A genius for theatre

Watch these spaces

Vicky Featherstone is Richard Findlay's 'genius'. She was an outsider in the keenly fought race to what undoubtedly will be Scotland's most spot-lit theatrical role. But she comes with an impeccable record of staging exciting new theatre and championing new writing, including a wealth of Scottish talent, as artistic director of London theatre company Paines Plough. She also brings with her a track record of financial acumen, having ably turned round the fortunes of the critically acclaimed company. Ms Featherstone takes up the gauntlet in November and both Scotland's and the international theatre community will be watching out for any number of performing spaces across Scotland. For the National Theatre of Scotland will not strictly be a building-based company but in essence a virtual company, initiating, commissioning and producing productions to be staged in venues across the nation allowing for the widest possible access to the very best in contemporary Scottish theatre.

However, although the National Theatre of Scotland will not have a theatre-based home like the National Theatre on the South Bank in London, its core staff will be located within a new £10 million cultural campus in Easterhouse, Glasgow. The 'Bridge' will include the Art Factory, an auditorium, rehearsal space, photography and multi-media studios, exhibition space, a library with digital learning suites and a swimming pool as well as the office for the National Theatre. It is envisaged that the project will have a huge effect in helping to regenerate and develop the community.

Kindling the imagination

These are exciting times for theatre in Scotland and the creation of a National Theatre of Scotland comes as the icing on a rich and multi-layered cake that is already enjoyed by audiences across Scotland. Those layers include professional, amateur, community and schools drama. Theatre is centrally placed within Scotland's Cultural Strategy and the main funding body, Scottish Arts Council, fosters high aims for the art form: to kindle the imagination, to stimulate political and cultural debate, to achieve outstanding levels of creativity and to be relevant to and reach all sectors of Scottish society.

The Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Children's International Theatre Festival (Imaginate) ensure that there is always a wealth of international theatre available to the Scottish public and that there is always an international showcase for home-grown talent. Throughout the year venues of international repute like Edinburgh's Traverse and Royal Lyceum and Glasgow's Tron, Tramway and Citizens maintain a steady flow of challenging work.

This year's Edinburgh Festival saw an exciting new initiative to showcase some of the best of contemporary Scottish theatre at Scotland's Theatre Gateway in the city's East End. In a robust display of theatrical strength, the Gateway's opening programme, funded by Scottish Arts Council, included Catherine Wheels' brilliant 'Martha' and Theatre Babel's 10th Anniversary production of 'Macbeth'. The third show, Theatre Cryptic's 'Each and Every Inch' a multi-media installation-come-performance celebrating the life of Canadian writer Elizabeth Smart was an exquisite, ground-breaking piece of work ravishing the visual, aural and olfactory senses.

Northern stars

But it's not just in the two metropolises of Edinburgh and Glasgow that you can experience riveting theatre. Dundee Rep, under new artistic direction, compounded its first rate international reputation at the recent Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) by scooping the Best Production, Best Performance and Best Director awards for Howard Barker's 'Scenes from an Execution'. Joyce Macmillan, the leading Scotsman theatre critic said of the production and the play: "Scenes from an Execution is a stunningly good production full of fantastic taste and energy. It is a fantastic play because it is so timely." Taste, energy and timeliness – what more could one seek in a night out at the theatre?

Further north, there are exciting times ahead for Aberdeen's His Majesty's Theatre. The 98-year-old theatre is closing for a year to undergo a £7.8 million development that involves the construction of a glass-fronted, five level extension with a flat-topped green roof. The aim is to bring the venue to life day and night with a café bar, restaurant, corporate entertainment suite, improved disabled access and, for the first time, rehearsal space allowing for the production of new work. The enhanced facilities alongside a range of educational activities will, it's hoped, open up the theatre to a new public.

The undying lure of the boards

Broadening access and inspiring the next generation are very much key aspects of theatre in Scotland. Community theatre is an important and sometimes overlooked area that brings people into contact with drama that might otherwise eschew it. Membership of the Scottish Community Drama Association includes over 1200 individuals and theatre clubs throughout Scotland – proof indeed that amateur drama is very much alive and kicking on the boards of school and village halls.

And as to the training of tomorrow's theatricals, Scotland's conservatoire, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow has been the key conduit for aspiration to the professional theatre for the last 50 years. And Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT), whose programme of work involves thousands of young Scots every year, is due in 2005 to step into Britain's first purpose-built theatre and arts complex for young people. The £3.2 million centre is being constructed as part of a commercial development in Glasgow's Merchant City by Persimmon Homes. The company is acting as a 'cultural partner' with Scottish Enterprise in a deal to lease the lower floor of the listed old sheriff court building to SYT at a peppercorn rent for the next 125 years. The theatre's artistic director Mary McCluskey is delighted as "it will give young people a dedicated space in Scotland . . . where their work doesn't come second to an adult programme . . ."

Another Merchant City theatre, awaiting restoration rather than creation, is the Britannia Panopticon. Let's hope that some of SYT's budding genii might play here, following in the footsteps of stars like Stan Laurel and Jack Buchanan who made their debuts at the Panopticon. And, if their stars are well aspected and they're spotted by the likes of Vicky Featherstone – Scotland, followed by the world, could really be their oyster.