amdram.co.uk is the free website for the amateur theatre community. It includes free resources for groups and individuals interested in amateur theatre.
"We won't make a crisis out of a drama"
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I spend far too much time at the computer working on amdram.co.uk. When I'm not there, I'm currently studying at the UEA hoping to get a Drama degree. And before you ask yes I am a mature student.
Unfortunately, despite a lot of work being carried out, it has not been possible to restore the Forum. We are aware of the problem and the people responsible are still working to restore normal service as soon as possible. In the meantime, I apologize for any inconvenience and promise that as soon as we can get it working we will.
It appears that the server hosting the amdram.co.uk forum is currently having problems. The hosts are aware of the problem and are working to restore normal service. Hopefully this will be sooner rather than later.
This week sees the launch of the Drama Association of Wales's One Act Playwriting Competition 2006. The competition aims to encourage the writing of plays for amateur theatre in English and Welsh. For 2006, they are looking for plays in two categories; an open section, and plays suitable for performance by a cast of 16-25 year olds. In addition to cash awards, prize-winning plays will be published. Previous prizewinners have been published and performed as a result of promotion through their New Writing Scheme. More information can be found on their website within amdram.co.uk.
This week, Birmingham Stage Company are using 3D illusions on stage for the first time. The effects are being used in "Horrible History" and are live rather than pre-recording making audience interaction possible. More about this can be found here.
The dates are out for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006. It will run from the 6th to the 28th of August next year. If you've never been you're really missing out. I went this year for the first time and it was amazing - why had I never been before! I was only able to go up for 2 and a half days and really wished I could have stayed longer. The official website states that in 2005 there were 1800 different shows - I saw about a dozen of them!
Jekyll and Hyde was always going to be a popular musical for amateur theatre, and the race is on for which amateur theatre group will to be the first to perform this show. As far as we are aware, it's London based SEDOS and their full details are currently in our production database here with their show preview on Wednesday 26th October. Unless of course, you know better!
Stage Fight Guy, a regular amdram.co.uk forum visitor and actually quite local to me, is walking around with a big grin on his face at the moment. Tom, his 9 year old son, has just been cast in "Billy Elliot" in the West End. Although it means a great deal of travelling, Tom's parents couldn't be prouder. Both parents are amateur theatre regulars - goes to show that it's probably all in the genes! You can read more about Tom's success on the Billy Elliot Fansite. Or why not visit the forum and chat to his dad!
I've just added a new section to the site for scripts that are offered free to amateur theatre groups. Whilst I cannot guarantee the standard of these scripts, if you're on a tight budget it might be worth having a look at them. Some are available for download direct from amdram.co.uk whilst other require you visiting another website. For more information click here.
The British version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame has been launched in Covent Garden by Sir Michael Caine. There will eventually be 100 silver stars pleaying tribute to actors and actresses; 48 names have so far been announced. More information can be found here. The new walk of fame will be launched tonight on ITV and it marks the 50th Anniversary of the station.
The Scottish Community Drama Association (SCDA) was founded in 1926 to act as the umbrella organisation for amateur and community theatre in Scotland. As one aspect of the service provided, the SCDA playwriting competitions encourage both the promotion of new plays to member clubs, and the works of new playwrights in Scotland and beyond.
The National Theatre made an operating surplus of £647,000 in 2004 to 2005. Part of the success was the national acclaimed production of Alan Bennett's "The History Boys". I know this is touring in October as it's coming to my local professional theatre at the end of that month. Full details of the informal press briefing held yesterday can be found on The Stage's website. You can also buy your own copy of the script at Amazon.
This year there has been an enquiry into amateur theatre in England and possibilities of funding. Obviously how this money will get down to the groups needs sorting, and at the moment there are moves afoot to develop an English Drama Association (one already exists in Wales and I believe in Scotland). The full report is available via the Internet (don't you just love it) and can be read here. The interesting bits start at number 87, but if you have nothing better to do, why not read the whole thing.
Sir Peter Hall has lashed out at West End productions that use big Hollywood names instead of more local actors. He says that theatre is suffering because of the imports.
Three theatre sets which have been covered in dust for nearly a 100 years (sounds like Sleeping Beauty doesn't it) have been discovered at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. The sets were designed by William Hemsley. Other theatrical treasures were discovered at the same time and are currently on display to the public. The current Duke of Devonshire plans to have a theatre up and running by 2007. More information can be found here.
All the tweaking to the new design is now complete and has just been uploaded. Any comments can be made via the forum. Hopefully this has now ironed out any problems, if not please let me know. If you do find any broken links, I would be really grateful if you can let me know via the online Help Desk.
The Chelsea Players are hoping to take a show to Edinburgh next year, like my group - hey maybe we'll meet up there! Anyway, to help funds they are having an Indian Summer Masquerade Ball tomorrow. It's being held at Wessex House, 1a St John's Hill, Clapham Junction, London and they would be grateful for any support. Visit their website for more details.
I've been asked several times why you now have to contact me via the online Help Desk instead of email. The main reason is that it makes my life easier :) As you all know now, I run this site on my own (with help from the Moderators on the forum) and for fun. Everytime I've gone on holiday it's been difficult to keep up with the email and most of the time I've taken my laptop with me so that I can keep a record of correspondence. You'll be surprised the number of people who don't keep the previous reply in an email and write as if you know exactly what they are talking about. It's also meant that this last year at Uni, I've had to get up extra early to sort out the emails before catching the bus. I get several hundred emails a day, most of which are spam and viruses, and occasionally I have deleted a "proper" email by mistake, with no chance of getting it back. The online Help Desk solves both these problems. I can access it from anywhere in the world, don't have to scroll through pages and pages of spam via my online in box and all the information is right there. You know I've received your email - it's very difficult to delete by mistake. So now you know!! I love the system, and I'm sure you will too.
When I first had the idea for this running chat from me, I didn't view it as a blog, but after a lot of searching on the Internet I found that a blog was the best way of doing it. For all my previous posts, I turned off the comments option and just used it to keep you up to date with the site. However, on my last post, I forgot to switch off the comment and now I have a comment :) I'm now not sure whether to keep it on or off, or vary it depending upon the post? Come on everyone, what do you think - comments please.
For those that don't know, this new site was planned to be uploaded on Sunday the 14th of August, complete with this blog and all the other changes. To prepare for this I changed all the colours and graphics in the forum on Friday the 12th August (it wasn't even the 13th!). Sat down at the computer on Sunday and the server fell over. It took those people who know how to do these things all day to reinstate the site and in the end they had to backup my site from a backup taken on Wednesday 10th August which meant all the changes were lost. I realised after all this that I hadn't backed up the new settings myself - doh. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to hold off the forum and site changes until the server problems had been solved, and I then decided to do it in chunks rather than all at once - just in case. Now I've finally completed the last main job - the forum. All graphics and colours now match the new site - why not check it out for yourself?
I'd like to welcome Pam and George to the forum as Moderators. For those of you who don't visit the forum, you should. It's a place to meet friends and get help about anything and everything. Various people hang out there, with a very wide range of expertise from sets to lights, from wardrobe to script, from directing to acting. And it's free! You don't have to register to read posts, but you do need to register to post. But rest assured, your email address is safe. What have you got to lose?
Okay, some people have made some very valid comments about the new design, and I've just spent the day having a tweak (and no it wasn't painful, only stressful!). Anyway I have an amended page version for you to have a look at here. If you do want to comment, good or bad, please visit the forum and post in the thread open there. I look forward to hearing what you all think.
You might have noticed that over the weekend a new advert appeared on the right hand side of the site. This offered groups the opportunity to advertise their production for only £15 a month. The advert will appear on over 300 pages. No sooner had the advert appeared than Wolverhampton Youth Music Theatre grabbed the opportunity to advertise their production of Honk! this month. Watch the space, I'm guessing this is going to be a popular spot, but I'm currently only allowing one at a time (if it's very popular I might have to rethink that, along with some other minor changes I want to make) when my advert returns, you'd better contact me for the spot quick!
It seems that some people with a particular setting are having problems with the database search pages. I think I've solved most of the pages, but if you're having problems with not seeing the search boxes, scroll down and let me know via the on line help desk which pages are still not displaying correctly please.
Just to remind you all that Amateur Theatre Week runs from the 22nd of October to the 29th of October this year.
Well I've decided to add a blog to the site, let's see how it goes.