ACTOR Alan Cumming has said he “couldn’t be more happy” with the success of his first major event as artistic director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre as he opens up on why he doesn’t model himself on anyone else.
The Perthshire-born star, who was announced as artistic director for the theatre last year, was speaking after the conclusion of the 2025 Winter Words Festival on Sunday.
The 2025 edition of the annual celebration of Scottish writing featured some of the country’s leading authors, poets, broadcasters and chefs.
The line-up included Booker prize winner Douglas Stuart, celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, broadcaster Kirsty Wark and former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead.
The three-day festival also featured literary lunches with top food writers, runs with runner and author Chris Carse Wilson, yoga sessions with Finlay Wilson – and a DJ set by Alan Cumming himself which the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon (below) made a surprise appearance at.
Cumming, who turned 60 this year, said: “Winter Words Festival was my first curated programme of work as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director and I couldn’t be more happy about how it went.
“It’s my dream come true, to see our theatre so full of life and joy (and dancing), and also to celebrate so many great writers both well-known and emerging in such a positive and celebratory way.”
The multi-award-winning actor is currently programming the 2026 season at the 74-year-old theatre.
During an onstage Q&A event on Friday morning, the Scottish actor said he “wasn’t thinking about anyone” and that he doesn't have any idols after he was asked who he was going to channel in his new director role.
“There's people I admire hugely and luckily I've been able to work with a lot of those people in my life and my career,” Cumming said.
“There are people I admire more for what they've done as advocates or activists or for speaking out for causes and things that are close to their heart and my heart.
“I admire those people very much.”
He added: I don't think it's a very healthy thing to model yourself on someone else, especially if you, your whole life have been about being a weirdo.
“I don't have other peers who do the same thing as me, and sometimes it's a bit of a lonely place, but it also means that I get to do so many different things.
“So, I never really found it the same way, I don't yearn for things.
“I don't think it's a very useful thing to yearn for a part or a thing or a type of career because I feel that when you do that, you're looking over the present and what the present and the near future might give you.
“You're maybe missing all that because you're so intent on what's ahead.
“I haven't really focused on any one person.”
He concluded that he has worked with lots of great artistic directors over the years and that he has been like a “little magpie taking things from them”.
Cumming (above) said he wanted to bring things that he finds “exciting” to the theatre and an eclectic mix of productions.
Although the majority of the programming has been set for Pitlochry Festival Theatre Cumming said he is very much looking forward to next year when his programming will take over.
