The First 40 Years: 1991

This is part of a series of articles looking at the first 40 years of the Stephen Joseph Theatre (1955 to 1995) from the perspective of the theatre's Archive. The articles were first published in the SJT Circular newsletter.

1991: New Writing

by Simon Murgatroyd

As we near the end of the company’s tenure at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, it seems remiss not to highlight the legacy of new writing. This is particularly apposite for this particular period of the SJT’s life as during the early ‘90s, the SJT was - arguably - at a peak with its commitment to new writing.

Over the course of 1991 to 1995, there was a slew of exciting writers working under the auspices of the SJT, several of whom would go on to great success. It would also lay down the foundations for the SJT’s Literary Department which was not actually founded until 1996.

With that in mind, it’s worth taking a brief look at how important new writing is to the SJT and how a conflation of talent during the ‘90s led to the formation of the Literary Department of today.

When the Library Theatre opened in 1955, it was able to make a significant boast. All of the plays it presented were new plays by new writers. Even more significantly, three of the four writers were women.

To put this into perspective, when the history of British new writing theatres is debated, the conversation generally starts in 1956 when the Royal Court was founded. Now, no- one is seriously going to suggest that the Royal Court was anything less than one of the most significant champions of new playwriting this country has seen.

However, Scarborough was there a year earlier and in its first two years featured more female writers than the Royal Court managed in its first decade. Surely, that is worthy of note?

There was no Literary Department back in 1955, it was all run by Stephen Joseph. The four writers of the first season were drawn from a playwriting course Stephen ran at the Central School of Drama in London. From 1955 to 1965 - when Stephen stepped down as Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre - the majority of the new work premiered was commissioned by Stephen and relied upon people he had met, worked with or had built up a relationship with. This director-led approach to commissioning and working with new writers was essentially the model used by the theatre between 1955 and 1996 and was inherited by Alan Ayckbourn after he became the Artistic Director in 1972.

Stephen died in 1967 and the company lacked a permanent Artistic Director for five years. Although not much is held in Archive about this period, there was still a commitment to new writing and commissions and decisions would have been a collaboration between each season's Director Of Productions and the Scarborough Theatre Trust board, most notably the BBC Radio Producer Alfred Bradley, who was renowned for his work with new northern writers at the BBC and with whom Alan Ayckbourn worked with during his tenure at the BBC between 1965 and 1970.

After the theatre moved to its new home, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, in 1976, its reputation for championing new work only grew and the amount of submissions sent to the company for consideration only grew.

During this period, Alan began putting into place a system of readers - both professional and amateur - who would assess these submissions bringing the notable ones to the attention of the Artistic and Associate Directors.

In 1988, the system became slightly more formalised when the company appointed Gordon Townsend as the theatre’s first official Script Reader - essentially the first Literary Manager at the theatre. Although he had been responsible for evaluating new scripts and organising readers for several years previously, the position was only formally recognised in 1988. Gordon worked particularly closely with Heather Stoney in assessing and responding to scripts submitted to the theatre.

The ultimate decision though was still director-led and this really hit its stride during the early 1990s when Alan, Associate Director Malcolm Hebden and staff director Connal Orton were working with and encouraging a number of talented new writers such as Tim Firth (working with Connal Orton), Vanessa Brooks (working with Malcolm Hebden) and Robert Shearman (working with Alan Ayckbourn).

Between 1991 and 1994, the SJT premiered 23 new plays with the Studio space at Westwood largely used to showcase new writing through lunchtime and late night slots. Notable plays premiered during this period include A Man Of Letters and Neville’s Island by Tim Firth, The Village Fete by Peter Tinniswood, One Over The Eight by Peter Robert Scott, Penny Blue by Vanessa Brooks and White Lies by Robert Shearman not including, of course Alan Ayckbourn whose output included Time Of My Life, Communicating Doors and Haunting Julia during this period.

This all set the stage for the company’s move to the former Odeon site in 1996 and the foundation of the official Literary Department. Connal Orton was appointed Literary Manager and this marked the first time the company had a recognised - and more important, funded - a department tasked with dealing with submissions to the theatre and to work with and encourage new writers. Connal Orton played a huge role in encouraging new writers and discovering exciting new work before leaving the theatre in 1998.

The role-call of writers who have premiered new work at the SJT since 1955 is long but highlights include Alan Ayckbourn, Torben Betts, Vanessa Brooks, Ben Brown, David Campton, David Cregan, Fiona Evans, Tim Firth, John Godber, Marks & Gran, Blake Heathcote, Vicky Ireland, Helen Kelly, Stephen Mallatratt, Ged McKenna, Sarah Phelps, Alan Plater, Laurie Sansom, Robert Shearman, Mike Stott, Brian Thomson, Peter Tinniswood, Nick Warburton and Chris York among many others.

To emphasise just how significant new writing is to the SJT, consider this. Between 1955 and the end of this year, the SJT will have staged 638 plays. Of these, 332 were new plays. I challenge you to find any other theatre that can say more than half its output has been new work over more than six decades.

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.