Birds of Paradise Theatre Company is creating a play on land reform entitled Brazil 12 Scotland 0. It will be touring throughout Scotland in spring 2005.

To compliment the tour, Birds, in collaboration with daemon productions, is creating a publication of peoples’ stories relating to land ownership and community buy-outs.

• Have you been involved in a community buy out?
• Do you want to be involved in a community buy-out?
• Does land ownership have a direct impact on your life?

The publication, working title Our Land, will be a collection of creative writing from people who can answer yes to any of the above questions. We are looking for contributions from all sorts of people, of all ages; someone who’s spent their life thinking that patterns of land ownership aren’t fair, someone who has moved to the area because of what’s happened there, someone who’s been born and goes to school there, someone who’s watched a community change over a life time. We’d like to hear your stories and we’d like the rest of Scotland to hear them too.

And when we say stories, we’re looking for any form of creative writing including; reminiscences, stories, poems, song lyrics, anecdotes, jokes, riddles, curses, cures, spells, even recipes! They can be in Gaelic (but we’d need a translation too) or English or Scottish. They can be political or risqué. But they must be original and your own.

You can email or post your material to us at the contacts below. The closing date for submissions is Monday 1st November . We will then pass all the material on to Gerry Loose, Editor of daemon publications, and he will select which pieces appear in the final publication. Not all material will be included and the Editor’s decision is final. Don’t forget to include your name and contact details with your writing and if you want material returned to you please include a stamped self-addressed envelope.

If you have any queries about the project or would like further information about Birds of Paradise or our up-coming tour, please do not hesitate to get in touch. And feel free to let others know about this project too.

Send your written material to Birds of Paradise Theatre Company. 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow. G3 6NG or e-mail: morvenbop@aol.com You can contact Birds of Paradise on 0141 339 1155.