Women in Theatre Scotland debate – report published
Full texts of speeches and contributions from floor now available
The #wits panel. iPhone pic © @theJennaWatt
By Thom Dibdin
The full report from the Women in Theatre Scotland – Where Next debate, held at the Traverse a fortnight ago, has been published on organiser Christine Hamilton’s website christinehamiltonconsulting.com.
As reported in Æ by Jen McGregor after the event, there is still a lot of work to be done on the issue of getting equality in Scottish theatre. As she pointed out there is a real danger in assuming that the problem of inequality is solved simply because we now have a small number of high-profile women working in theatre.
Writing on her blog, Christine Hamilton says: “The key question now is where next? A few of us kicked this off, but this does not imply that we have all the answers – nor that this is a centrally run campaign.
“Our intention was to raise the issue and see where it took us. Nevertheless, if there is to be change, it is helpful if there is some kind of co-ordination and the circulation of this report on proceedings is a contribution towards that. I am happy to continue to circulate information and provide a space for people to share ideas.”
Hamilton mentions the existence of the Feminist Scottish Theatre Network facebook group, which can be found here: www.facebook.com She reports that Nicola McCartney, who is chair of the Scottish Society of Playwrights has posted on the group:
“The women playwrights have been meeting together for a while to chat about this issue. We have come up with an idea that we try to organise some sort of theatre industry forum event in early December this year to facilitate a discussion on the way forward. Possibly followed by a direct action day around International Women’s day in March.”
Christine Hamilton’s discussion of what to do next is on her blog here: christinehamiltonconsulting.com
The transcript of the major speeches and Jon Morgan’s notes on the contributions from the floor are also available on her blog, here: christinehamiltonconsulting.com
ENDS
