In the course of its involvement with the world of theatre, Seagull grew to realize that there appeared to be a crying need within the field for a national-level theatre journal that would fulfill a networking and developmental function, linking up theatre workers through the country who are not part of the commercial mainstream on which the media tends to focus almost exclusively; providing access to significant happenings; allowing information, ideas and experiences to travel freely in performance circles; and bringing theatre workers and audiences serious critique, theoretical analysis, responsible, informed reviewing and information dissemination. STQ grew out of the recognition of this need.

STQ approaches theatre and performance as a social phenomenon which is rooted in and grows out of specific cultural and historical contexts. In keeping with this, STQ places a strong emphasis on generating original material and in retrieving and preserving oral histories of workers and performers, of indigenous performing traditions as well as 'modern' theatre, through in-depth first-person accounts.

English was chosen as a link language, so that people with different mother-tongues could access STQ. With its emphasis on process documentation and interviews, the aim is to develop the field, to fertilize the creativity of theatre practitioners. By generating most of its own material rather than recycling already produced/published material, STQ is building up a bank of archival documentation and oral histories, which will enrich not just theatre history but cultural studies in general, given that performance in our country stands at the intersection of several disciplines including sociology, anthropology, folklore, gender studies, religious studies, performance studies and, of course, the arts.

A non-profit venture, the areas that concern STQ are: archival documentation, collaborations across the arts, critical analyses, cross genre experimentation, dialogue and discussion, formal experimentation, networking, oral histories, process documentation, theatre activism, theatre for change, theatre design, theatre history, theatre music, theatre photography, traditional performance forms, voices from the margins, women and theatre.