Who We Are
Associate Artists
Abigail Brydon
ArtistTrained at Fife College on the Level 5 Drama course and is one of the students at Cutting Edge Theatre’s INSPIRE programme. She initiated the role of Beth in “Downs with Love” in 2016 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to play her in the Scottish 2018 tour.
Abi has since performed in “Downs with Love” at a number of events including the World Congress of Down Syndrome 2018 in Glasgow, and will be performing in “Downs with Love” in 2022.
Janice Barbour
ArtistJan has always had an interest in drama, has been involved with amateur productions and joined INSPIRE drama group at the Adam Smith College, Dunfermline on Monday 7th January 2019.
During lockdown Jan decided to write the story of her life, and during the drama Zoom calls this came up in conversation. Suzanne was particularly interested and asked for Jan to forward it to her. This has now developed from a story of Jan’s life into a script called “Phased Out”, which will hopefully become a fully fledged stage play.
Katie Milne
ArtistKatie trained in Acting for Stage and Screen BA (hons) at Queen Margaret and Napier University in Edinburgh and is an actress, part time lecturer at Fife College, freelancer within the creative industries, youth theatre facilitator and co-creator of children’s theatre company Pipe Up Productions. Katie has worked as an INSPIRE Drama tutor for Cutting Edge Theatre since 2012 and loves facilitating weekly drama classes. She has a real passion for growing and developing Inspire.
Katie is also one of the Actors in the production “Downs with Love”.
Nicholas Alban
ArtistNick is an Actor & Facilitator from Edinburgh. Returning to Scotland after training on the BA (Hons) Acting course at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London, he now divides his time between working as a performer on productions and running Drama classes and workshops for all ages.
Nick has toured across the country with companies such as Vanishing Point and continues to work with various drama groups, youth theatres, schools and day centres.
Board of Directors
Douglas Roberts
Chair Douglas is a solicitor who specialises in corporate and sports law. He is actively involved in St Stephen’s Comely Bank Church in Edinburgh and enjoys keeping fit, watching football, rugby and pretty much any sport and travelling to new places
Douglas has been a supporter of Cutting Edge’s work for a number of years and been involved in a few of the projects in different capacities.
Suzanne Lofthus
Artistic DirectorLike many other artists, Suzanne discovered theatre at a very early age and then was introduced to youth theatre as a teenager where she soon learnt the benefits that theatre brings. Over the years, Suzanne has had many adventures after leaving her job as a Manager in an oil company including performing outdoors in a banana plantation in Honduras to directing plays in prisons overseas.
She works in the company as a Director, Producer and has written a number of plays and books for musicals.
She set Cutting Edge Theatre up in 1995 to “make a difference” and loves seeing how theatre can affect and change lives for the better.
Sarah Halliwell
Sarah is currently the Curriculum Manager for performing arts, technical theatre and youth theatre in Fife College. She has been a member of Equity from the age of 12 working professionally as an actor both in TV and film throughout her life.
Sarah founded the current youth theatre at Fife College and transferred her career into full time lecturing and working as an SQA verifier for Drama and Theatre Arts. Sarah is planning on growing old disgracefully by returning to her theatrical roots and founding a centre of excellence for inclusive practice in Drama in Fife through education for children and vulnerable adults.
Sarah Heney
Sarah has been employed on a consultancy basis as the Marketing Manager at The MGA Academy of Performing Arts in Edinburgh since 2012, and was Marketing Manager of the Edinburgh Playhouse from 1989 to 2012.
Through her strong links with the tourism sector both in Edinburgh and more widely in Scotland, Sarah was invited to join the boards of The Audience Business, Luxury Edinburgh and The Edinburgh Capital Group and was part of the Tourism Innovation Group.
Alan Scobie
Alan spent 20 years in travel and tourism, and has also been involved in variety of other business activities.
Currently involved in business management, Alan supported the work of Cutting Edge Theatre prior to joining the board in 2001 and has been key in helping the company develop and expand over the years. Alan really only has one hobby – football.