Andy McGregor

The last few weeks have seen me being involved with a number of really exciting, varied, projects. I'm very lucky to have such an exciting, diverse, job. Nothing beats doing what you love as a living! I have been running some adult classes, through the Largs youth theatre, in my home town. I decided to focus on acting techniques - basically an introduction to Stanislavsky - and then another 4 week course that was an introduction to Shakespeare. I worked with my friend, actress Lucy Hollis, with a great group of adults looking to further their acting experience - from 25 year olds right up to 75 year olds! It was extremely inspiring seeing people from all walks of life engaging with Shakespeare in a way that, I think, surprised even them. Adult classes As this was going on I was also heavily involved in the first rehearsals for my musical 'Towards the Moon' which is being performed at this years fringe by a fantastic international cast of masters students from the R...

Normally I use this blog to write about various goings on in my career but last night's announcement from President Obama endorsing gay marriage - and the reaction to it - really got me thinking about various aspects of our society, especially what it means to be Christian.   First point to make is that the very concept of gay marriage seems wrong to me, there's just marriage and it should be available to anyone so long as both parties are agreed to it, but I am interested in looking at how some Christians seem to hold a similar view in a way that, to me, seems incompatible with their core beliefs. On the comments under the article on the BBC website there have been various points of view from 'Christians' saying, basically, that they are Christians and they think that Gay marriage is a good thing.  I can't get my head around this! The Bible clearly states: " 'You shall not lie with  a male as with a woman. It is an abomination." (Leviticus...

So I have spent the last 3 weeks working on a new wee comedy called 'Love 2.0' with Sam and Molly at the RCS.  This was a great wee chance to start from nothing and work with some actors in creating a brand new play. Molly Veevers as Suzie and Sam Keefe as Gary The idea behind the play was that social networking, Facebook in particular, has very little to do with being social.  In fact it could possibly have the opposite effect. One of the characters, Gary, creates a completely false impression of himself online that then attracts the attention of Suzie.  Everything looks like it's going to be a perfect match until they finally meet, and then have no idea how to actually talk to one another.  We had a great wee audience who laughed throughout and I'm now looking at ways of bringing this and my other comedy, Lucas Petite, to the stage.  There seems to be a huge gap in theatre for 20 somethings/late teens.  Maybe the audience isn't there...

I've not had a chance to update my blog in quite a while, things have been extremely hectic but I am now on a short hiatus and am going to use this opportunity to write about the various projects I've been involved in. Going back a few months now I was very lucky to be asked to assistant-direct for 'Hansel and Gretel' at the Citizens Theatre.  This was a great opportunity to see a big show being produced and for me to get to grips with creating a show in a relatively short space of time for a large-scale theatre.  The reviews were pretty good, you can check Mark Brown's out here . I then started to develop a new idea for a show with my ex-bandmate Paul McGranaghan.  This was based on an album of his that I am currently recording that focuses on the life and times of the author Hunter S Thompson.  Paul had also enlisted his friend Andrew Kennedy to come up with artwork, and these amazing picture became part of the show as well. 'Lono' by Andrew Ken...

This week has been one of the most challenging, and exciting, that I think I've ever faced. We are just about to head into the final day of development of my new musical 'Towards the Moon' with a showing of it tonight. The four days have consisted of me working with 6 fantastic MA musical theatre students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and an equally fantastic musical director on developing the piece alongside the director Michael Howell and my director-friend Emily. We started with a readthrough of the whole script with me singing the songs on piano. It's about 90 mins long. We then had some great, insightful discussions on the piece and it was fairly mind-blowing to hear the different interpretations, and therefore possibilities, of the piece. I had previously cut the show for this week as I knew the final performance was to be no more than 40 mins - however after the readthrough it became clear that a lot of work had to be done to make the piece rea...

Well... this week has been mental.  Totally mental.  I was lucky enough to receive a call from the director Guy Hollands asking if I could be assistant-director for the Citizens Theatre's upcoming production of 'Hansel and Gretel'.  This was totally unexpected but of course I jumped at the opportunity.  The rehearsal schedule is intense, with most days between 11 and 12 hours long. It's a big learning curve for me, vein thrown into this big-budget, large-scale show, but I've loved every minute.  You can check out the trailer here: On top of that I also had a gig to play at King Tuts this week with Paul McGranaghan and his band.  This went very well, it was odd being sat at the back just playing keys and singing the odd backing vocal, but was really good fun to have the pressure off and just enjoy making some cool tunes. I ALSO had graduation this week which was a lovely event with a good chunk of our course in attendance.  It was good to s...

How is this.... similar to this.... So I have been pretty busy these last few weeks recording ex-bandmate Paul McGranaghan's latest album - currently entitled 'Carry The Torch'.  It's the first time in over a year that I have been back in my studio working and recording with other musicians and, after so much time spent directing and working on plays, it struck me how similar to the two disciplines - music production and theatre directing - are. Both are about getting people comfortable and ready to be creative.  In recording this is about making sure things such as a headphone mix is as good as it can be, that the musicians can see one another and that there are as few boundaries (such as playing at a certain volume) in the way of working as possible.  Unfortunately in my studio there are a number of limitations in place but we do our best to get everyone as comfortable as possible.  I believe the same kinds of thing are important in directing...