Scottish Society of Playwrights
Encyclopedia
The Scottish Society of Playwrights (SSP) is a professional member’s organisation representing theatre
playwright
s in Scotland
. It is affiliated to the Scottish Trades Union Congress
, and party to the Theatrical Management Association
playwright’s agreement.
, Ena Lamont Stewart
, and Joan Ure
. It was established in response to a need for a co-ordinated voice for playwrights to be heard in Scottish theatre and to act as a playwriting development and promotional agency.
In the first twelve years of its existence the SSP received funding from the Scottish Arts Council. This meant that, besides such tasks as negotiating the first national contract for playwrights with the Federation of Scottish
Theatre and representing playwrights in dispute with theatre managements, the Society was able to act as a major development agency for playwrights.
During this period, based on the work of the US National Playwrights' Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Center, it developed the model of playwrights' workshops that is now recognised and used throughout the UK by such institutions as North West Playwrights Workshop and the Performing Arts
Lab. It also published important, but neglected, texts, offered members at-cost copying and published a Newsletter which developed in time into Scottish Theatre News. It appointed administrators, firstly Linda Haase and later Charles Hart, who provided outstanding service, Linda Haase going on to help found the Tron Theatre and Charles Hart to be New Writing Officer of the Arts Council in England.
In the mid-eighties, the Scottish Arts Council rethought its funding priorities and decided to withdraw funding from what it called 'support services' in favour of 'direct provision'. It was impervious to the fact that support for playwrights through the SSP was in fact direct provision.
In 1985, the SSP had to close down its lively and wide-ranging workshop, publishing and copying activities and concentrate on its primary role representing the playwrights of Scotland.
In 1986, with the Writers Guild and Theatre Writers Union, it negotiated its agreement with the Theatrical Management Association for the benefit of Scottish playwrights presenting work in England and Wales. Since then, it has represented the interests of playwrights throughout Scotland and abroad, leading a successful playwrights' strike in the early nineties and yet maintaining positive relations with theatre management organisations, north and south of the Border. The SSP continues to be more than simply a negotiating body. In recent years, it has, for example, held a conference in Inverness for northern based playwrights (1999) and produced the first authoritative directory of Scottish playwrights (2001).
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
s in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is affiliated to the Scottish Trades Union Congress
Scottish Trades Union Congress
The Scottish Trades Union Congress is the co-ordinating body of trade unions, and local Trades Councils, in Scotland. With 39 affiliated unions as of 2007, the STUC represents around 630,000 trade unionists....
, and party to the Theatrical Management Association
Theatrical Management Association
The Theatrical Management Association, founded in 1894, is the UK’s pre-eminent association for companies and organisations involved professionally in the production and presentation of the performing arts. The Theatrical Management Association has presented the TMA Awards annually since 1991....
playwright’s agreement.
History
The Scottish Society of Playwrights was founded at a meeting of Scotland's playwrights held in the Netherbow Theatre in November 1973, at the instigation of Ada F KayAda F Kay
Ada F Kay, also known as A.J. Stewart, is a British writer with a particularly complex personal history. She grew up in Lancashire but lived much of her adult life in Scotland.-Work:...
, Ena Lamont Stewart
Ena Lamont Stewart
Ena Lamont Stewart was a Scottish playwright and the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister whose family was originally from Canada and had settled in Glasgow. She worked as the librarian of Baillie's Reference Library.Ena married the Scottish actor Jack Stewart and had a son, William...
, and Joan Ure
Joan Ure
Joan Ure was the pen name of Elizabeth Thoms Clark , a Scottish poet and playwright. She was born Elizabeth Thomson Carswell on 22 June 1918 in Wallsend, Tyneside, of Scottish parents who moved to Glasgow. She had a daughter, Frances, by Jack Clark, a businessman...
. It was established in response to a need for a co-ordinated voice for playwrights to be heard in Scottish theatre and to act as a playwriting development and promotional agency.
In the first twelve years of its existence the SSP received funding from the Scottish Arts Council. This meant that, besides such tasks as negotiating the first national contract for playwrights with the Federation of Scottish
Theatre and representing playwrights in dispute with theatre managements, the Society was able to act as a major development agency for playwrights.
During this period, based on the work of the US National Playwrights' Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Center, it developed the model of playwrights' workshops that is now recognised and used throughout the UK by such institutions as North West Playwrights Workshop and the Performing Arts
Lab. It also published important, but neglected, texts, offered members at-cost copying and published a Newsletter which developed in time into Scottish Theatre News. It appointed administrators, firstly Linda Haase and later Charles Hart, who provided outstanding service, Linda Haase going on to help found the Tron Theatre and Charles Hart to be New Writing Officer of the Arts Council in England.
In the mid-eighties, the Scottish Arts Council rethought its funding priorities and decided to withdraw funding from what it called 'support services' in favour of 'direct provision'. It was impervious to the fact that support for playwrights through the SSP was in fact direct provision.
In 1985, the SSP had to close down its lively and wide-ranging workshop, publishing and copying activities and concentrate on its primary role representing the playwrights of Scotland.
In 1986, with the Writers Guild and Theatre Writers Union, it negotiated its agreement with the Theatrical Management Association for the benefit of Scottish playwrights presenting work in England and Wales. Since then, it has represented the interests of playwrights throughout Scotland and abroad, leading a successful playwrights' strike in the early nineties and yet maintaining positive relations with theatre management organisations, north and south of the Border. The SSP continues to be more than simply a negotiating body. In recent years, it has, for example, held a conference in Inverness for northern based playwrights (1999) and produced the first authoritative directory of Scottish playwrights (2001).