About
Firebrand
“Firebrand, the theatre company based in the Borders, has a knack for identifying new plays that are destined to become contemporary classics.”
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Allan Radcliffe, in his 4 star review of Grounded for The Times
For over a decade, Firebrand has specialised in high-quality touring revivals and reinventions of unfairly neglected Scottish plays to premieres of outstanding new writing, produced from its home in the Scottish Borders.
In 2022, we were delighted to expand into the world of radio and podcasts with Fireworks producing A Journey with Nan Shepherd in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Fast forward to 2024 and as Associate Company, the premiere of Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed opened the Summer Season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and returns for a 2 week run 30 May - 14 June 2025. This year also saw the premiere of our Firebrand adpatation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own at Duns Play Fest on May 3rd which goes on tour this November 2024.
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At its core is Ellie Zeegen as actor and creative producer, Richard Baron as director of productions, and Susan Taylor as executive director. We all believe in the transforming visceral and emotional power of epic theatre produced in intimate theatrical spaces.
Scottish Borders based Firebrand began its award-winning career in Melrose in November 2010 with a performance of Talking Heads by Alan Bennett, which played to sell out audiences at the town’s intimate Wynd Theatre. After three successful productions there, Firebrand transferred its base to the larger arts venue Heart of Hawick where they have continued to work in partnership to this day creating many critically acclaimed national tours, highly popular site-specific productions and more recently inventive brand new work including Bill McLaren: The Voice of Rugby and Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed, the latter in co-production with Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
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Firebrand are grateful for the support of Live Borders, Heart of Hawick, Duns PlayFest and The William Syson Foundation.
For more information on our previous shows please go to our Past Productions section.
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Our Team
Ellie Zeegen (Founder, Creative Producer, Actor)
Ellie forged Firebrand in 2010 and has gone onto co-produced every production since. She also co-founded The Actors Temple which trained hundreds of actors in London's West End.
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Ellie is fiercely passionate about the theatre and acting has been honoured to play many dream roles including Olga in The Three Sisters, Ophelia, a female Indiana Jones and the Prime Minister since her debut of Jane Eyre at 16. Recent credits include: Anthony in Anthony & Cleopatra for Shake-Scene Shakespeare at Shakespeare North Playhouse, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and BBC Alba Sàr-sgeòil: Dracula.
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Additionally, Ellie has over 20 years script development experience and has nurtured many new writing projects including Firebrand's Page to Stage and Create with Director Law Ballard which featured Awaken by Cheryl Prince (runner up: Park Theatre Script Accelerator, Beacon Arts), Scooter by Paula Connelly (recipient of the Tim Gebbells Bursary) and Normalcy by Bonnie Adair.
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SPOTLIGHT: https://www.spotlight.com/2537-0191-7432
A graduate of St Andrews University, Richard is Firebrand’s Director of Productions and a former Scottish Arts Council Trainee Director at the the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Season Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and associate director at the Perth, Dundee Rep and Nottingham Playhouse theatres. His productions have won TMA, Herald Angel and CATS Awards and have been nominated for 13 other major national awards. His Royal Lyceum/Bath Theatre Royal co-production of Look Back in Anger won TMA and CATS Best Actor and Director awards and nominations for Richard and David Tennant and he has been described as “one of the most accomplished and imaginative directors working in Britain today” (The Stage). Notable productions include a 2018 CATS Award-winning production of The Monarch of the Glen, followed by the musical Chicago at Pitlochry, Bold Girls at the Glasgow Citizens and a sold out Firebrand/PFT tour of The Last Witch to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Tron Theatre, Glasgow
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Richard Baron (Director of Productions)
Susan joined Firebrand in July 2017. Before that, she spent eleven years transforming a derelict spinning mill into Heart of Hawick, a £10m multi award-winning arts and culture –led regeneration project. Wider responsibilities included leading on Creative Scotland’s Place Partnership programme, commissioning “A Cultural Strategy for the Scottish Borders” and planning and shaping a Cultural Forum for the creative sector. An experienced senior manager, producer, researcher and cultural planner, Susan’s skills include initiating and developing creative partnerships and new projects to support the artistic vision and business objectives of the Company. Prior to Heart of Hawick, she worked in publishing and finance and was an Arts & Business Skills Bank Adviser for many years. Susan holds an MBA from The University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Cultural Planning & Policy, supervised by Professor Franco Bianchini, one of Europe’s leading authorities on cultural planning.