Oxford University Dramatic Society
Encyclopedia
| Founded | 1885 |
|---|---|
| Home Page | OUDS |
Officers 2010-2011 |
|
| President | Sarah Perry, Oriel College |
| Treasurer | Stephen Poole, St Anne's College |
| Secretary | Mary Flanigan, Somerville College Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there... |
The Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) is the principal funding body
Funding 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....
and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, 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...
. Not all student productions at Oxford University are awarded funding from the society; however it is rare, for example, for any student production at the Oxford Playhouse not to receive substantial funding from the society. The society funds many types of show, mostly at the Oxford Playhouse, Burton Taylor Theatre
Burton Taylor Theatre
The Burton Taylor Studio is a 50-seater studio theatre owned by Oxford University. It is situated on Gloucester Street off Beaumont Street in Oxford, United Kingdom close to the Oxford Playhouse, a larger professional theatre, which manages the Burton Taylor Studio on behalf of the University...
, and the individual college theatres such as the Moser Theatre at Wadham and the O'Reilly Theatre
O'Reilly Theatre
The O'Reilly Theatre is a flexible studio theatre on Blackhall Road, central north Oxford, England. It is located within Keble College, one of the University of Oxford colleges. The theatre was completed in 2002....
at Keble. All productions put on by Oxford University students can use the society's services, such as the website, the wardrobe, and advice from the committee.
The Society supports a competition for Freshers (Cuppers), held in Michaelmas Term
Michaelmas term
Michaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic years of the following British and Irish universities:*University of Cambridge*University of Oxford*University of St...
and a New Writing Festival in Hilary Term
Hilary term
Hilary Term is the second academic term of Oxford University's academic year. It runs from January to March and is so named because the feast day of St Hilary of Poitiers, 14 January, falls during this term...
. OUDS also supports an annual National UK Tour, which culminates in a long run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and, jointly with Thelma Holt
Thelma Holt
Thelma Holt, is a British theatre producer and former actress.After a successful career as an actress, in partnership with Charles Marowitz, Thelma founded the Open Space Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, London, which became the forerunner of the London fringe. In 1977, joined The Round House in...
, a Shakespeare production which tours Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, with preview performances in the UK.
The society was founded in 1885 by Alec MacKinnon.
Alumni
Many famous actors have participated in OUDS productions. For example, in 1907 professional actresses Lily BraytonLily Brayton
Elizabeth "Lily" Brayton was an English actress, known for her performances in Shakespeare plays and for her nearly 2,000 performances in the World War I hit musical Chu Chin Chow.-Early years:...
and her sister Agnes appeared as Katherine and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
; John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
made his directing debut at OUDS in 1932 with a production of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
in which he enlisted professional actresses Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
to play Juliet and Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
to play the Nurse. Another notable production was when Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
appeared in a production of Dr. Faustus
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge...
in 1966 with undergraduates in the supporting cast.
Past members and people associated with OUDS productions include:
- Paul AlmondPaul AlmondPaul Almond, is a Canadian former television and motion picture screenwriter, director and producer, and since 1990 has been a novelist.-Life and career:...
- Pierre AudiPierre AudiPierre Audi is a French-Lebanese theatre director and artistic director.Pierre Audi is the son of the Lebanese banker Raymond Audi and Andrée Michel Fattal, the eldest of three children. Audi's family were originally from originally from Saida, but he attended the French Lycée in Beirut...
- 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...
- Helen Atkinson-WoodHelen Atkinson-WoodHelen Atkinson-Wood is an English actress and comedian born in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, Cheshire.Atkinson-Wood studied fine art at the Ruskin School, Oxford University, where she performed with Rowan Atkinson...
- Peter Bayley
- John BetjemanJohn BetjemanSir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
- Will Bowen
- Gyles BrandrethGyles BrandrethGyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...
- Richard BurtonRichard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
- Kate BeckinsaleKate BeckinsaleKathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...
- Shirley Catlin
- Caryl ChurchillCaryl ChurchillCaryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
- Michael CodronMichael CodronMichael Victor Codron is a British film and theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard...
- Alex CoxAlex CoxAlexander Cox is a British film director, screenwriter, nonfiction author and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach to scripts...
- Jonathan CullenJonathan Cullen-Personal life:Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 1960, Cullen was son to Tony Cullen, a founding member of the Northern Sinfonia. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, and went on to take a French and Philosophy degree at New College, Oxford...
- 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...
- Thomas de Mallet Burgess
- George DevineGeorge DevineGeorge Alexander Cassady Devine CBE was an extremely influential theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor in London from the late 1940s until his death. He also worked in the media of TV and film.-Biography:...
- Edith EvansEdith EvansDame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
- 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...
- William GaskillWilliam GaskillWilliam 'Bill' Gaskill is a British theatre director.He worked alongside Laurence Olivier as a founding director of the National Theatre from its time at the Old Vic in 1963...
- John GielgudJohn GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
- Peter GlenvillePeter GlenvillePeter Glenville , born Peter Patrick Brabazon Browne, was an English film and stage actor and director.-Biography:...
- Hugh GrantHugh GrantHugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
- 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...
- David JesselDavid JesselDavid Jessel is a former British TV and radio news presenter; author; and campaigner against miscarriages of justice. From 2000 to 2010 he was also a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.-Background:...
- Felicity JonesFelicity JonesFelicity Jones is an English actress from Birmingham. She is best known to television audiences for her role as the school bully Ethel Hallow in the first series of The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College...
- Peter KosminskyPeter KosminskyPeter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector and The Promise.- Biography :...
- Nigel LawsonNigel LawsonNigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC , is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974–92, and served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Margaret Thatcher from June 1983 to October 1989...
- Harry LloydHarry LloydHarry Lloyd is an English actor. He played Will Scarlet in the first two seasons of the BBC drama Robin Hood which began in 2006...
- John Maud
- 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...
- Stanley MyersStanley MyersStanley Myers , was a prolific British film composer who scored over sixty films. Born in Birmingham, as a teenager Myers went to King Edward's School in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham...
- Terence O'BrienTerence John O'BrienTerence John O'Brien MC CMG was a British career diplomat.-Background:...
- Katherine ParkinsonKatherine ParkinsonLaura Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian who is known for playing the part of Jen Barber in the Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd...
- Roger ParryRoger ParryRoger Parry is a media entrepreneur based in the UK. He is Chairman of a number of media groups quoted on the London Stock Exchange including Mobile Streams plc and YouGov plc.. He is Chairman of the Trustees of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre . And a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University....
- 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...
* - Gervais RentoulGervais RentoulSir Gervais Squire Chittick Rentoul K.C.,M.A. , commonly known as Gervais Rentoul, was a British Conservative politician....
- Gillian ReynoldsGillian ReynoldsGillian Reynolds MBE, née Morton is a British radio critic, journalist and broadcaster. The daughter of market traders in Liverpool, she was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford University....
* - 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...
- 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...
- Mel SmithMel SmithMelvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer, and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones.- Early life :Smith's father, Kenneth, was born...
- Imogen StubbsImogen StubbsImogen Stubbs, Lady Nunn is an English actress and playwright.-Early life:Imogen Stubbs was born in Northumberland, lived briefly in Portsmouth, where her father was a naval officer, and then moved with her parents to London, where they lived on an elderly river barge on the Thames...
- Mabel Terry-LewisMabel Terry-LewisMabel Gwynedd Terry-Lewis was a British actress and a member of the Terry-Gielgud dynasty of actors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....
- Kenneth TynanKenneth TynanKenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
- Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
- David WilliamDavid WilliamDavid William was a British/Canadian actor and director.He was born Bryan David Williams in London, the only child of Eric Williams and Olwen Roose, his wife. His family were London-based wine merchants. He was educated at Bryanston School and University College, Oxford...
- Emlyn WilliamsEmlyn WilliamsGeorge Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
- Dornford YatesDornford YatesDornford Yates was the pseudonym of the British novelist, Cecil William Mercer , whose novels and short stories, some humorous , some thrillers , were best-sellers in the 21-year interwar period between the First and Second world wars.The pen name, Dornford Yates, first in print in 1910, resulted...
- Michael YorkMichael York (actor)Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
Diana 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...
was the first female OUDS President.
See also
- Experimental Theatre ClubExperimental Theatre ClubThe Experimental Theatre Club is a student dramatic society at University of Oxford, England. It was founded in 1936 by Nevill Coghill as an alternative company to the Oxford University Dramatic Society , and produces several productions a year.Many famous actors and directors have been involved...
(ETC) - The Oxford RevueThe Oxford RevueThe Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians and satirists. The Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term...
- Magdalen PlayersMagdalen PlayersThe Magdalen Players is a theatrical production and funding body based at Magdalen College, Oxford, England. It is one of Oxford's richest theatrical organizations and assists with the funding of productions containing Magdalen students...
- University College PlayersUniversity College PlayersThe University College Players are the theatrical society of University College, Oxford.The first production was in May 1941 when Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors was performed in cooperation with Merton College. Peter Bayley was the senior member from the start till the 1960s...
Further reading
- Carpenter, HumphreyHumphrey CarpenterHumphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...
, O.U.D.S.: A Centenary History of the Oxford University Dramatic Society 1885–1985, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1985 (ISBN 0-19-212241-X). - OUDS 125th Anniversary Gala programme, Oxford Playhouse, 13 June 2010.