Actor Jack Lowden and theatre director Philip Howard received honorary doctorates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland at its autumn graduation ceremony last night (Thursday 30 October).

Watch the livestream below to hear Jack and Philip’s speeches.

Jack, a BAFTA and Olivier award winner and Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominee, graduated from RCS’s BA Acting degree programme in 2011.

From his breakout role in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch while still a student to starring in Apple TV+’s smash spy hit Slow Horses and now stepping into the boots of one of fiction’s most iconic romantic heroes, Jack has fast become one of the UK’s most in-demand actors.

Jack is currently filming a new Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, where he’ll take on the role of Mr Darcy, one of the literary world’s most-loved characters, which also stars Emma Corrin, Olivia Colman and Rufus Sewell.

He’ll next be seen in Ella McCay, from filmmaker James L. Brooks, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson and Rebecca Hall, and Berlin Noir, a new Apple TV+ detective series from Tom Hanks’ Playtone production banner and Oscar-winning writer Peter Straughan (Conclave).

Joining Jack was theatre director and dramaturg Philip Howard, who also received an honorary doctorate in drama.

Philip trained at London’s Royal Court Theatre and was artistic director of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre from 1996–2008, the longest tenure in its history, following three years as associate director. He is currently a director of Pearlfisher theatre company.

At the Traverse, he directed over 20 world premieres, including acclaimed new plays by David Greig, David Harrower and Linda McLean.

His productions won multiple Fringe First awards and he also staged Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, John Byrne’s Cuttin’ a Rug, Naomi Wallace’s The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Raja Shehadeh’s When the Bulbul Stopped Singing (also Off-Broadway, Amman and Tehran), and co-directed Michel Tremblay’s Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer(Traverse/Barbican).

From 2012–2015, Philip was Joint Artistic Director of Dundee Rep, where highlights included Victoria by David Greig and In My Father’s Words by Justin Young, later transferring Off-Broadway.

Philip has directed several productions for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, including Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, Brigadoon and London Road.

He also regularly works on the Classical and Contemporary Text postgraduate programme and is a founder of the Pauline Knowles Scholarship at RCS. Pauline was an alumna of RCS and one of the pre-eminent Scottish stage actors of her generation.

Images © Martin Shields/RCS