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Ten days before the 2015 general election, a group of leading theatre-makers came  together to discuss changes in the theatre during the previous five years, and to ask whether austerity had damaged British theatre irrevocably, or whether theatre was in a  theatrical golden age, despite the cuts. The conference also saw the launch of BTC’s report on British Theatre Repertoire in 2013, which demonstrated that – for the first time since records began - new work has overtaken revivals on the British stage.

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​​​​​​​​​​The conference opened with a keynote conversation between RSC Deputy Director Erica Whyman, actor/director Samuel West and playwright David Edgar. The concluding contribution was by playwright David Greig. Other speakers included actor Adjoa Andoh, literary managers Suzanne Bell (Manchester Royal Exchange) and Chris Campbell (Royal Court), directors Giles Croft (Nottingham Playhouse), director   Phyllida Lloyd,  Elizabeth Newman (Bolton Octagon) and Joe Sumsion (Duke’s Lancaster), critic Kate Bassett, producer Mimi Poskitt, theatre-maker Chris Goode, theatre researcher Jane Woddis (University of Warwick) and playwrights David Eldridge, Sarah Grochala,  Dan Rebellato, Laura Wade, Julie Wilkinson and Roy Williams.

 

Other contributors included David Brownlee (of the management body UK Theatre),

Christopher Gordon, co-author of Rebalancing our Cultural Capital, which exposed the London bias of arts provision,  Fin Kennedy, playwright, co-director of Tamasha and author of the In Battalions report into the effect of cuts on new writing, and Lucy Kerbel of Tonic Theatre, campaigner for gender equality in theatre and author of 100 Great Plays for Women.

 

The conference was organised by the British Theatre Consortium, hosted by the MA in Dramatic Writing at Central St Martin’s, and  supported by the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

 

 

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