Robin Peoples draws on his extensive experience to compare and contrast design-for-performance in collaboration with theatre companies and venues, and with cultural and creative organisations.

Exchange Talks
Design-for-Performance – Collaborators in and Beyond Theatre
Robin Peoples • Chaired by Marc Silberschatz
Mon 20 October 2025, 6pm • FYFE Lecture Theatre, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland


Robin Peoples will compare and contrast the processes of design-for-performance (and of directing) in the context of collaboration with theatre companies and venues, and in the context of collaboration with other cultural and creative organisations such as museums and heritage agencies. He will draw on his wide and long experience of diverse productions and projects, including past and current collaborations, and will consider the diverse range of creative aspirations and objectives aligned with the practical and pragmatic challenges and requirements to which each individual endeavour gives rise.

Exchange Talks are the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s programme of talks on Monday evenings sharing arts research practice from staff, students, visiting academics and arts professionals. Grouped into thematic sets Exchange Talks are a place to expand our imaginations, ask questions, and broaden our horizons through learning about different arts practices. Free and open to everyone, talks last one hour.

About the Speaker:
Robin Peoples is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, the holder of the first SAC Director’s Bursary, the former Artistic Director of the Scottish Youth Theatre and of the Brunton Theatre, and is the Lecturer in Design at the RCS. He has devised workshop, community development and teaching materials, and has commissioned a wide range of new writing including plays and musical scores. He has served on national and international committees. He has directed and designed for companies including the Tron, the Lyric Belfast, Trafalgar Studios, 7:84, NTS, the Byre, Perth Rep., the Everyman Cork, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Traverse, and many others, in work ranging from new writing to panto, small-scale touring and site-responsive to number one main house, and appearing on stages as diverse as Mull Little Theatre, London Palladium, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, American Folk Theatre NY, Glasgow Citizens, New Victory Theatre NY, and the SECC.

For further information, please contact sthyland1@rcs.ac.uk or visit https://www.rcs.ac.uk/whats-on/exchange-talk-design-for-performance-collaborators-in-and-beyond-theatre/