The Gruffalo and other Beasts - in Scots’ at 6pm on Monday 1 October.

For more info go to www.wigtownbookfestival.com

Highland Schools project

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:52:33 +0100

A really exciting project has been running in the Highlands this week.

We invited S5 and S6 students to audition to learn to play the pieces in The Boy and the Bunnet and tour it around primary schools in the Highlands. A lucky 7 musicians, plus narrator and Stage Manager, have been coached by James Ross and have so far performed the show in primary schools in Tain, Golspie, Wick, Helmsdale, Gairloch and Dingwall.

Today they are performing at Carrbridge and Avoch, and there is a Public Performance at the Castle Street Church Hall in Dingwall at 7.30pm. Get along there if you can!

The final performance is for pupils at Bishop Eden Primary in Inverness.

Big thanks to James Ross for all the work he has put into audition and teach these talented young people, and the team at Feis Ros for pulling the whole project together.

"Inspired..."

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:24:51 +0000

We received some great feedback from a retired schoolteacher who took her grandchildren to see The Boy and the Bunnet at The Tron:

“The music is inspired and the story just great. The story was all that one could wish to introduce one’s grandchildren to. We had great fun with the words and how the children loved the sound of many of them! It is a wonderful way to introduce them to the instruments of their country and how these wee grandchildren loved the jigs, reels and strathspey rhythms”.

Four Stars in The Scotsman

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:21:39 +0000

Four Stars in The Scotsman:

And we’re heesltergowdie about the 4 star review in The Scotsman!