Full GMP Profile

Grassmarket Project was a theatre company where the issues of social exclusion and social justice were crucial to the artistic process and its product. It aimed to achieve a particularly raw kind of authenticity, where people spoke their own truths in their own voices.

Jeremy Weller, Artistic Director, and his many collaborators over 20 years, are unapologetic about striving for both artistic and social goals in the company's work split about 60/40 between the two.

Young people with no previous experience of the arts had the opportunity to work alongside the very best professional actors to produce work of the highest quality. Experience showed that working in this way could have a radically positive impact on the lives of the young people - their education, their creativity and other areas of their social development. This authentic and explosive theatrical style often overwhelmed audiences.

Since 1990, the GMP won numerous awards for its 37 projects (including 27 dramatic productions) in 20 countries, with participants from all walks of life.

These included:

The physically disabled, the aged, soldiers, immigrants, refugees, the long term unemployed, women in isolation, the mentally ill, the homeless, street-children, young offenders, as well as young individuals, who have suffered physical exploitation, racism, homelessness and war.

Most recently "youth at risk" became the predominant focus of the GMP's work. Works in progress involved young people who were at risk of: anti-social behaviour, truanting, school exclusion, joining gangs and street crime.

Grassmarket Project won 19 UK and Worldwide awards for its daring combination of social investigation and drama, including 6 Scotsman Fringe Firsts Awards, 5 Edinburgh Evening News Awards, Prudential Arts Award short list and numerous international theatre awards.

GMP is a company limited by guarantee - number SC128907