Leading the way: stellar quines and intersectional feminist working praxis

This paper will explore the notion of ‘leading’ institutional change in a specific creative ecology by focusing on Stellar Quines, Scotland’s foremost intersectional feminist theatre company dedicated to promoting performance’s role in ensuring gender justice for all. Now in its 30th year, Stellar Quines is at a pivotal moment in the organisation’s development as it prepares to establish a permanent base in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and radically reappraise its creative and working practices to centre on community engagement and co-creation.

Stellar Quines is already leading the way in intersectional theatre practice and community-led working practices as an explicitly learning organisation. Their work is as much concerned with producing work for a diverse range of audiences as well as engaging in feminist activism. In terms of infrastructural change and female leadership in governance, they have developed a board pioneer programme that other companies are using to introduce more female representation on boards, they have commissioned reports on female leadership in the theatre industry in Scotland, and they have successfully introduced a range of masterclasses for women in technical roles in the theatre industry.

Building on scholarship on community arts practice, gender justice, and feminists’ networks (see Aston 2016; McAvinchey 2016; 2020; Rudakoff 2021) and in conversation with Sarah Ahmend’s critique of institutional “non-performatives” (Ahmed, 2012), this paper will reflect on the evolution of Stellar Quines’ working practices and leadership models in order to propose potential new directions for community-led, intersectional feminist working models for arts-based initiatives and enterprise.