Experimental Theatre Club
Encyclopedia
- This club should not be confused with the La MaMa Experimental Theatre ClubLa MaMa Experimental Theatre ClubLa MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
of New York.
The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) is a student dramatic society at University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded in 1936 by Nevill Coghill
Nevill Coghill
Nevill Coghill was a British literary scholar, known especially for his modern English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.-Life:...
as an alternative company to the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), and produces several productions a year.
Many famous actors and directors have been involved with productions by the club. The club has given the first productions of many new works, perhaps most notably Epitaph for George Dillon
Epitaph for George Dillon
Epitaph for George Dillon is an early John Osborne play, one of two he wrote in collaboration with Anthony Creighton . It was written before Look Back in Anger, the play which made Osborne’s career, but opened a year after in Oxford in 1957 and moved to London’s Royal Court theatre, where Look...
, by John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
in 1957, directed by Don Taylor
Don Taylor (director)
Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...
.
In particular, the club was an important nursery for the talents of the British New Wave
British New Wave
The British New Wave is the name given to a trend in filmmaking among directors in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The label is a translation of Nouvelle Vague, the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others.There is considerable overlap...
(Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
, Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
, John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
, Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
, Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
) in the 1950s, and the Oxford component of Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
(Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
, Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
) in the 1960s.
In the 1970s, many figures later significant in film and television were involved, such as Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
and Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
, who performed some of his early sketches for ETC revues at the Oxford Playhouse and elsewhere.
The ETC presented After Eights: The Etceteras Eights Week Revue at the Oxford Playhouse, 25 to 29 May 1976, featuring Rowan Atkinson, with material written by Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
, Robin Seavill and Iain Moss among others.
Current activities
The ETC acts as a funding bodyFunding body
A funding body is an organisation that provides research funding in the form of research grants or scholarships. These include:* Arts councils* Research councils for the funding of science....
for experimental student productions in Oxford.
The current committee consists of Matt Gavan (President), Joe Murphy (Treasurer), Cassie Barracough, Ollo Clark, and Chloe Orrock.
Alumni
People who have contributed to ETC productions include:- John AlberyJohn AlberyWyndham John Albery FRS is a British chemist and academic.John Albery was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He undertook his D.Phil. with Ronnie Bell, starting in 1960...
- Rowan AtkinsonRowan AtkinsonRowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
- Lindsay AndersonLindsay AndersonLindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
- Alan BennettAlan BennettAlan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
- Richard CurtisRichard CurtisRichard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
- Michael FlandersMichael FlandersMichael Henry Flanders OBE, was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the duo Flanders and Swann....
- Piers FletcherPiers FletcherPiers Fletcher is a television producer and researcher, mainly working for the British panel game QI, broadcast on the BBC.Before working in television, Fletcher served in the British Army, where he was in charge of the northernmost Observation Post in Hong Kong, meaning that if China invaded, he...
- Philip FranksPhilip FranksPhilip Franks is an English actor and director best known for his roles as tax inspector Cedric "Charley" Charlton in the British sitcom The Darling Buds of May, and Sgt. Raymond Craddock on Heartbeat. He has also made guest appearances in Absolutely Fabulous, Pie in the Sky, Midsomer Murders and...
- Howard GoodallHoward Goodall210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
- Tom HooperTom Hooper (director)Thomas George "Tom" Hooper is a British film and television director of English and Australian background. Hooper began making short films at the age of 13, and had his first professional short, Painted Faces, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and...
- Terry JonesTerry JonesTerence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
- Ken LoachKen LoachKenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
(President) - John McGrath (playwright)
- Dudley MooreDudley MooreDudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
- Iain Moss
- Robert OrchardRobert OrchardRobert Orchard is a British radio journalist and presenter.Robert Orchard was educated at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford in the 1970s, where he was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society. While at Oxford, he wrote and directed student revues with Rowan Atkinson and...
- Michael PalinMichael PalinMichael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
- Diana QuickDiana Quick-Life:Quick was born in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of a dentist's four children. She was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Kent. She was greatly aided by her English teacher, Miss Davis, who encouraged her to pursue acting...
- Tony RichardsonTony RichardsonCecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
- Andrew Rissik
- John SchlesingerJohn SchlesingerJohn Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
(President) - Robin Seavill
- Don Taylor (director)Don Taylor (director)Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...
- Kenneth TynanKenneth TynanKenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
(President) - Samuel WestSamuel WestSamuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
(President) - Sandy WilsonSandy WilsonSandy Wilson is an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend .-Biography:Wilson was born Alexander Galbraith Wilson in Sale, Greater Manchester, and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Ordnance Corps in Great...
- David WoodDavid Wood (actor)David Wood OBE is an English-born actor and writer, called "the National Children's Dramatist" by The Times.He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and Worcester College, Oxford....
Visiting directors include Peter Hall and
Terry Hands
Terry Hands
Terence David Hands is an English theatre director. He ran the Royal Shakespeare Company for 20 years during one of its most successful periods.-Early years:...
.