(Sep 1975 – Mar 1981) Peter Lichtenfels (Apr 1981 – Aug 1985) Jenny Killick (Sep 1985 – Dec 1988) Iain Brown (Jan 1989 – Aug 1996) Philip Howard (Sep 1996 – Dec 2007) Dominic Hill (Jan 2008– Oct 2011) Orla O'Loughlin (Jan 2012 – Dec 2018) Gareth Nicholls - Interim Artistic Director (Dec 2018 – Present) Controversies At the second Traverse performance on 3 January 1963, lead actress Colette O'Neil was accidentally stabbed on stage. The knife, which was real, had caught in the folds of her costume and had gone into her side. The actress went on with the rest of the performance and was seen to at the end by a doctor who had been in the audience and later taken to hospital. John Martin (co-founder of the Traverse and an early chairman of the board) says that the real knife was used because the space was so small and the audience sat so close to the stage a fake knife would have been detected. Richard Demarco says it was because they had no money and could not afford a paper one. Throughout 1965 the Traverse Theatre Club was threatened with police raids due to open homosexual activity in a time when it was illegal. At the 1967 Edinburgh Festival, twenty-two Traverse Theatre shows were performed; including Rochelle Owens' Futz! which the Daily Express described as "Filth on the Fringe", and Alfred Jarry's Ubu in Chains which featured Ma and Pa Ubu as 6-foot tall sexual organs. At a meeting in 1971 Artistic Director Michael Rudman persuaded the Edinburgh Corporation to increase the Traverse grant but refused to give any assurances on the 'decency' of future productions. See also Adjoining buildings Royal Lyceum Theatre Usher Hall References Further reading Hamnett, Ian (1963), Forward Traverse, in Magnusson, Magnus (ed.), New Saltire No. 7: March 1963, New Saltire Publications, Edinburgh, pp. 7 - 10. External links Official Homepage Theatres in Edinburgh Producing theatres in Scotland Arts organisations based in Scotland