SSP@50 Conference: Big Decisions

in partnership with the University of Glasgow Theatre Studies Department

SSP@50 Conference: Big Decisions

November 2024 was a time of great challenges and uncertainty in our industry, as well as looming spectres and wider dangers around the world. We were all wondering: just what does the future hold?

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SSP@50

About the Conference

We were delighted to welcome many of Scotland’s playwrights and leading industry figures to the SSP@50 Conference: Big Decisions.

As we marked our 50th anniversary, this conference felt like a perfect opportunity to work together as a community. It allowed us to interrogate how we planned the future of our industry.

The main question at the forefront of our minds as we came to the end of our anniversary year was: How can we ensure theatre in Scotland flourishes over the next 50 years and beyond?

We designed the conference programme with an eye to the future, to working as a community, and to enable us to identify and define the future together.

In addition to the main activities, an exhibition of content from the Scottish Theatre Archive.

Panel Discussions

A Year of Celebrating Playwriting in Scotland

What impact did SSP@50 Fellowship Awards have on the Fellows’ own creative development? How did the experience grow and strengthen relationships with their local communities, and the wider theatre sector in Scotland?

Chaired by
Linda Duncan McLaughlin (Playwright and SSP@50 Steering Committee)
Panel
Jack Dickson, Jack MacGregor, Rachael McGill, Fergus Morgan, Michael John O’Neill, Martin Travers, Elspeth Turner, Morna Young

Recovering Ambition – Where Are We Now?

What are the next steps that the industry can take in this most perilous of times? Are we planning for a slow or quick apocalypse? Or can we see through the smoke into recovery and a shared future?

Chaired by
Peter Arnott (Playwright and Co-Chair of the SSP)
Panel
Brian Logan (Artistic Director, A Play, A Pie, And A Pint), Nicola McCartney (Playwright, and Programme Leader, MSc Playwriting at University of Edinburgh), Caroline Newall (Director of Artistic Development, National Theatre of Scotland), Gareth Nicholls (Artistic Director, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh)

Shaping the Future

What does the next 50 years hold for playwriting in Scotland? How could the immediacy of the climate crisis, political and institutional uncertainty, the impact of A.I., and the ever-shifting landscape against which arts and cultural workers create new work, shape that future?

Chaired by
Kris Haddow (Playwright and Co-Chair of the SSP)
Panel
Susannah Armitage (Senior Producer, Eden Court Theatre), Isla Cowan (Playwright, Performer, and Director), Nay Dhanak (Playwright, Dramaturg, and Associate Producer, Framework Theatre), Graham Eatough (Playwright, and Senior Lecturer, Theatre, Film & Television Studies at University of Glasgow), Conner Milliken (Change Programmes Lead, Federation of Scottish Theatre)