Musical theatre director to lead American TV project

Aug 7 2008 by Sandra Walls, Hamilton Advertiser

A LANARKSHIRE musical theatre director has secured a top television contract which will see her work broadcast on network television in America.

Sheridan Nicol, managing director and choreographer of the Lanarkshire-based Scottish School of Musical Theatre, was this week named as the stage director for ‘Highland Heartbeat’, a new television production being filmed on location in Scotland for television networks throughout the USA.

Sheridan is a respected director and choreographer and has staged hundreds of projects worldwide.

She has experience in all aspects of the industry including working in pantomime at the Kings Theatre and The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow with cast members from such top television soaps as River City and High Road.

The stage show is being performed live in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal on Wednesday, August 13, and is being broadcast at New Year on PBS broadcasting station throughout the USA, with links to Canada.

Highland Heartbeat is the biggest independent TV project to be staged in Scotland for many years.

The production includes a fly-on-the-wall documentary, similar to shows like the X-factor, Britain's Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, covering the audition and selection process with location filming throughout Scotland next summer.

Sheridan said: “It is a very exacting production from the same network who launched Il Divo and Celtic Women in the United States.

“At present, the performers remain one of the country’s best kept secrets but will include some of the most impressive new vocal talent seen and heard for years.”

Sheridan will be working closely with the cast including Fiona Kennedy, of Kennedy Productions, Glasgow-based musical director Kennedy Aitchison, and Scottish musical legend Phil Cunningham, Gaelic mod singer gold medallist Darren Maclean, plus the TV production team from T in the Park.

Sheridan added: “I don’t know the final budget but it is probably the biggest independent television project staged in Scotland this century with costumes from leading Scottish couture designers and television production by Ralph Spark (of T in the Park).”

Sheridan and the cast, production team and singers, who were chosen from a nationwide search, will be touring the stage show in America next year, when Sheridan will be directing the stage production.

TNT Pipers and Drummers, 60 of The Inverclyde Senior Choir and dancers from the Scottish School of Musical Theatre, Katrina Macleod, Nikki McEwan and Stephanie O’Raw, are also involved in the show.

“The Lanarkshire-based school starts back in August 16, and is now looking for budding young superstars for new drama, dance and musical theatre classes.

“Classes are based in Hamilton and Motherwell, and young all-round performers are being welcomed for places in the talented kid scheme, the HNC course and the new television and film agency,” she added.

Contact Sheridan Nicol on 01698 881256 or email jazzartuk@aol.com for further information and details.