2009 Awardee: Kierah Poppy Stark

This award means so much to me. I am so excited that I have been given this opportunity and can’t thank you enough for your support.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2009
AGE AT AWARD: 18
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Kierah Poppy’s first appearance on stage was at the age of three in the Merry Go Round Show at Eden Court in Inverness, in the same year that she started learning to dance.

She continued her dance training with Ballet West on their Aspiring Professionals programme and with the Scottish Ballet on their Junior Associates programme. At the age of eleven Kierah successfully auditioned for the Dance School of Scotland, Glasgow.

During her six years at the Dance School, Kierah regularly performed with the School at Glasgow’s Kings Theatre and Theatre Royal. In her final year she won the Randak Achievement Award for ‘Overall Excellence in Dance’. Kierah went on to successfully audition for Bird College to study musical theatre and also won a DADA scholarship.

Kierah excels in all the dance styles that she has studied, classical ballet, contemporary, jazz and tap, and communicates expressively to her audience, and shows huge potential in both singing and drama.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards will support Kierah Poppy in her first year at Bird College, Kent. Her funding has been continued for a second year. Demonstrating excellent progress in her second year, Kierah’s funding was continued for a third and final year.

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This award means so much to me. I am so excited that I have been given this opportunity and can’t thank you enough for your support.

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2008 Awardee: Daljinder Singh

I would like to thank Dewar Arts Awards for this award, and I am grateful for the opportunity it will afford me to develop my work.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 28
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Originally from Yorkshire, Daljinder has lived in Scotland for four years where she has been developing her work as a theatre director. She began working as a trainee drama worker with the TAG Theatre Company. Since then she has worked for National Theatre of Scotland, Playwrights Studio Scotland and Ankur Productions and has staged productions at both the Tramway and Glasgow Citizens Theatre.

Her production of Martin Crimp’s ‘Fewer Emergencies’ at the Citizens Theatre was described by a critic as ‘a perfectly paced production that never misses a beat, emerging as a frighteningly vivid journey’. Recently Daljinder was awarded the prestigious, and competitive, Arches Award for Stage Directors, an award for new and exciting directors based in Scotland. The award will enable her to produce her own devised theatre piece ‘The Severed Head of Comrade Bukhari’ at The Arches Theatre, Glasgow.

Daljinder is considered to be a very talented young director with real potential to make a significant contribution to Scottish theatre.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Award will help to support Daljinder during the early development and rehearsal stages of her Arches project.

Since the Award

Daljinder writes that, “being able to participate in the Arches Award with the help of the Dewar Arts [Award] …… gave me the freedom and space to develop further artistically and explore what I wanted to say as an artist.”

Daljinder has gone on to further success since completing the project supported by a Dewar Arts Award. In 2008 she received the prestigious Jerwood Award for Directors and went on to direct a play at the Young Vic as part of this award. She is now undertaking a period of professional development at the Young Vic.

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I would like to thank Dewar Arts Awards for this award, and I am grateful for the opportunity it will afford me to develop my work.

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