A message from incoming Artistic Director, Alan Cumming

I love working in the theatre and I also love writing.

But being passionate about writing also means that I hate it. As Ernest Hemingway said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed”! Any writer will tell you there is no more bleak a vision than the blinding whiteness of an empty page or computer screen, yet nothing more exciting and life-affirming than when the muse descends and you’re on a writing roll.

That’s why I’m so excited about this year’s Winter Words Festival and the chance to talk with so many great scribes about their work, their practice and how they’re feeling about the world we find ourselves in today.

As Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, my mission is to invite great artistes to come and collaborate with the very best of Scotland’s rich theatrical legacy. And in this Winter Words Festival I’ve invited an array of Scottish literary titans you know and love to stand alongside some new and diverse writers who I hope you will take the time to discover and champion.

Most of all, I hope you have fun. We’ve all been through a lot recently, and this Festival is a chance for us to gather together in this beautiful theatre and share our passion for words and our zest for life.