Significant Events: Why Is New Writing Important To The Stephen Joseph Theatre?

This article was written for the Stephen Joseph Theatre and published in 2015.

Why Is New Writing Important to the SJT?

by Simon Murgatroyd

In 1955, the theatre pioneer Stephen Joseph opened Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in Scarborough. At the time, much of the attention was focused on its theatre-in-the-round staging which was practically unique in the UK, certainly in professional theatre.

Yet whilst promoting new theatre forms such as in-the-round was undoubtedly an essential part of Stephen Joseph's ambitions, more important to him was creating opportunities for new writers.

Stephen believed new writing faced too many obstacles in the theatre environment at the time to succeed. He felt radical ideas were needed to support it and that theatre-in-the- round offered a solution.

“The main impetus behind the Scarborough theatre-in-the-round was a concern with new plays... In 1955 the young playwright seemed to be having a particularly difficult time; not only because managers were unwilling to take risks, but because the widely held and limited concept of what a play should be had a constricting effect on what might be considered for performance... Their plays were rejected by enough managements to make me seek a way of staging the plays myself. I had no money of my own, and no one else’s was available for a theatre venture based entirely on new plays by unknown writers. The idea of theatre in the round was first considered for reasons of economy. It was the only practicable proposition.”
Stephen Joseph, 1967

It was on these foundations Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre was created, to challenge the status quo by promoting new writing and new theatre forms.

In context, it is remarkable to consider that a small regional theatre was opened with this remit a full year before the English Stage Company - now the Royal Court - would open in London and which is still considered the first modern British theatre dedicated to encouraging new writing.

In its inaugural season in 1955, Stephen Joseph unveiled four plays at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, all of which were new and all of which were written by previously unproduced authors. Often over-looked is the fact three of the four playwrights were also female; highly unusual for the time.

Stephen looked to encourage talent wherever he found it - no matter the sex or age - producing a remarkably eclectic range of playwrights during his tenure as Artistic Director of the venue.

Foremost amongst his discoveries was Alan Ayckbourn, a young actor / stage manager who Stephen encouraged to write and, later, direct. This alone had an enormous impact on Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre’s future.

Alan Ayckbourn would go onto become one of the UK’s most successful, popular and prolific playwrights. Significantly, he also ensured Stephen’s legacy survived from Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre through to the Stephen Joseph Theatre today.

Stephen Joseph died in 1967, largely unrecognised for what he had pioneered and achieved in Scarborough.

Whilst Stephen was Artistic Director, Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre produced 98 plays of which 41 were new commissions. With essentially half of the output consisting of new writing, then - as now - it is hard to argue that it is anything less than engrained within the theatre’s DNA and the driving force behind the company.

In 1972, Stephen’s protégé Alan Ayckbourn became Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre with a commitment to both Stephen’s legacy and his founding ambitions. New writing was securely placed at the heart of the company and it become increasingly hard to imagine what the SJT would be like if it was not producing new work or, even, what the point of the theatre would be without it.

When in 1976 he moved the company to its second home, the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, it can also genuinely be said that the theatre met Stephen Joseph’s lofty ambitions. New writing encouraged more new writing as such was the success of Alan Ayckbourn’s new plays, they essentially financially supported the risk of producing new work by unknown writers.

This desire to nurture, encourage and promote new writing continues to this day. Remarkably over the course of the past 60 years more than half of all plays produced by the SJT have been world premieres. An exceptional achievement by anyone’s standards. Whilst Alan Ayckbourn has long been associated with the SJT, he is just the tip of the many writers who have been nurtured and encouraged.

During the past six decades, the theatre’s new writing policy has helped launched the career of many notable playwrights as well as working with more established writers. The role-call is impressive and includes writers such as Torben Betts, Vanessa Brooks, Ben Brown, David Campton, David Cregan, Fiona Evans, Tim Firth, John Godber, Susan Hill, Vicky Ireland, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, Stephen Mallatratt, Sarah Phelps, Harold Pinter, Alan Plater, James Saunders, Robert Shearman, Brian Thompson, Peter Tinniswood and Nick Warburton.

Stephen’s passion for promoting new writing and Alan Ayckbourn’s determination to continue this legacy also produced something else remarkable, yet rarely acknowledged. Stephen Joseph genuinely believed he could attract audiences to see new plays and make a financially viable theatre rooted in new work. His instinct was that providing the plays were of good enough quality and entertaining or interesting, there would be an audience. He was not naïve enough to believe everything would be successful, but he did believe there was a demand for something new.

He has been proved right over the decades and his faith in Scarborough has been more than justified with a commitment by theatre-goers to see new writing as well as established plays.

At its most successful, this theatre has nurtured not only writers but an audience for new writing, willing to take risks with unknown playwrights and new material. Frequently one has fed into the other where new writing has attracted audiences and that support in itself has attracted more new writing.

That is not to say new writing has always been successful and not without risk at the SJT. That the company can proudly claim so much of its output is new suggests Stephen Joseph was not wrong in his belief that a theatre dedicated to new writing could be successful - even in the most unlikely of places!

So if we ask why is new writing so important to the SJT, the answer is essentially that it is this theatre’s very reason for existing. It is why the SJT was created and what for many people it has become most associated with. Its greatest achievement arguably lies in the many playwrights that have been launched from the theatre and found success.

New writing is also important for the simple reason that every new play produced continues that commitment to realising Stephen Joseph’s dream and ambitions for the theatre he founded in Scarborough.

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