A group of young performers from Lanarkshire will be jetting off across the Atlantic to take part in this year’s Tartan Day Parade in New York City.
The annual event is the highlight of Tartan Week and a dynamic celebration of Scottish heritage in the United States.
A total of 15 young people from ACT Scotland, and their parents, will travel to the Big Apple to participate in the spectacle on Saturday, April 5.
ACT Scotland, a performing arts school in Motherwell, was launched four years ago by former Our Lady’s High pupil, company director Sinead Higham.
The 26-year-old mum decided to take the plunge after finding herself out of work not long after graduating from university.
“I was studying at university and graduated in May 2020 during Covid, I then worked for a casting agency but was made redundant in August that year,” Sinead explained.
“I’m from Motherwell and when I was growing up you had to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh to get these sort of opportunities. I’ve always been quite passionate about bringing opportunities to local young people. And while Glasgow is only 20 minutes drive, parents can’t really be going there when they finish work at 5.30pm, to get their children to a class in rush hour.
“So I really wanted to give children these performing arts opportunities.”
Sinead now has a team of nine helping the young performer to reach their potential.
“We have children from three-years-old and up and we have classes three nights of the week and on Saturdays,” said Sinead. “They do a mix of acting, musical theatre and dancing.”
The performing arts school based at Ross Crescent has really taken off and last year Sinead decided to start the casting agency, The ACTS Collective in January last year, which has already witnessed relative success.
“We’ve already bagged a child spot in a Caledonian Sleeper advert that’s coming out in February,” Sinead revealed. “And one of our wee girls just got back from Spain last week, where she was on a shoot. That remains confidential at the moment, so I can’t tell you what it was for, but it’s amazing to have kids flying out from Lanarkshire to be part of these TV clips. It’s just so good for them.”
And thanks to the help of Lanarkshire businesses ACT Scotland has managed to raise £10,000 in donations for the trip to the United State.
Sinead added: “They will be performing during the Tartan Parade. We went to London two years ago, and the kids have been begging me to go to New York, so we kind of made it happen. Two companies, Fire Suppression Scotland and Silver Birch Interiors, gave us with quite a bit of sponsor money to buy tracksuits and holdalls, and outfits for the parade. So we’d really like to thank them.”
For more information on ACT Scotland or its casting agency visit: www.act-scotland.co.uk
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