Cathie Boyd
Cathie Boyd was born in Belfast and gained a BA from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). She founded Cryptic in 1994, a Glasgow-based producing art house which has presented international collaborations worldwide in 17 countries.
Directing opera/music theatre: credits include AGF, Armstrong, Britten, Bryars, Dzinitis, Gounod, Kurtág, Kyriakides, Haddow, Holt, Marta, MacDonald, Neil Martin, Reich, Sciarrino, Shostakovich, Stockhaussen, Talbot, Varese and Viñao.
Directing film: Optical Identity with the T’ang Quartet, screened at Adelaide Film Festival 2009 and Rewind with music by Craig Armstrong, at OUTFEST in LA 2009, Melbourne and Brisbane Queer Film Festivals 2010, Philadelphia Q-Fest & Festival des Nouveaux Cinémas 2010. Cathie 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 SSO.
Other: Cathie has much experience with technologies in performance and was made a Fellow of NESTA 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 and festivals across Europe. In 2010 she developed Living Canvas for a production of Orlando– a new interactive tracking technology developed in partnership with the Digital Design Studio at the Glasgow School of Art supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
As a producer she created an international festival, Beckett Time, in 2000 celebrating the life, work and inspiration of Samuel Beckett presenting 15 artists from Japan to Belgium and France to Brazil. In 2009 she created Cryptic Nights and to date has presented over 90 emerging artists at CCA, Glasgow. Cryptic Nights crosses creative boundaries with live music, visual and sonic art, film and new media.
Awards include Outstanding Young Person Award; Junior Chambers of Commerce; European Woman of Achievement for the Arts; NESTA Fellowship and an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First for her production Parallel Lines.
Cathie's five favourite things:
- Swimming in the sea especially on Islay
- Samuel Beckett
- Best spa: Therme Vals in Switzerland – its like arriving in heaven too early
- Yves Klein’s 1962 – L’Arbre grande eponge bleue
- Trevor Chisman: Best Glasgow masseur
