Outside Eyes

Recommended Age 14+

Outside Eyes is the Tron’s bi-annual scratch night event that takes place in our Main Auditorium.

Each event presents a curated selection of brand-new ideas from artists of all disciplines to an audience made up of peers, industry professionals and anyone who wants to see the newest, most exciting work Glasgow has to offer.

We are delighted to be presenting our first musical theatre edition of Outside Eyes in June. Successful applicants will have the opportunity for their work to be rehearsed and performed by the graduating cohort of RCS BA Musical Theatre and MA Musical Theatre: Musical Directing students.

The artists presenting at Outside Eyes will be:

BETHANY TENNICK & IONA RAMSAY
ANDREW BRIEN & GREGORY P. FRANZ
ANDY MCGREGOR

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Welcome to Serene by Bethany Tennick and Iona Ramsay

Welcome to Serene is a darkly comic, satirical musical set in a strange coastal town teetering on the edge of collapse. When teenager Pia’s car breaks down nearby, she and her infant brother are drawn into the surreal world of Serene; a community of eccentric residents clinging desperately to normality as rising tides bury their town beneath sand. Rather than confront the reality of their situation, the townspeople have invested their dwindling resources in The Machine, a mysterious contraption intended to fight back the sand by spitting it into the sea. As the Machine repeatedly fails, cracks begin to appear and Pia is forced to choose between survival and her own morality. Inspired by Epic Theatre, Welcome to Serene interrogates climate denial, capitalism, and the rituals societies invent to avoid uncomfortable truths.

Artist Bio
Tennick & Ramsay are a Scottish writing duo, whose previous works include musicals such as Thread (One Ren, 2022), Land (Guilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 2022), Hysterica, (Developed with Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Capital Theatres, 2024), and The Neverbeast (Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera, 2025). As a duo, they aim to create politically engaged work that tells new and urgent stories.

Bethany and Iona are also passionate about working with young people. Iona is a member of the Senior Artistic Team at PACE Youth Theatre, while Bethany is Head of the Musical Theatre Academy at TDC, and they have facilitated workshops across institutions such as British Youth Music Theatre, New College Lanarkshire, Hamilton Theatre Arts, and Mahogany Opera.

In 2024, they were awarded the ‘New Music Theatre Writing Award’ by British Youth Music Theatre for their show Welcome to Serene, and they are honoured to be revising this show in its new form for Outside Eyes.

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Connections: The Musical by Andrew Brien and Gregory P. Franz

Set against the pulse of a modern city commute, Connections is a contemporary new musical exploring the fragile line between digital connection and real human intimacy. Featuring an emotionally charged pop/rock score, the show follows six strangers whose lives become permanently intertwined after a train breakdown forces them out of the safety of their screens and into each other’s worlds.

Told through an ambitious non-linear structure, the story moves fluidly across time — weaving forwards and backwards through memories, futures, missed encounters and life-altering consequences — gradually revealing the invisible threads linking the characters long before and long after the train journey itself.

Blending cinematic staging, projected digital worlds and deeply personal storytelling, Connections examines loneliness, identity, grief, love, burnout and the modern dependence on technology as emotional escape.

At a time when society has never been more digitally connected — yet increasingly emotionally disconnected — the musical asks a simple but urgent question: What if the person sitting beside you could change your life forever?

Artist Bio
Andrew Brien and Gregory P. Franz are an international writing partnership — Andrew based in Glasgow, Scotland, Gregory in New York, USA. Blending Andrew’s background in pop production with Gregory’s eclectic musicianship, they bring a distinctive contemporary sound to musical theatre. Their debut musical, Connections: The Musical, has undergone three years of development across London and Glasgow workshops, a set of streaming releases, and a sold-out Concert Workshop at The Other Palace, London, establishing them as an exciting new voice in the genre.

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The Nose by Andy McGregor

Based on Nikolai Gogol’s classic short story, this sung-through musical follows Major Kovalev, a vain civil servant in 19th-century Russia. When Kovalev wakes up to find his nose has vanished and transformed into a famous, keytar-shredding pop star, his life spirals into a surreal nightmare. As the Nose captures the public’s heart, the Major must confront his own absurdity to reclaim his face.

Artist Bio
Andy McGregor is a director, writer and composer who trained at Glasgow University and RCS. He is the artistic director of Sleeping Warrior theatre company. Described by Joyce McMilllan in the Scotsman as ‘a backstage powerhouse of small-scale musical theatre making in Scotland’ he has created multiple musicals that have toured nationally, such as Spuds, Battery Park and To Save The Sea (with Isla Cowan). He has created multiple shows for A Play a Pie and a Pint, including Crocodile Rock (broadcast on the BBC and heading to the Fringe this year), and has composed for NTS, The Royal Court, The Tron and many others. He is also a regular creator of popular family shows and writes pantos performed around the country.