Cathie Boyd
'''Cathie Boyd is an Irish Director and Producer.
Born in Belfast and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Cathie Boyd founded Glasgow-based music theatre company Cryptic in 1994, and has co-produced and directed all Cryptic productions to date. Boyd's work has included numerous international collaborations, most notably with the Latvian Radio Choir, the T'ang Quartet and Supermusique in Montreal. Cryptic has received numerous Commissions including Tramway, Glasgow, the Singapore Arts Festival and Aldeburgh Music Festival and has been presented at festivals in Europe and throughout the Americas.
Directing credits include Britten, Bryars, Dzinitis, Gounod, Kurtág, Kyriakides, Haddow, Holt, Marta, MacDonald, Neil Martin, Reich, Sciarrino, Shostakovich, Stockhaussen, Talbot, Varese and Viñao.
Boyd has much experience with technologies in performance and was awarded a NESTA Fellowship to develop the visual staging of music through new software which led her to direct live visuals for Stravinsky’s Firebird with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore and the Strathmore Hall, Washington. She has also presented this visual music at festivals across Europe. Recently she developed Living Canvas – a new interactive tracking technology which uses the performer’s body and clothes as a projection surface. Living Canvas has been developed by Cryptic and Digital Design Studio at the Glasgow School of Art over a 3-year period, with support from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
As a producer Boyd produed several events under Cryptic Productions which included creating an international festival, Beckett Time, in 2000 celebrating the life, work and inspiration of Samuel Beckett presenting artists from Japan to Belgium and France to Brazil. In 2009 she created Cryptic Nights a monthly programme she produces at CCA Glasgow that supports [...] edge emerging artists.
Boyd also directed the openings of the Royal Museum of Scotland, Glasgow’s Imax Cinema and Science Centre and the Glasgow City Halls with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Film work: Optical Identity screened at Adelaide Film Festival 2009 and Rewind screened at OUTFEST LA 2009, Melbourne and Brisbane Queer Film Festivals 2010.
Awards:
- 2003: Outstanding Young Person Award – Junior Chambers of Commerce;
- 2001: A three year NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) Fellowship to develop the staging of music through new technologies;
- 1999: Awarded European Woman of Achievement for the Arts;
- 1996: Edinburgh Festival Fringe First for Parallel Lines.
Nominations:
- 2002: Only European Theatre Director to be short listed for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Initiative;
- 2000: Only candidate in Scotland to be short listed for a Creative Briton Award