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‘The Quest for a Truly Representative Scottish Native Drama’: The Scottish National Players

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Karen Anne Marshalsay
Karen Anne Marshalsay
Affiliation:
Gaelic Books Council.
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Extract

The Scottish National Players were the most interesting and important group in Scottish theatre in the 1920s, and the ‘national drama’ which they produced defined Scottish theatre for almost two decades. The SNP, as they were known, became the focus for the aspirations of young people wanting to progress to a professional career within theatre and were responsible for training a whole generation of Scottish actors. Later theatre groups, such as the Curtain and the Gateway, were greatly influenced by the Scottish National Players, who also made a major contribution to the early years of broadcasting in Scotland. Though mainly an amateur group, the SNP recognized the necessity for a national theatre company to tour as widely as possible, and in doing so helped to fire the enthusiasm for amateur drama which swept Scotland in the thirties. Many of the problems and debates which confronted them in their attempt to provide Scotland with a national theatre, such as the vexed question of whether production should be restricted to Scottish plays, irrespective of quality in the hope of better things to come, are still relevant issues.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Summer 1992 , pp. 109 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1992

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References

Notes

1. Constitution of the Scottish National Theatre Society, adopted at a public meeting on 16 January 1922. Copy in the Scottish Theatre Archive (STA).

2. Letter to David Glen MacKemmie, dated 3 February 1935, STA. Bottomley was recalling that the SNP had ‘with the greatest regret’ turned down an invitation to take their production of Giuach to the Garrick Theatre, London, because Bourchier was lending it to the ILP.

3. Aims of the St Andrew Society, printed in The Scottish Flag by C Cleland Harvey, published by the Society in 1914.Google Scholar

4. Letter from the St Andrew Society, dated 20 April 1914, signed by George Eyre-Todd and William A Callander of the Finance Committee of the Scottish National Players, STA.

5. Annual report 1914, STA.

6. Booklet published by the BBC to mark their fiftieth anniversary.

7. The Scottish National Theatre Venture, p.24.Google Scholar

8. Edinburgh: Oliver, and Boyd, , 1932, p. 106.Google Scholar Thomson also stated that the Arts League of Service Travelling Theatre and the Wilson Players were important in this respect.

9. The Stage 28 12 1922, STA.Google Scholar

10. The Evening Times 22 11 1922, STA.Google Scholar

11. ‘Scottish National Drama’, The Scottish Player, Vol. 1, No. 3, p.2.Google Scholar

12. The Scottish National Theatre Venture, p. 41.Google Scholar

13. MacGill, Alexander, ‘The Scottish Play We Hope For’, The Scottish Player, Vol. 2, No. 9, 03 1924.Google Scholar

14. Daily Express, 9 10 1929.Google Scholar

15. Letter from Corrie in the Evening News, 16 10 1929.Google Scholar

16. Letter from Grieve to the Daily Record printed on 13 12 1928.Google Scholar

17. The Scottish National Theatre Venture, p. 38.Google Scholar

18. Dramaturgy in Scotland. Glasgow: Royal Philosophical Society, 1949.Google Scholar

19. The First Thirty Years Scottish Broadcasting 1923–1953, (BBC, 1953)Google Scholar, copy in the BBC Reference Library.

20. Letter to the Glasgow Herald on 14 01 1931Google Scholar from Haibert Tatlock, who had himself acted with the Scottish National Players and reviewed their productions.

21. Introduction to The Scottish National Theatre Venture.