A SHORT HISTORY OF STaG
Theatre societies at the University of Glasgow have thought to have been around for at least 90 years! Before STaG, which began in 1994, the society was known as Glasgow University Theatre (GUT). Before that there were at least three other societies and they were called Glasgow University Dramatic Club, Glasgow University Glasgow Dramatic Society and Glasgow University Student Theatre Group. In early 2011 a committee was formed to begin tracing student theatre history at the university. Below is just a selection of some of the interesting facts that we have discovered….
The first recording of a theatre society at the university is Glasgow University Dramatic Club. In 1922 Mr A Parry Gunn, a theatre director, produced Antigone at the former Hengler’s circus on Sauchiehall Street casting members of the university theatre society as the chorus. It was a huge event with an audience capacity of 2,000 people! They made local news for their unconventional publicity campaign, producing a made-up newspaper called “The Antigone Press” which published sensational headlines such as ‘Death of the Queen!’
In 1957 there was a society that was known as the Glasgow University Dramatic Society and produced plays at a National Community Drama Festival as well as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Around 1971 Glasgow University Student Theatre Group was born. They also went to the Edinburgh Fringe and in 1974 made local headlines when they became involved with a campaign to get the University a theatre.
Glasgow University Theatre (GUT) was formed in the 1980s and this later became Student Theatre at Glasgow (STaG) in 1994. Its aim was to become even ‘bigger and better’ than before. Since then the society has gone from strength to strength producing countless mainstage shows at the Gilmorehill ‘G12’ Theatre including a number of Shakespeare productions (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet), the classic restoration drama, The Country Wife, Marlowe’s finest, Dr Faustus, Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good and many, many more! STaG has also let theatre makers loose in the small black box theatre in the G12, mixing and shaking up The Metamophosis, The Goat and A Girl in a Goldfish Bowl and creating fresh and exciting devised and new writing works. We also run an annual festival called STaG Nights and every year this has a theme. In the past we have converted spaces into a circus, a 1920s speakeasy and even a student flat!
The society has additionally performed on the G12 rooftop, in the basement and in the lift, in local schools, in a kitchen, in Kelvingrove Park and even on the Glasgow subway! We have taken new pieces of student writing to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over the last four years and have received large audiences and rave reviews.
So that’s the history of STaG. Whether or not the former societies are part of a direct line relating to STaG, what is clear is that the students at the University of Glasgow over the last century have been committed to producing innovative, exciting pieces of theatre through cuts and protests with or without a theatre building. It is a testament to the hardwork that goes into each new academic year from its members that student theatre at Glasgow University has continued to thrive.
The archive committee would like to thank the University of Glasgow Archives for the information printed above.
Were you a part of Glasgow University Dramatic Club, Glasgow University Glasgow Dramatic Society, Glasgow University Student Theatre Group, Glasgow University Theatre (GUT) or the current Student Theatre at Glasgow (STaG)? Or just want some more information? Then please get in touch with us at archive@studenttheatreatglasgow.com.
Thanks to Glasgow University Guardian Digital Archive for these images.
