STaG Night: Glasgow Student Theatre

You’ve been abandoned in a room resembling a prison cell, having supposedly entered the newfound realm of adulthood. Prison cell or not, it’s easier to follow the conventional route to the renamed four year drinking exercise also known as university than take the risk of upsetting the folks. However, the incessant beer pong tournaments and mounds of sick in cereal bowls become tiresome after the first four hours, and you may find yourself thinking that this uni lark isn’t quite the intellectual meeting of minds you’d hoped for. Not to worry! There’s always student theatre.

Student Theatre at Glasgow, or STaG, is one of the oldest and largest student theatre societies in the country, having existed in one form or another for over 90 years. STaG’s prerogative is inclusivity, taking in any student (or indeed non-student) regardless of their theatrical background.

During the first few weeks of term, STaG host a ‘New Talent Night’ showcasing the freshers’ artistic and theatrical abilities. It is an intense three week rehearsal period with two casts developing the same script simultaneously. Wind in the Willows was 2011’s production and was this writer’s first taste of theatre at university. It provided me with many of the friends I still have today and was an entirely new way of coping with what could be a scary first few weeks in a new city.

Once the Freshers’ madness is out of the way, STaG functions as a creative network, enabling students to work with, and learn from, each other. It’s at this stage that you find that many of the society’s members actually turned down a place at drama school in favour of the opportunities and artistic freedom university would offer, and I’m one of them.  

The society functions as an experimental collective rather than a company, an element that Dominic Di Rollo particular enjoys. “You arrive in student theatre and you have no idea what you are doing,” says Dominic. “Somehow whilst cobbling together with others, you learn how professional theatre works; it falls somewhere between amateur and professional theatre. It’s a learning curve.” Di Rollo won STaG’s annual New Works competition, and as a result directed What’s He Building In There?, the group’s show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Dominic says: “In STaG there is every type of person you can possibly imagine. There are people that think of theatre as a high art form and those that think it’s a bit of fun.” This range of participants adds to the appeal of the company, and Dominic feels that this is complemented by STaG’s locations. “Everyone says Edinburgh is the cultural centre but that is only true during August,” he says. “There’s a real eclectic mix (of people) in Glasgow.”

The transition from amateur student performance to the professional industry comes into play with productions like Di Rollo’s. He wrote What’s He Building in There? in his last year at school and with STaG’s financial help and collaboration, he was able to take it to the Fringe. “It moved into something more conceptual. Instead of having caricatures operating within a farce, you have well drawn, bordering on naturalistic characters within a ridiculous storyline. It’s jarring, but in a good way. It’s completely different. That’s owing to the safe environment that STaG has provided. Many people go away and do other things and forget their time with STaG, but I don’t think anyone can be too good for student theatre.”

No-one would deny that the studies you embark on at University are the main reason you signed up, but if like me you prefer to discover on your own terms, there’s no a better way to spend your time than within the wide and inclusive world of student theatre.