FROM its inception 11 years ago, Scotland's national theatre has described itself as creating 'theatre without walls'.

The meaning of that phrase, a nod to its status as a National Theatre with no theatre building of its own, looks set to be be pushed further by its new artistic director, Jackie Wylie.

In her first interview since starting the job two months ago, Ms Wylie, the former artistic director of The Arches venue in Glasgow, says she wants the physical landscape of Scotland to form the backdrop to future productions by the company (NTS), which will have an artistic mission of "audacity" that tackles a "complex version of nationhood."

It will not be until the end of the year that Ms Wylie will unveil her first programme, but she has now outlined themes she wants to see develop at the company, which is based at a new HQ at Rockvilla, in the north of Glasgow.

As well involving the physical landscape of the country, Ms Wylie wants to see shows that inspire a young audience, embrace of digital possibilities, and will instigate a series of collaborations between international artists, writers, producers and directors.

A new project, called Engine Room, will see the NTS sharing its resources with companies and artists across the country, beginning with events in Wigtown, Dumfries and Aberdeen.

Ms Wylie, originally from Edinburgh, said she would not be changing too radically the established mix of major stage works and more unusual productions which the NTS has made its reputation in the past, with successes including Black Watch, The James Plays, Our Ladies Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.

Ms Wylie worked for a time as a location scout for Scottish Screen, and said she has an "inherent soulful love of landscape."

"I would really like for us to find ways of doing landscape work, in a particular place," she added.

"To really use the landscape. We have an inspirational landscape within Scotland, it's one of our defining features. You can go to places in Scotland, for example, and you can feel as if you are in a lunar landscape, and that is an exciting possibility.

"I would even go as far to called it 'landscaped work', work that uses landscape - the landscape of Scotland."

Ms Wylie added: "We must never forget the inherent radicalism of the NTS being for everybody in Scotland, because actually that was in the very founding DNA of the institution.

"And to me its the best of both worlds - because we have these existing producing houses to work with, but we are also on the road - and that is an incredible and unique set of circumstances."

Ms Wylie said she was considering both contemporary theatre writing as well as more established plays for her first seasons.

Asked about whether she would consider the 'canon' of Scottish theatre writing, she said: "There are two versions of the canon, and everyone has their own version - there is the modern canon, which is ever evolving, and there is the historical canon.

"But for me the most important thing for me is whether a piece of work from any moment in Scottish cultural history has something urgent to say about where we are now.

"I need to figure out what urgently needs to be staged in Scotland, and that might have a lot of starting points."

Ms Wylie, who is not a director of plays but sees her role in bringing together artistic teams and leading the direction of the company, said she wants the NTS to attract younger audiences.

She said that the potency of the youth vote in the recent General Election had underlined her desire to reach the youngest sections of the Scottish audience, and explore digital and online presentations.

"One of the things I am personally passionate about is bringing in younger audiences.

"It's been so interesting to watch the last couple of weeks of politics, and even before we watched the upswell in power of young people, it's in my soul to make theatre relevant to younger audiences.

"The NTS in the past has done that, but I want to carry on exploring what the future definitions of theatre might be, to keep evolving theatre to make it relevant to new generations."

She added: "There can be different forms of theatre.

"Isn't it interesting that there is a whole generation of young people being born as digital natives? And there are two ways of looking at how theatre may interact with that.

"One is that it makes the live experience all the more relevant, because people feel alive when they are in the theatre space and it isn't mediated for them, and the other is that the digital future may enable us to explore different forms of theatre.

"Maybe online...it is ripe for exploration."