The National Theatre of Scotland’s Fellowship Programme for creative cultural leaders is designed to support creatives to experiment, be bold, be brave and take creative risks within a supportive environment.

                                                                 
Over 18 months, the Directing Fellow will be embedded in one of the following departments: Artistic Development or Creative Engagement, depending upon their experience and area of interest. They will also be embedded in artistic decision-making practices and processes across the organisation. 

The Fellow will be supported to engage in the following areas of work:

• Supporting programming and commissioning decisions for new works in development, through active participation in a range of internal artistic planning meetings.
• They will be embedded in artistic decision-making practices and processes across the organisation.
• Dedicated time and budget to design and develop the early stages of a new theatrical project.
• They will undertake their own research project which explores change-making.* This could be something new they want to explore, or it could be about having supported time to develop a personal change-making project they have recently started. 

During the programme there will be regular check-ins with the Artistic Director and members of the senior team, to share reflections on their time with the organisation and their personal goals as well as meetings with the wider Fellows cohort. The Fellows will be supported to build new relationships with key partners and further opportunities within the sector will be identified post fellowship.

*We are open to your interpretation of leadership and change-making. It could include things like how you make work, how you build or co-build a team, how you mentor and/or support other creatives, how you affect policy, activism, and best practices in the sector etc. It could include activities you have done professionally or personally.

Eligibility

The fellowship is open to applicants who meet the following criteria:

• Identifying as being from global majority communities* or lower socio-economic backgrounds**
• Have at least 5 years professional experience in the performing arts.
• Are over 18 years old and not a full-time student.
• Live and work in Scotland.

*Global Majority includes, Black, Brown or People of Colour, those from the African Diaspora, Caribbean Diaspora, East Asian Diaspora, South-East Asian Diaspora, South Asian Diaspora, West Asian and Middle East Diaspora, Latinix, Indigenous people, biracial/ multiple heritage.

**lower-economic includes those who are from low-income households and/ or identify as working class.

The Fellowship Programme is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Terms and Conditions of Engagement

A tax-free education bursary: £18,750 paid in 18 monthly instalments
Status: Fixed-term for 18 months (September 2026 – February 2028)
Place of work: A workspace will be provided at our offices at Rockvilla, located at 125 Craighall Road, Glasgow, G4 9TL.  As part of this role, you may, on occasion and where possible, be expected to attend events, performances, and briefing when required (including some evenings and weekends).
Hours of work: The bursary is based on 14 hrs per week (0.4FT) for 18 months and the Fellow will manage their own time.
Company Benefits: Access to free employee counselling (which includes counsellors with various lived experiences) and wellbeing activities.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Closing date:10am Monday 27 April 2026
Interviews:Thursday 11 June 2026

If you need this information in another format or would like more information, contact AD@nationaltheatrescotland.com with subject line 'Fellowship: Directing' or call 0141 221 0970.
For monitoring and application tracking purposes, please complete our short equal opportunities monitoring form, this should take no more than 5 minutes of your time.

Stage 1: To apply please submit your application via the application link below. This application should include a cover letter and your CV or your biography. Please see below for more information on what to include to support your application.

Once you have submitted your application you will be automatically redirected to our anonymous Diversity Monitoring Form.  This should only take 5mins to fill out and is the final part of the application process.

Stage 2: Shortlisted Stage 1 applicants will be invited to interview. The interview panel will be made up of NTS Artistic Director Jackie Wylie, Director of Artistic Development Caroline Newall, and independent panellist Joanna Bowman.