As Scotland’s National Theatre company, it is our unique responsibility to make work by the broadest range of artists for the biggest and broadest audiences across Scotland (and where successful at home, abroad).

We are an artist and ideas led, audience focused company.

Practically, this means that it is ‘ideas’, conceived by artists, that will resonate with the biggest and most diverse audiences, that we consider first for commission/development and then ultimately a place in our programme.

We have now developed Our longer term priorities for 2023-2028 can we found below in our South Asian Action plan. Outcomes of our 2024/25 activities can be found in the and more detailed actions for 2023-24 and progress report update for 24/25 can be found below.

We therefore offer a range of opportunities for you to build a relationship with us, and access in-kind and paid support through a series of open calls. Click here for more information.

About National Theatre of Scotland Productions

Our artistic programme is guided by our Strategic Framework.. This is updated every 5 years, and in response to the cultural climate, reflections on the content and success of previous programmes of work and which theatre forms, communities and artists we have not yet collaborated with.

Each annual programme of productions and opportunities looks slightly different, as we can’t achieve our full range of strategic ambitions in any one year. For examples of our previous work – click here. However there are a range of platforms and models we regularly use to present work, and these platforms often intersect:

1. Nationwide Touring - a work which may be small scale in production so can fit in the back of a van and be able to tour to rural community spaces (e.g. town and village halls, school gyms)
2. Midscale Touring - a work which will likely tour to venues with seating for around 600-800 people (such as Dundee Rep, Tron Theatre, Eden Court, Beacon Arts Centre)
3. Sited/ Landscape - a work which will be rooted in a particular non-theatre place or landscape
4. Digital/ Screen - a work that can be presented to either online audiences, screen audiences, or be a hybrid of live and digital
5. Participation - work made with and by a 'community' be that a geographic or cultural community
6. Large Scale Touring (e.g. King's Theatre Glasgow, His Majesty's Theatre Aberdeen) - this is a work which is a large-scale production, with potential to be commercial, often with high profile cast and creative team and/or a known title or story.
7. Edinburgh Festivals - a new work, or new adaptation that premieres as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe or International Festival in August

As we also have a responsibility to provide as many jobs for Scotland’s artists as possible, we will try to hire from here first and will look elsewhere when there are specific skillsets or specialities that need to be met by hiring from outwith Scotland and/or there is a potential benefit to Scottish artists in working with collaborators from a wider geographical area. We are unlikely to produce or support work that doesn’t have a tangible connection to Scotland and the hiring of Scotland’s artists.

We will usually not commit to producing a show until a commission/project is approaching readiness for production (i.e. it is realising its artistic and audience potential and we know enough about it to develop a tour, budgets, partnerships etc). Whether and when a show is programmed is also dependent on the other projects also ready to meet an audience, and how collectively we can curate a series of productions in any one year that will achieve audience diversity and reach, geographic reach, large employability opportunities, a diversity of stories and reflect a diversity of lived experiences across the cohort of lead artists.

How we develop work and make producing decisions

Once a project has been accepted for development support, the Artistic Development team will work with an artist to agree initial development steps, which might include (but is not limited to):

• Solo research time/trip
• Time in room with collaborators
• Writing a treatment for a play
• A commission

The outcomes of these steps might include a sharing of practical work, submission of a treatment or first draft of a play, a paper outlining research undertaken.

Once each development phase is complete, the company will decide whether they wish to proceed with the project, and where that is the case, agree with the artist the next step on the development journey, repeating this process until a work is either approved to be produced and staged or turned down.

FAQs

In the spirit of transparency about our processes, here are some frequently asked questions that explain more about this process:

How long does it take for an idea to make it to the stage?

On average, given our programme timeline, where we book tours and programme a minimum of two years ahead, it can take between 4-6 years from an idea being commissioned, to a show being on stage in front of an audience.

Why does it take so long?

We have between 30-40 projects under commission at any one time and work hard to keep each project moving at pace, while being mindful of not rushing work to simply tick a priority box. As a National Company directly funded by the Scottish Government, we are under the highest critical scrutiny, so our work needs to be of the highest quality and cultural significance, regardless of who the work is by or for, so we take the time required and dedicate sizeable resources to ensure all work in development has the greatest chance of critical and audience success.

Will all projects under commission be produced?

Unfortunately, not. The nature of the industry’s research and development approach is that more work is commissioned and developed than will ultimately be realised, to ensure a continuous pipeline of work that will be programme ready and speak to our priorities.

Why does some work get turned down?

Decisions on what gets programmed are based on the merits of each project, Additionally, the curated shape of our annual programmes of work need to ensure that over several years we are realising our many priorities. The questions we ask at each stage of a project's development are: How well has an artist been able to implement notes? Is the project realising its initial ambitions? Is it proving to be of sufficient quality? Is it ready to meet an audience? Are we still excited about the project? When putting a programme of productions together, we then also question how each individual project supports us to realise a programme each year that will: deliver work at all scales, have geographic reach, reach a large and diverse audience.

If we decide not to proceed with a work, we release all rights back to the lead artist and the door remains open for them to pitch new ideas at any time.

We do not make decisions to release a work lightly and we understand how hard it can be to receive rejection. We continue to encourage artists to keep developing their craft and offer advice on other companies they can approach to support their next stages of development. The door will always remain open for future collaboration on new ideas. We also believe that whilst not every work in development will be programmed by NTS, the journey an artist goes through as a project is developed will ultimately help them evolve their practice and craft.

Who makes the decisions?

The Artistic Director is ultimately responsible for curating the programme and selecting work for commission and development. They are supported in this by the wider artistic and senior management team. At all stages of development and drafting of new work, the core artistic team evaluate a project’s readiness for programme.

How diverse is the team?

The lived experiences and cultural diversity of the team changes due to staff turnaround and the diversity of core staff is widened each year through the inclusion of artists on shorter terms contracts such as Associate Artists and Fellows and Consultants. We are also increasingly working with paid consultants to bring specific cultural perspectives into the team to support specific projects and decisions.