In 2007, playwrights and academics David Edgar, Dan Rebellato, Steve Waters and Julie Wilkinson established the British Theatre Conference, which in 2010 was renamed the British Theatre Consortium (BTC) and constituted as a co-operative. The founding members were later joined by Janelle Reinelt, Jane Woddis, Chris Megson, and Chris Bridgman.
BTC's aim was to provide a forum in which theatre makers, both practitioners and companies; theatre academics and cultural policy analysts; and arts funders and administrators could come together to share views on issues concerning contemporary theatre and performance in Britain. Through their conferences, presentations, seminars, research projects and reports, BTC made timely contributions to urgent and critical issues facing the arts sector.
THE CONFERENCES
As the original name of the organisation indicates, a key feature of BTC’s work was its conferences – open to anyone working in the theatre sector and to academics and others with interest in theatre and theatre policy.
RESEARCH & REPORTS
BTC undertook a wide range of original research, often in collaboration with other organisations in the arts sector including the Theatre Managers Association, UK Theatre and Society of London Theatre (SOLT), North West Playwrights, the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) and Arts Council England (ACE).
BTC acted as consultants and advocates for British theatre:
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Bringing together theatre professionals with academics for meaningful and productive dialogue
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Producing commissioned research on issues closely related to the health of the British theatre industry
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Developing a conceptual platform from which to assess the arts experience
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Situating 'experience' of the arts alongside economic or instrumental arguments for justifying the value of the arts
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Providing concrete evidence in the form of case studies.
In 2026, BTC’s members decided to wind up the organisation. This website hosts a permanent record of BTC’s six conferences and preserves access to its first three research reports and associated material. The analysis of the British Theatre Repertoire is ongoing, and a separate, dedicated website has been established for this work, including the three repertoire reports produced so far, accessible HERE.