AmbITion Webinar ‘Five Minute Theatre in an Hour’
7 September 2011, Funded by Creative Scotland
This was the tenth in AmbITion Scotland’s webinar series and constituted an in-depth case study of the live and online production by National Theatre of Scotland of Five Minute Theatre. Five Minute Theatre took place on the June 21st 2011 to celebrate the National Theatre of Scotland’s 5th birthday and consisted of over 200 five minute live performances which were streamed online over 24 hours at http://fiveminutetheatre.com
The webinar, which was held at GSA’s Macintosh Lecture Theatre as well as being streamed via the net, focused on the delivery of this Five Minute Theatre through the eyes of the supporting partners STV and Envirodigital, as well as NTS. It explored the issues and opportunities of digitising live, cultural experiences; crowdsourcing content; and building online audiences. The three speakers were:
· Marianne Maxwell – National Theatre of Scotland
· Robert Dawson Scott – STV
· Hannah Rudman – Envirodigital
First up was Marianne Maxwell, Audience Development Manager at NTS, who described the process of generating interest in the project and also how they made the decisions regarding the final selection of over 200 submissions. She clearly highlighted the mammoth task which the team at NTS faced in coordinating the logistics of technology, timings and disparate locations. This production, without a doubt, fulfilled part of the NTS raison d'être to be a ‘Theatre without Walls’.
Robert Dawson Scott of STV used a showing of one of the five minute pieces to expose some of the challenges of the project and, in particular, some of the issues raised relating to STV’s involvement. Issues drawn attention to included: the need to make music clearances for any music used in the plays, regulatory issues relating to Public Service Broadcasting commitments, gaining consent from anyone appearing on film, the rights to the work being performed and permission regarding use of locations.
Hannah Rudman of Envirodigital, the technical consultancy which helped deliver Five Minute Theatre in partnership with STV and NTS, drew out some of the complexities of coordinating such a multifaceted event. The process faced enormous difficulties relating to the patchy broadband provision.
Despite not yet having formalised the knowledge and learning generated from the event, the workshop demonstrated that exciting, novel and yet inclusive events can be successful with the determination and commitment of key organisations and individuals.
For more details of the Five Minute Theatre event please see:
new media partners 2013 
rss feeds: 
