How did you get involved in OUDS?
“I have always loved drama and knew I wanted to do it at university. I sought out OUDS as soon as I had my place at Oxford and have never gone back! I joined the OUDS portal on Facebook before term even started and was in a play from my first Michaelmas: a piece of new writing at the BT. After that, I did some marketing, some producing stuff, and eventually directing – which is where I tend to stay these days. I think that applying for lots of different roles in different productions helped me to understand the space well at the beginning.”
What is your favourite thing about the drama scene in Oxford?
“Wow this is really difficult – I love it for so many reasons. If I had to give one it would probably be that it is where I have found my ‘people’. Theatre is just my favourite thing to do, talk about, watch – and being able to find best friends who share that passion (or even simply have the hobby) of loving some part of theatre has been a really special part of my university experience. Other things I love would be the breadth of opportunity in the drama scene – there is a LOT going on, and there is space for everyone and we (the committee) are trying to make the society as welcoming and open-armed as possible for anyone who fancies being involved. There’s also amazing theatre to go and see every week of the Oxford term for the cost of a pint! And socials and events to watch people who want to sing their favourite song at an open mic night, or perform a piece of their new writing! Everything! Yay! Drama! I love it…”
How can freshers get involved in student drama and OUDS?
“Great question. I will break it down: Where you can be physically: for OUDS freshers week, we have a few events going on for you to attend. First off – we will be at the freshers fair – find us there for maximum information. We will be running a Shakespeare acting workshop with the resident Oxford Shakespeare director – alumni officer of Jesus college, Peter Sutton (details on our insta if anywhere). Also fun town – OUDS FRESHERS SOCIAL SATURDAY 0TH WEEK @ THE KINGS ARMS 5-8.30PM! Great place to meet other drama-ey freshers and lots of older OUDS people and find out about what’s on this term!
Finally, Sunday of 1st week (which is 13th October) we will be running an auditions workshop, which will be drama games and getting some audition tips and stuff. All very chill, all very fun, all very informative!
Digitally, the most important place to be to see opportunities advertised for shows is on the OUDS Facebook portal. Type in “Oxford University Drama Portal” on Facebook and you can join the group to see things there. Also follow us on instagram @_ouds, where we will post about all events and shows happening throughout the term. Paper-ly, at the freshers fair we hand out fresher flyers – which have a full OUDS breakdown – welfare guide, audition guidelines, monologue bank, cuppers (will explain), general info and what next. If you missed us, we will leave some in The Kings Arms on their poster board for you to nab! Also our term card of events, which involves scratch nights, pub quizzes, writing workshops, speakers, the lot.
Cuppers: This is the main drama fresher event of Michaelmas (niche). ‘Cuppers’ is a term for an inter-college competition, so drama cuppers is the inter-college drama competition! Each college can enter with a team as big as you like to perform a 20 minute play in 5th week at the BT Studio. The play can be anything from a Shakespeare extract to a piece of new writing to an improvised musical! There are awards for best marketing (get a marketing manager to make a funky poster), best costumes, best writing, best acting, best directing and so on. Each team performs throughout the week and on Saturday, a few will be selected to perform again in the week rundown. Then on Sunday, we have an awards ceremony and social. It is a great way to get involved and get creating early on that is not too high of a commitment – and a perfect opportunity to meet lots of people with similar interests.”
What can incoming freshers look forward to with OUDS this year?
“You should definitely look forward to Cuppers, because that is going to be a hoot – 5th week will be like a mini Fringe Festival vibe. What else…. I would highly recommend signing up for workshops and events we are running. We have some amazing things lined up that are a great break from work e.g. we have an acting coach, Ed Sayer, coming to run an acting course across Michaelmas for those who have not had much opportunity to act before university. A free term of proper acting training? Sign me up. We will have our annual Oxo bar christmas party this term… that will be cool. There is something happening every week – just have a look at our term card to see all the things we have in store! And that’s not to mention that there will be about 30 shows to be a part of/watch in Michaelmas alone!”
What advice would you give to incoming freshers?
“Something I always say when I am directing a show at Oxford – and it is a stressful pre-show week moment – the only reason we are doing this is for joy. We have full degrees on our plates! It is purely for fun that we are pursuing these dramatic endeavours. Keep that at the core of all your decisions! Get stuck in and don’t overthink it. Pop along to the social, send off that audition tape, perform at the scratch night. If not now, when? Familiarise yourself with the lovely committee and don’t be afraid to use us. We have a welfare officer for any concerns at welfare.ouds@gmail.com , a freshers rep specifically there to chat to YOU, a bunch of other great, helpful gang, and me! You can reach me at president@ouds.org for absolutely ANY drama question – no query is too small. I also love a chinwag. OUDS is now demystified. Boom! See you at the socials.”
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