The Scottish Community Drama Association (SCDA) is an association of amateur dramatic clubs throughout

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was first founded in 1926. Amateur theatre companies in Scotland have generally presented repertoire in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, Lowland Scots and, more occasionally,

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

. The SCDA was founded during the period of the

Scottish Renaissance The Scottish Renaissance ( gd, Ath-bheòthachadh na h-Alba; sco, Scots Renaissance) was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the Scotland, Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as ...

, a time of increasing calls to revive many of the cultural and political institutions in Scotland which were perceived as moribund at this period, including native theatre. Serious professional theatre in Scotland had more or less lapsed by the 1880s and the first twentieth century attempt to revive it faltered with the demise of

Alfred Wareing Alfred John Wareing (26 October 1876 – 11 April 1942) was an English actor-manager. He was a pioneer of the repertory theatre in Britain and an authority on the plays of Shakespeare. Life and career Wareing was born in Greenwich, London on 26 ...

's short-lived

Glasgow Repertory Theatre Glasgow Repertory Theatre was a short-lived Scottish professional theatre founded in Glasgow in 1909 by Alfred Wareing. Its aim, directly inspired by the example of Dublin's Abbey Theatre (which had brought its first tour to Glasgow in 1907 with ...

(founded in 1909) which closed down on the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Its remaining funds were used in the early 1920s to found the amateur

Scottish National Players Scottish National Players, founded in Glasgow c.1920 by figures such as playwright John Brandane, was a non-professional touring theatre company which had the aim to pioneer the establishment of a Scottish National Theatre along the lines of the ...

with the goal to promote native theatre. During the

interwar years In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

all such initiatives had their origins in the

amateur theatre Amateur theatre, also known as amateur dramatics, is theatre performed by amateur actors and singers. Amateur theatre groups may stage plays, revues, musicals, light opera, pantomime or variety shows, and do so for the social activity as well as f ...

movement, in particular Glasgow's

Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was ...

(1932–39) founded by Grace Ballantyne, Scottish People's Theatre and Glasgow Unity. No teaching institutions offered formal provision for training in Scottish styles of performance or

diction Diction ( la, dictionem (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its common meanin ...

until the establishment of the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art in 1950 (as part of the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

). as a consequence, most of Scotland's ground-breaking mid-twentieth century native actors, such as Duncan Macrae,

Roddy McMillan Roddy McMillan OBE (23 March 1923 – 9 July 1979) was a Scottish actor and playwright, possibly most famous for his comedy role as Para Handy for BBC Scotland's television series, ''The Vital Spark''. He also played the lead role in Edwa ...

Molly Urquhart Molly Sinclair Urquhart (6 January 1906 – 6 October 1977) was a Scottish actress and theater director. Early life Urquhart was born in Glasgow as Mary Sinclair Urquhart. She was the daughter of post office clerk Ann McCallum and sea-going e ...

, first developed their skills and methods through performance with the more innovative non-professional companies listed above. Similarly, native playwrights who wished to present authentic representations of Scottish life on the stage, such as

Joe Corrie Joe Corrie (13 May 1894 – 13 November 1968) was a Scottish miner, poet and playwright best known for his radical, working class plays. He was born in Slamannan, Stirlingshire in 1894. His family moved to Cardenden in the Fife coalfield when Cor ...

Robert McLellan Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish renaissance dramatist, writer and poet and a leading figure in the twentieth century movement to recover Scotland’s distinctive theatrical traditions. He found popular success with plays and ...

John Brandane John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

Ena Lamont Stewart Ena Lamont Stewart (10 February 1912, Glasgow – 9 February 2006, Dalmellington) was a Scottish playwright. Life and career Stewart was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister whose family was originally from Canada and had settled in Gla ...

and others, first came to attention generally through amateur productions of their plays. Lowland Scots playwrights in particular were well served by non-professional theatre at a time when voicing for professional actors in

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was dictated by

received pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...

. Miscasting in professional productions of McLellan's Scots plays was a regular complaint for the playwright, often in contrast to amateur productions of his Scots in which actors without formal training gave sympathetic and authentic delivery of the language. After

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

's establishment of the

Citizens Theatre The Citizens Theatre, in what was the Royal Princess's Theatre, is the creation of James Bridie and is based in Glasgow, Scotland as a principal producing theatre. The theatre includes a 500-seat Main Auditorium, and has also included various s ...

in 1942, Scotland finally began to develop a native professional theatre. After the introduction of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

during the 1950s, the number of amateur companies in Scotland, in common with the situation elsewhere, began to decline from its peak in the 1940s, but it still remains a vigorous part of Scottish cultural life. The SCDA has maintained a successful annual one-act drama festival since its inception, with one interregnum of five years (1940–45) during the Second World War.

Sources

*Barlow, Priscilla ''Wise Enough to Play the Fool'' (Edinburgh, 1995) *Campbell, Donald ''Playing for Scotland: A History of the Scottish Stage, 1715-1965'', (Edinburgh, 1996) *Finlay, Bill ''A History of Scottish Theatre'' (Edinburgh, 1998) *Hutchison, David ''The Modern Scottish Theatre'', (Glasgow, 1977)

Sources

External links