The background stuff.

Hi! My name is Bethany, I use they/them and she/her pronouns. I trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating back in 2018. 

I am Scottish, and a former military dependant, which means I grew up in all sorts of places in and out of the UK. I have a strong connection to the North of England, where I spent a lot of my childhood, and Kenya and Cyprus where I spent my teens. This mish-mashed upbringing often finds its way into my work, although it’s firmly based in the folk traditions of Scotland. 

I am a Queer person, and extremely proud to be a part of that community. 

I believe that empathy and respect form the basis for true collaboration, and I enjoy working in rooms where the practise isn’t just tolerance, but celebration of the other. I’m passionate about the idea that we as theatremakers owe it to our peers to make stories worth telling, and that our work should always be serving someone else, as well as ourselves. Art has the capacity to inspire true social change, and I want to be a part of that, whilst fulfilling my creative self along the way.

Writing & composing.

My composition style is relatively eclectic, though I excel in the world of folk-pop. I most often write the lyrics as well as the music, as I feel the more joined they are, and the better the word setting, the better the song. I love to create vocal arrangements with complex harmonies, and incorporate soundscapes and live foley into my work. Recently I have been working more in that commercial Musical Theatre style, and I love to reference iconic moments from the golden age and mega-musicals era, updating that brassy sound for the modern day. 

I have partnered many times with the immensely talented Iona Ramsay, who writes books and sometimes lyrics for our shows. I very much enjoy the collaboration process, and writing music for new work, and have also recently written music for the wonderful Morna Young, Jordan Blackwood, and Hannah Low.

I have also often MD’d my own work. I especially enjoy this in an actor-muso setting, and thrive when working across the disciplines. 

Performance. 

Although I built this website primarily for my work as a member of the creative team, I still work as a performer! I believe that this industry is ready for people who can fit in more than one box, and I enjoy performing so much, I don’t plan to give it up to pursue my composition career. 

As stated above, I trained at the RCS, and graduated with a BA in Musical Theatre. I have since performed off West End and off Broadway, as well as in several productions here in Scotland. I play multiple instruments including guitar, bass, and piano. I was nominated for ‘Best Performer in a Musical’ by The Stage in 2020, and was named ‘Scotland’s rising star’, by the Guardian in 2023. I also have lent my voice to a number of cast albums, including ‘Islander’ (of which I was an original cast member), ‘A Mother’s Song’, and ‘The 306’. 

If you’d like to know more about my work as an actor-muso please take a look at my profile on spotlight.