Building theatres/theatre buildings: reinventing Mull Theatre

Rutherford, Cassandra (2014) Building theatres/theatre buildings: reinventing Mull Theatre. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Mull Theatre is a professional touring theatre company based on a small island off the west coast of Scotland. In 2008 the company relocated from a small converted cow byre which seated 42 people to a new purpose-built venue –Druimfin - on a different part of the island. The move was made possible through a grant from the Scottish Arts Council in 2006, which was awarded on the expectation that the new building would be a ‘production centre’ as opposed to a theatre. That is to say the emphasis in the design of the new space was to be placed on the production rather than the reception of the theatrical event. This stands in contrast to the expectation of many theatre attendees that the new space would continue as it had been – as a place to go and see a theatre production - but that it would do so out of a much larger, more comfortable and better equipped venue.
Building Theatres/Theatre Buildings stems from a three year Collaborative Doctoral Award between Mull Theatre and the University of Glasgow, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Using the partnership that emerged from this award, the thesis explores what was potentially lost and gained in the move in order to draw conclusions about the wider relationship between spaces of performance and the creation of theatrical meaning in relation to small and medium scale touring theatre. It also uses the company’s dual identity as a touring company with its own permanent building to extend the discussion and to examine the wide range of venues which currently form the rural touring circuit in Scotland. By bringing together primary fieldwork from a pivotal moment in the company’s identity alongside current dialogues regarding theatre space and touring theatre, this research provides new knowledge about this often overlooked theatre company, its buildings and its role within contemporary Scottish theatre and small scale rural touring.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Mull Theatre, rural touring theatre in Scotland, theatre buildings and (non-) performance spaces, theatre and communities
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General); P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Scullion, Professor Adrienne and Donald, Ms Minty
• Date of Award: 2014
• Depositing User: Ms Cassandra C H Rutherford
• Unique ID: glathesis:2014-5254
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 16 Jun 2014 09:07
• Last Modified: 23 Jun 2014 13:45
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/5254