In 2007 playwrights and academics David Edgar, Dan Rebellato, Steve Waters and Julie Wilkinson established the British Theatre Conference, which in 2010 was renamed the British Theatre Consortium (BTC) and constituted as a co-operative / mutual society. The founding members were later joined by Janelle Reinelt, Jane Woddis, Chris Megson, and Chris Bridgman. In 2024, BTC members were David Edgar, Jane Woddis, Dan Rebellato, Julie Wilkinson and Chris Megson, 

 

BTC aims to provide a forum in which theatre makers, both practitioners and companies ; theatre academics and cultural policy analysts; and arts funders and administrators can/could come together to share views on issues concerning contemporary theatre and performance in Britain. Through their conferences, seminars, research projects and reports, BTC makes timely contributions to critical issues facing the arts sector. BTC has worked on research projects in partnership with other organisations in the arts sector including the Theatre Managers Association, UK Theatre and Society of London Theatre (SOLT), North West Playwrights, the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) and Arts Council England (ACE).

 

BTC has acted as consultants and advocates for British theatre:

• Bringing together theatre professionals with academics for meaningful and productive dialogue

• Producing commissioned research on issues closely related to the health of the British theatre industry

• Developing a conceptual platform from which to assess the arts experience 

• Situating 'experience' of the arts alongside economic or instrumental arguments for justifying the value of the arts

• Providing concrete evidence in the form of case studies 

 

THE CONFERENCES

As the original name of the organisation indicates, a key feature of BTC’s work has been its conferences – which have been open to anyone working in the theatre sector and to academics and others with interest in theatre and theatre policy. These conferences are:

 

Teaching Playwriting Royal Holloway, University of London, October 2006 

 

Next Stages: dramaturgy and beyond. Writers and their careers Manchester Metropolitan University, March 2007 

 

How was it for us? British Theatre under Blair Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, London, December 2007 

 

All Together Now? Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, June 2009 

 

The Roar of the Crowd: Theatre Spectators & Cultural Value Royal Holloway, University of London, May 2014 

 

Cutting Edge: British Theatre in Hard Times Central St Martins College, April 2015

 

BTC was also co-sponsor of conferences with:

 

- Steve Waters and MA in Playwriting Studies, UoB?: 20/20: Playwriting/Pedagogy University of Birmingham, March 2010

 

- North West Playwrights and Centre of Research in English, MMU: Next Act: the past and future of new theatre writing Manchester Metropolitan University, November 2010  

 

 - Royal Society of Arts: From Spectatorship to Engagement   RSA, London, March 2012 

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RESEARCH & REPORTS

BTC has undertaken a wide range of original research, some in partnership, resulting in the following reports (which were also presented at several of BTC’s conferences):

 

Writ Large: New Writing on the English Stage 2003-2009 (2009)

 

The Spirit of Theatre (2013)

 

Critical Mass: Theatre Spectatorship and Value Attribution (2014)

 

British Theatre Repertoire 2013 (2015)

 

British Theatre Repertoire 2014 (2016)

 

British Theatre Repertoire 2019 & 2023 (forthcoming)