Students

Performing Arts Opportunities for Students

‘To students in St Andrews, the Byre presents the opportunity to showcase our talents on a professional scale, providing us with a truly unforgettable and unmatched experience.’ 

Manaal Mahjoub [she/her], President, Mermaids Performing Arts Fund 2019/2020

The Byre supports students as performance makers, developing transferable employment skills and embedding the value of lifelong learning, by working with student groups and festivals including Mermaids (Sub Committee), Just So Society, Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Opera Society, Dance Club, Blue Angels, On the Rocks Festival and Jazz Works. Providing a professional theatre, equipment and resources, technical team and marketing support provides student societies and festivals with a high-level professional environment, the fruits of which are enjoyed by their fellow students as well as the public.

Student Societies regularly performing or producing at the Byre include:

• Mermaids (Sub Committee)
• Musical Theatre Society
• Gilbert & Sullivan Society
• Dance Society
• Blue Angels
• Jazz Works
• St Andrews Filmmaker Society
• On the Rocks Festival

How to Get Involved:

To find out more about performing arts societies for students [Societies A-Z (yourunion.net)

Mermaids: The University of St Andrews Performing Arts Fund

Mermaids supports numerous devised, published and student-written plays and musicals for students at the University of St Andrews. The society funds and produces around 30 shows a year, from Shakespeare to contemporary drama, including pieces written by students.

As well the Byre Theatre, Mermaids’ often perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Mermaids also runs the Freshers’ Drama Festival every year, where every role both on and off stage is taken on by a new student.

Find out more:

mermaidstheatre.com
Facebook: MermaidsStA
Twitter: @MermaidsStA
Instagram: @mermaidssta

STEP: Summer Team Enterprise Programme

STEP is a University of St Andrews initiative which provides a developmental opportunity for students through working on a real-life project which presents a challenge to a University Service Unit. Throughout June and July 2020, the Byre issued two teams of six students a challenge:

Making Student Connections: A research journey with the Byre Theatre

Although unable to meet in person. the virtual space created by the Covid-19 crisis created opportunities for students and the Byre Programme and Marketing team to come together to work on the project across continents and time zones.

The Challenge

The Byre Theatre is part of the University of St Andrews and wants to connect more often and more meaningfully with our students than ever before.

The challenges we face includes the fact that our student population does not conform to standard profiling platforms such as Mosaic. Therefore, we need a bespoke approach to understanding how to build relationships by better understanding where The Byre can fit into their lives.

Objective

To gain a deeper insight into the motivations, behaviours and lifestyles of current and potential student audiences to help determine if and how The Byre can shape its communication and offering of the 4ps to students (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) with a particular emphasis on the implications of Covid-19.

The groups researched and scoped propensity for student engagement with:

• Student led productions
• Amateur productions
• Professional productions

They created virtual (and replicable) techniques for charting student journeys including:

• photographic journaling and sharing
• virtual customer journeys

After a basic introduction to marketing research, including the difference between quantitative and qualitative, and access to existing research they learned how to:

• conduct qualitative research
• how to construct a commercial research brief
• work, virtually, in a professional theatre
• set benchmarks for marketing purposes