AJ Paterson

AJ Paterson is an artist based in Dundee whose work primarily revolves around documenting their own lived experiences as a queer person growing up in a heteronormative society. They are a painter who works primarily in oils and acrylics and their work aims to elevate queer representation in art.

AJ’s OutFest project is a collection of paintings exploring themes of self-love, acceptance, and healthy queer relationships, with a personal focus on identity. They want their work to reclaim the concept of self-love and empowerment from a society that has traditionally taught LGBTQ+ people to hate themselves, and in turn reject this harmful narrative. 

JD Stewart

JD Stewart is a gay playwright, performer, and digital content creator. His play, Daniel Getting Married, directed by Johnny McKnight will be on in the 2022 Spring season of Play, Pie, and a Pint at the Oran Mor, Glasgow and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.  

JD will be using the OutFest Bursary to do a development day and sharing of his play, One Twenty-One. He is looking forward to spending some time on the work, which has been shortlisted for a couple of awards over the last few years. 

Sarah Smart

Sarah Smart is a Dundee-based filmmaker, photographer and performance artist with an interest in exploring gendered identities and challenging heteronormative ideals. They work part-time as an AV technician at DJCAD supporting the production and exhibition of digital lens-based media and have recently been developing films for the Gendered Services Project with DVVA (Dundee Volunteer & Voluntary Action). 

They are conducting informal interviews to inform the development of photographic portraits that celebrate the unique and diverse individuals that collectively form the LGBTQ+ community in Dundee. They intend to exhibit the images publicly within the city and develop an online publication to coincide with the physical install of the prints. 

Tom Harlow

Tom Harlow is an international and award winning burlesque & cabaret artist based in Glasgow. He has been performing all around the globe for over 11years but more recently has been focusing on this newest character. Merman Tom is an all singing, storytelling real life Merman who loves to read alternative and empowering stories to kids of all ages. This latest project focuses on Merman Tom and his search for true love.  

Merman Tom & The Greatest Treasure of All (working title) is about Merman Tom and his search for true love. Tom meets three suitors along his journey but will they be a match and will Merman Tom ever find true love? This funding provided by Outfest will be used to work with a scriptwriter/playwright to finalise the narrative and direction of this show. The other half will be used to work with a musical director to finalise the musical direction of the show. This will give a greater starting point for future development with other performers and artists and the overall direction of the show. 

Amy Longmuir

Amy Longmuir is a freelance dance and circus artist based in Edinburgh. They are particularly interested in sharing real experiences through their work and are currently co-creating a dance theatre piece for young people called Q-fforia which highlights LGBTQ+ issues. Amy performs frequently as a dancer, partner acrobataerialist and stilt walker.

During Outfest Amy will be working on an aerial silks act about the pressures of meeting gendered expectations when being hired as a performer. This piece is particularly inspired by a recent experience of having to dress as a princess and is a reinterpretation of the song ‘Let It Go’.

Rylan Gleave

Rylan Gleave is a composer, performer, and voice tutor based in Leith. His musical practice involves a variety of neuro- and gender-queering of the classical, centring his late-breaking trans masc voice. Stylistically, Rylan blends contemporary classical with elements of black metal, Baroque opera, and post-punk, underpinned by a deep love for the theatrical.  

Rylan’s project includes work on his solo Requiem, supported by Sound and Music’s New Voices 2021 scheme. He will be writing text, music, experimenting with alternative notation, and testing movement. The Requiem critically examines the idea of a “protagonist” by re- and de-contextualising ancient religious text, and by exploring forgiveness, Queer reverence in relationships, and the abuse of patriarchal power. 

Simon Krawczyk

Simon Krawczyk is a first year at DJCAD. He particularly enjoys animation as a storytelling medium, but besides focusing on his studies, they enjoy taking on personal projects like creating webcomics, short animations or selling their work at events, conventions and online. His identity influences a lot of his work and they aim to create a safe space for LGBTQ folks through their art.

Patience is a short, silent animation that starts with a trans person trying to reach out to the NHS for help. When they find out that there is a possibility for referral, they are quickly hit with the reality that seems to feel like an eternity. They have to wait on a never-ending waiting list of supposedly 'accessible' services, and the only thing they can do is be patient. 

Rhiannon Mudaliar

Rhiannon Mudaliar is a queer artist/director of colour with a focus on socially engaged art film. Using a documentative lens combined with personal and historical contexts, they seek to amplify minority voices and share untold stories in vibrant new ways. Other obsessions include horror, cooking, and wearing loud prints. 

Their current body of work, RECORD THIS is set to be exhibited at the 2022 DJCAD Degree Show. This mixed media project will coalesce into a selection of short films, discussing the urgency of documenting contemporary queer lives, and the fleeting, desperate beauty of transformation at this moment in history. 

Laila Noble

Laila Noble is a Queer identifying Director, Producer and Playwright from Wales, based in Scotland. As a writer she was a winner of the Scottish Arts’ Club Bright Spark Award, runner up for Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award and was recently a finalist for the Hope Mill playwriting award. Her recent directing work includes Waves (Alice Mary Cooper) and Moonlight on Leith. Laila is the Artistic Director of ClartyBurd (New Scottish Companies Award 2021) and is an L20 artist supported by the Lyceum Theatre. 

Laila will be developing a scratch performance of her play ‘Flick and Pie Go Fishing’ for OutFest with Afton Moran and Emma Lynne Harley. 'Flick and Pie Go Fishing' is a dip into the pool of online love. They fall. Hard. Wrapped safe in the emoji universe of typos and drunk texts. Flash forward to real life and there’s more to handle than your social media feed. A delicate, humorous and honest look at Queer love. There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but always look out for sharks’.