What goes on in a dramatic society?

 

 

So what goes on?

The simple answer – dramatics. We put plays on. Three a year. We do comedies and thrillers and farces and pantomimes. The public sees the actors on stage, but there’s much more going on behind the scenes. These are some of the jobs YOU could help us with. You’d become part of a team whose individual reward is the success of the entire team. If you’ve never done any of these but think you might like to, don’t worry – a friendly face will happily assist or show you the ropes, or you can assist  and learn as you go.

Director/Producer
This person has overall responsibility for the play up until the opening night, when he or she, with a sigh of relief, hands control over to the

Stage Manager
The stage manager (SM) will be the one who sits in the wings making sure the curtains open and close when they should, that the actors are there ready for their entrances and the whole production runs smoothly. It’s quite a responsible job, which means the SM also has an

Assistant Stage Manager
The ASM sits in the opposite wing for anything that needs to happen over that side of the stage. Luckily, by the wonders of modern technology (walkie-talkies) the SM and the ASM are in constant contact, and are also in touch with

Sound and Lighting
There’s usually one person in control of the lights and another in charge of the sound. Lighting is done by a fairly simple dimmer desk and it’s usually a case of following the script and bringing various dimmers up or down as previously worked out. We have sound equipment ranging from mini-desk and CD (for the technophobes) to a laptop computer based system, and again it’s about following the script and clicking a mouse in the right places. Remember, you’ll never be thrown in at the deep end – there will always be help and advice available.

Prompt
On the odd occasion an actor forgets a line (ahem!), the prompt sits there going through the script line by line ready to utter a few words of the next line so as to keep the play running smoothly. No actors like getting prompts, and everyone will deny they needed one afterwards, but we’re all human and it happens. The more alert the prompt is, the less the audience will notice anything amiss.

Properties and Set
These individuals are in charge of all the props, furniture and set changes for a show. The better they are at their job, the shorter the “closed curtain” intervals between scenes are. We usually nominate a “props” and an “Assistant Props”.

Front of House
is a “theatre” term to denote anything that’s not directly involved in the play itself, but without which a show could not go on. Just to give some example, we need someone on the door to welcome the audience as they arrive, to take their tickets, to sell sweets and raffle tickets, to draw the raffle after the interval, to make refreshments… even to man the car park.

And the beauty of all this is…
The immense high we all get after a smooth show, when people leave with smiles on their faces and we can all say everyone was a part of a much larger whole.

This could be you!!!

Give us a call or send us an email – what have you to lose?
And what have we all to gain?

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