91Èȱ¬

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Scottish Opera has some serious fans in South Africa.

The company's Five:15 project - which has been bringing together writers and musicians to create 15-minute operas - has been eyed up in a number of countries.

Cape Town has just finished hosting its own version (the slightly tailored Five:20 opera season) featuring, as the title suggests, five 20-minute operas by leading South African writers and composers.

In a nod to that inspiration, one of this year's Scottish contributions - Sublimation - a collaboration by composer Dr Nick Fells and author Zoe Strachan - was performed as part of the festival.

So far, the Scottish scheme has included contributions from Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Craig Armstrong, Ron Butlin, Bernard MacLaverty, Lyell Cresswell, Zinnie Harris and Louise Welch and sold out almost every performance.

It's attracted the attention of opera companies and festivals in Russia and Canada and, of course, in South Africa.

It comes at a difficult time for the company, which faces 4% cuts in its Scottish government funding, and potentially much more from local authority funding sources.

It's already lost its chorus and, earlier this year, began negotiations to make its orchestra part time too.

So it's a quieter, more subdued company which begins the build up to its 50th anniversary in the 2011/2012 season.

And while other countries may be singing the praises of Five:15, it'll be 2012 before Scottish audiences get another chance to see the project in action.

It may be the newest book festival on the circuit but Lennoxlove is rapidly catching up.

The second Lennoxlove Book Festival - held in the East lothian house and grounds of the same name - is already four times the size of the first one.

Authors appearing at the weekend included Ian Rankin, Iain Banks, Alastair Campbell and Nicholas Parson. There's a lovely intimacy about the event, which larger and more established events may have lost.

It's hard not to bump into one another - particularly when many of the authors stay in the big house overnight (one of the perks of this book festival, it seems).

Best selling children's author Julia Donaldson has pressganged James Naughtie into appearing in her show (he's the narrator of Zog the Dragon).

She knows his wife - fellow children's writer Eleanor Updale - whose event clashes with her own, so the deal is quickly made.

Despite the torrential rain, the grounds and house are buzzing. Fire-eaters and clowns entertain those queuing for books to sign.

The chapel is used for the more artistic events, the great hall for the heavyweights, and the marquee in the grounds still holds a not inconsiderable 450-capacity crowd.

The festival is an offshoot of the Borders Book festival - both have Alastair Moffat as their director - and suggest that the Scottish appetite for books and book festivals shows no signs of easing off.

Conn Iggulden, author of the Dangerous Book for Boys, says writers enjoy them because they offer a fun way of meeting their book buying public.

For the public, it's a cheap and cheerful thing to do on a rainy weekend in November.

At less than a tenner for a ticket, even with a book thrown in, it's still good value for a day out.

It seems we also like a good argument, a chance to test our knowledge, and that of our favourite writers.

They may seem like a gentle introduction to a mild mannered public, but don't underestimate the average book festival going audience.

The Scottish weather hasn't exactly been welcoming to the Lennoxlove Book Festival, but fortunately readers have.

Let's hope this festival is here to stay - and doesn't lose its charming intimacy too soon.

Mastering the complexities of Georgian polyphony is some task but it is one children from Thornlie Primary School in Wishaw have taken up with gusto.

When they were first told about the war in Georgia, they recalled how their own school had been vandalised at weekends and how much they wanted to make it stop.

It became even more personal when they heard about a boy of their own age, who'd been paralysed to increase his value as a child beggar.

Datuna was only three when he was thrown from a window on to the street below.

The children struck up a friendship and raised money for a ramp so he could get out of his orphanage in Tiblisi.

They lobbied the Edinburgh Area Health Authority.

And they learned to sing.

It's a style of singing which has defeated many adults but the Thorlie primary choir has now not just mastered it, they're good at it.

And as the only non Georgian children's polyphonic choir, they're much in demand.

They went to Tiblisi to see Datuna and performed at the Tiblisi Conservatoire World Symposium.

They sang for the Georgian patriarch and appeared on the news with the message that from the other side of the world they'd been moved by Datuna's plight and had come to help.

On Tuesday 23 November, they'll join the leading polyphonic choir Shavnabada for a charity concert in Edinburgh.

There will also be civic receptions in Wishaw and in Edinburgh.

And Datuna? He'll be coming to Scotland to see his new friends next spring.

And to have surgery - donated by Edinburgh surgeon Thanos Tsirsikos and the Edinburgh Sick Children's Hospital.

And I suspect there'll be some singing then, too.

The concert will take place on Tues 23 November, St Cuthbert's Church, 5 Lothian Road, Edinburgh.

Strange that standstill funding and 4% cuts should be welcomed with such warmth.

The Scottish cultural sector may not be celebrating, but there is a palpable sense of relief.

Compared to England, where cuts of 15% have been implemented, the national companies and arts institutions in Scotland will be expected to make 4% cuts.

Creative Scotland's budget of £35.5m be frozen - presumably because it's already perceived to have made all the cuts it can in merging the arts council and Scottish screen.

The festivals Expo fund will remain - at least for the next year, offering £2m worth of funding to creative companies.

Arts and Business Scotland's £300,000 budget will also be ring-fenced, unlike its counterpart in London which has had its budget slashed by 50%.

Capital projects like the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall development and the establishment of an outpost for the V&A in Dundee, will go ahead as planned.

Organisations are quietly relieved but well aware it's far from over. Local authorities make a huge contribution to the cultural landscape - whether that's libraries and museums, or music tuition in schools.

Their budgets will be revealed in coming weeks - and there's little optimism that the cultural sector will survive unscathed.

On top of that, the Scottish budget is one year only, leaving many organisations and individuals unable to plan ahead, and unsure about what the future holds.

Close friend Gavin Mitchell will take Kelly's part

Just two weeks after their friend and colleague Gerard Kelly died suddenly of an aneurism, and two days after his funeral, rehearsals for the show got under way this morning.

Kelly's role of Muddles - the panto clown - will now be taken on by his close friend Gavin Mitchell, who was already cast as the Wicked Queen.

"I am still devastated by the death of Kelly, who was not only a colleague but a dear friend and I feel honoured to be able to do this," he said today.

"In some way it allows me to pay personal tribute to him and on a stage that was in many ways his spiritual home.

"I realise his Doc Martens are massive boots to fill and I only hope I can do him proud.

"Kelly was one of the last remaining true performers of Scottish Variety and I am determined to use everything that I have learnt from him; he was a truly gifted master.

"I just hope he will be watching over us all with a great big grin."

The role of the Wicked Queen will now be played by Barbara Rafferty, who returns to the King's panto for the first time in almost a decade.

Barbara said: "Kelly and I worked together on so many occasions, whether it was panto, theatre, TV or radio, I just adored sharing a stage with him.

"When I was asked to come back to the King's for Snow White my first thought was that it felt right; to be back on the stage that Kelly loved and to help retain the standards of the traditional panto that he had worked tirelessly to maintain both for the theatre and the people of Glasgow.

"It is a real privilege to be asked. Gerard Kelly is truly irreplaceable, a wonderful friend and he is greatly missed."

The theatre is also leading plans for a tribute to Kelly, which is likely to take place in February next year, after the pantomime run is over.

Ashley Page said in a statement this morning that he's leaving "with great sadness and regret".

He'd asked the board for a five year contract when his tenure with the company ends in 2012.

Instead, they offered him one year, and according to Mr Page, made it quite clear they wanted new creative approaches and influences.

It's a short-sighted move.

The company came close to closure in the 1990s.

After the death of its founder, Peter Darrell, it struggled to rebrand itself.

Poor decision-making and a lack of finance further increased the downward spiral.

It failed to impress as a classical company under Galina Samsova.

Its reinvention as a modern ballet company under Robert North, is probably best forgotten.

Ashley Page - fresh from the Royal Ballet - was uncompromising in his approach.

He wanted a clean page and a radical clear-out of dancers.

He wanted more money for a slimmed down, modern company, capable of performing modern ballet.

The board obliged - even giving him the freedom of a nine month period of darkness so that the company could retrain and emerge refreshed and renewed.

The results spoke for themselves.

Critics loved the new company and the pared down, simple work.

Loyal audiences used to more traditional fare took slightly longer to win over but his Christmas offerings - dark versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker - did the trick.

Scottish Ballet returned to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival - after an absence of more than two decades - and took it by storm.

In 2006, they performed in London for the first time in seven years.

In 2009, they toured overseas for the first time since 2001 and made their first visit to China in almost 20 years.

Their reinvention was complete.

So why is the board turning away the man who turned the company around?

By 2012, Page will have had a decade in the job.

Perhaps they feel it's time to give someone else with the same bullish, take-no-prisoners-approach, a chance to work their own magic.

At 54, they may feel Page needs a younger successor, someone who will forge new relationships with young and vibrant companies and choreographers.

But let's hope they have someone in mind - and are already making approaches.

While the company is in good shape - and the role of artistic director is a plum job - we live in uncertain times.

Cuts to the national company budgets are unavoidable.

Festivals and other showcases will have little money for new commissions.

Artistic ability will have to be tempered by a very real understanding of the economic climate.

The company may not face the dilemma they did more than a decade ago, working through a list of names and numbers and hoping someone - anyone - would salvage the company.

But it's still going to be a challenge - and having made the decision, they must pursue the right candidate with vigour and confidence.

Ashley Page views the decision with "great disappointment".

I suspect he's not the only one.

Earlier this year, I was standing at the bar after a show at the Citizens Theatre (I think it was Backbeat).

So was Minnie Driver and countless other stars of stage and screen. But rather than standing there ogling, I got talking to an actress turned director called Cora Bissett, who was working on a hard-edged show about sex trafficking.

She'd been inspired by an African girl who stayed in her house, who told her own shocking story of how she was trafficked to Scotland.

Cora wanted to bring it home to Scottish audiences - quite literally - by staging the play in an ordinary house that the audience is taken to by bus. Even those familiar with the area would be confused and once inside, no one would know what was going on. Chillingly like the real experience of her flatmate.

Months later, and Cora's finished play Roadkill, is the hottest theatre ticket since Black Watch. It sold out during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - and had to add extra dates to meet demand.

The latest run in Glasgow - with the same stunning cast of Mercy Ojelade, Adura Onashile, and John Kazek - is also completely sold out and they're considering offers from Australia, America and other parts of the UK.

It's been an enormous boost for Ankur Productions - who began life as a niche company for ethnic minority arts projects and now find themselves in charge of a production which commands mainstream attention, not to mention a page in the New York Times.

The Scottish Refugee Council, who advised on the authenticity of the play, have provided material and guests for post show discussion. Roadkill, they say, has provided immeasurable help in raising the profile of this unspoken crime.

On a lighter note, a similarly chance meeting between professional musician Andy Rumbles and singing doctor Walter Nimmo, is the reason Dumfermline's Alhambra Theatre is tonight playing host to the world premiere of a brand new musical.

Ole Blue Eyes and Friends - Live on TV (they surely need a snappier title!) is as the name suggests an imagined TV show with the dream team of Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Doris Day and Judy Garland - not to mention a live big band.

Andy had long envisaged staging the show, but as yet, had no backer.

Walter - who used to head a pharmaceutical company for a living - won himself the chance to appear with the cast of the Rat Pack as part of the 2005 91Èȱ¬ Children in Need extravaganza (thanks to his generous donation of £20,000). The pianist was Andy Rumbles.

"I had no idea who he was," says Rumbles.

"Usually your heart sinks when someone wants to sing with the band but he was really rather good and we just kept in touch."

Fast forward five years and Rumbles has not only convinced Walter his idea has the makings of a good musical but Walter's given up the day job and set up his own company - OBE Productions (Ole Blue Eyes, what else!)

Rehearsals this week were looking good. A medley of classic numbers, a sassy and glamorous west end cast, including Stephen Triffitt, who sang with Walter in that original Children in Need show. Does the show have the potential to make it as far as the West End?The cast think so.

Adrienne Stiegel who plays Judy Garland - an impressive transformation for a blue eyed blonde - says: "It's easily a West End show. What's not to love. It's got amazing songs, artists that people still love after all these years, it's bright, it's upbeat. They're going to love it here in Dumfermline and beyond."

Let's hope so. The Alhambra - in all its revived vintage glory - has an awesome 1,200 seats to fill (although they're likely to settle for 800) and four performances to sell.
No news of a west end run just yet, but the team are hopeful of pinning down a UK tour of the show in the new year.