Hot Mikado at the ADC
You can find out more about the ADC shows at http://www.adctheatre.com/.
I've spent countless hours of my life working on all kinds of shows in some kind of technical capacity. On this site you'll find information, programmes, photos and other archive stuff from shows, tours and from the related social activities! The following paragraphs are all about some of the things I've done.
Becoming a technician is easy. It's not all about wearing black and having a huge collection of tools and gadgets hung from your belt - these things merely help identify you as a techie. 'Technician' is broad description for people who design things, build things, paint things, light things, cue things, and of course destroy things! In my experience most amateur theatres in this country are short of crew and generally welcome help. If you want to learn more about the sort of things technicians do, read the Guide to Life.
I spend a large amount of my time at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge. It's probably the best equipped student theatre in the country, and if you want to do a silly, big or technically exquisite show, the possibilities are endless.
Coming soon, Sprung at the Fitzpatrick Hall in Cambridge.
My favourite technical task is working as Lighting Designer for dance shows. I've worked a lot with the Manx Gnat, King's Contemporary Dance Project, the Cambridge University Contemporary Dance Workshop and I've done shows in Edinburgh and London as well. Expect details, reviews and archive material to appear on this site soon, including pics from the recent Edinburgh run of Synergy.
The ADC Committee have the thankless task of running the Amateur Dramatic Club in Cambridge. The Club owns the ADC Theatre and presents several shows each term. I was foolish enough to get elected to committee, first as Technician, then as Technical Director. The most important aspect of these jobs was to recruit more technicians, and the three most important things we did were the drinking workshop, the techie meet'n'greet and the fried breakfast workshop. I also revamped the website from its original single page form to resembling a website, and introduces the club to the concept of mailing lists!
The Club Website is a valuable source of information for all those interested in Cambridge drama, and also has some archives online as well.
The Guide to Life is a document originally written by the ADC Committee back in 1994. It describes all the different technical roles and how to get involved with Cambridge drama. Owing to various club cash crises, the guide was never reprinted after 1995, so I set about the arduous task of putting it onto the web. Some 133,000 character of typing later and following some editing and rewriting, and it's now viewable in HTML.
Touring is hard work and can be a lot of fun. I first toured as Lighting Designer for the 1997 ETG Tour ('Hamlet'). I have also Technical Directed the ADC America Tour ('Macbeth' in 1998) and the Cambridge Footlights Summer Tour ('Sensible Haircut' in 2000). More links to follow, once the shows archive is complete.
©Eddy Langley - This page last updated 29 October 2003