AN award-winning actor, screenwriter, radio star and musician will headline an evening of Scot’s music and verse in the Borders next weekend.

Gerda Stevenson, who featured in 1995 blockbuster Braveheart, will perform at St Boswells Live! in St Boswells Village Hall on Saturday, January 24.

She will be joined on stage by a talented band of musicians. They include: Seylan Baxter on 'cello; Kyrre Slind on mandolin, lute and guitar; an dRob MacNeacail on bass guitar.

The spellbinding concert boasts the very best of Scottish stage performance, including a range of traditional and self-penned songs, along with a variety of readings written and inspired by Robert Burns, that Gerda is rightly famous for.

Gerda Stevenson, from West Linton, has worked as an actor, writer, director, and singer-songwriter in theatre, radio, opera, film, and television, in Britain and abroad.

As well as Braveheart, her many acting credits include the title role in Edward Morgan’s translation of Phaedra. For her role in Margaret Tait’s Blue Black Permanent, she won a BAFTA Best Film Actress award.

She founded Stellar Quines, Scotland’s leading women’s theatre company, and is an associate director of the touring company Communicado. And her extensive writing for radio includes dramatisations of novels by neglected Scottish women writers.

Her stage play Federer versus Murray, was shortlisted for the 2010 London Fringe Theatre Writing Award, published by Salmagundi, USA, and toured to New York in 2012.

Her poems and short stories have been published widely, and in 2008 she was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer’s Bursary. A poetry pamphlet, Invisible Particles, was published in 2002; her first full collection, If This Were Real, was published by Smokestack Books in 2013.

In 2014, Gerda released her first collection of music on the album 'Night Touches Day’.

St Boswells Live! promoter, Keith Farnish, said: “When Gerda came to us asking if we would like her to perform, we already knew about her radio and film work, but were not aware she was such a talented songwriter and musician – a few tracks later we were completely sold and booked her to be the star attraction for our Evening of Scots Music and Verse.” The evening will begin with music and readings from a range of Borders artistes. Already confirmed are award-winning accordionists, up and coming string players and a future folk-singing star. If you are interested in taking part in the first half then please contact Keith on 01835 822692.

Doors open at 7.30pm, with the music starting at 8pm. Discounted tickets are now on sale priced £8, with concessions for under 18s (£4).

Tickets can also be purchased from St Boswells Post Office.

Starting with this show, St Boswells Live! is now letting under-12s in free, providing they come with an adult subject to a maximum of 2 children per adult. Of the new pricing, committee chairman Graeme Mitchell said: “The club has always had the community in mind when setting ticket prices, and booking acts. We decided the best way to encourage families would be to remove the price barrier for younger people so adults no longer have to sort out child care. St Boswells residents, in particular, can enjoy top entertainment at great prices on the doorstep without having to worry about driving home.” For more details log on to the following website: www.stboswellslive.com