This term will be my last on the ADC/Corpus Playroom show selection committee, and this piece is both an insight into one of the perhaps lesser-known aspects of Cambridge theatre, and also something of a plea: a plea for more. While I feel privileged to have seen so many great shows, as a final farewell I am urging YOU, fellow students, to apply with something a little different.

The seasons we put together have to have to appeal to audiences as well as being thematically and tonally balanced. We need a range of playwrights from a range of times – yet certain names and certain ideas come up again and again. My advice would be to avoid Arthur Miller, Alan Bennett and any show that has featured on Camdram in at least the last three years, unless you have a very concrete and salient idea about how you are going to do it that makes it interesting and special.

“The committee have to reject so many shows on the grounds they are just too similar”

As president of the Fletcher Players, I have a vested interest in the Corpus Playroom and am especially aware of the large number of darkly comic middle class domestic dramas that are applied for in the ‘intimate’ space each term. There is a plethora of creativity in our not-so-humble student theatre scene, yet the committee have to reject so many shows on the grounds they are just too similar. If a season is to be balanced, those that apply with anything other than the aforementioned domestic drama already have a vastly larger chance of success.

Most pertinently, we need more shows by female, BME, LGBTQ+ and working class playwrights. In the wider world, lack of investment in the arts will have an immeasurable impact on excluding narratives. And while Cambridge is its own microcosm with its own access problems, there are unparalleled opportunities for engaging with theatre here. Nowhere else will you have such resources readily available to create with, including exceptional student technicians. Nowhere else can you receive a fixed amount of money to try something with so few implications or repercussions.

“Now is the time to do something a bit weird and new and crazy”

So be bold. The aim of student theatre is to experiment and learn from the successes and failures of trying, and while there is a place for shows that stick to already well-travelled themes – of which I have seen brilliant examples –now is the time to do something a bit weird and new and crazy. 

I’m not saying only apply if you have a wordless, one-woman interpretive dance about cutting your toenails itching to be staged (although, that said, we do need more dance). Shows that are inspiring don’t need to be completely radical. This term, for example, is the best to try Shakespeare as it’s the only one where a tour doesn’t bring a production here – but competition will be stiff. 

SWALLOW, directed by Avigail Tlalim, used the Corpus space in an incredibly effective and inventive way. Dragtime! brought a more diverse group of people not only on to the ADC stage but also into the audience. In Week 2, Stuart: A Life Backwards combined theatre with social activism by engaging with the homeless community in Cambridge in a brilliantly constructive way. In the past three years, new writing has come an incredible way, and five shows programmed this term are student written and devised, spanning from an ADC main to Corpus one-night-stand.

“One of the two categories, a play by a published BME author, received zero applications.”

Last term was the first that the ADC used ‘categories’ as part of their selection process. Their purpose is to make up for where we perceive a concerted lack in a season’s programming. Regrettably, lack of publicity meant that only those already in the know managed to take full advantage. One of the two categories, a play by a published BME author, received zero applications. 

By soliciting for the two categories we hope to ensure both opportunity and variety in the ADC Theatre’s termly programming. The categories are ‘suggested’ with the idea that it will prompt students to apply with these kind of shows, but if an application isn’t good enough or no one has applied for it, we can’t programme the kinds of shows that are so badly needed.

“We need to keep striving for increased creativity and diversity”

This term, we are seeking applications from a BME published playwright and a 20th century comedy. They will not necessarily be scheduled as main shows: the strength and quality of the application will be taken into account, and all available slots will be considered. In the words of ADC manager Mitchell Clarke: ‘It is our collective belief – as well as our firm intention – that this initiative should act as a stimulus to directors, producers and actors and should, at the same time, ensure that successive cohorts of theatre-goers are exposed to the widest range of drama possible.’

On the role of the student reviewer

If you haven’t been involved before, then this is even more of a reason to apply. As a site of theatrical endeavours we need to keep striving for increased creativity and diversity. We say the two go hand in hand. The ADC is holding application drinks on February 4th, if you have any questions or advice for us on how we can make this process better, please come along or get in touch by email. Cambridge creatives, go nuts