Welcome to What’s On Stage?, our new weekly update showcasing the editors’ picks for what to see in Oxford each week. This week: 0th week!
Term has begun. The freshers have arrived. The Rad Cam is full of double-denimed finalists. And the Oxford stage begins to fill once more…
…sort of. Actually this week the answer to the question ‘what’s on stage?’ is: nothing, much. It’s 0th week and who wants to watch theatre when they could be in Junction covering nubile 18 year-olds with foam? Lots of people, but those ones are busy trying to recruit the same 18 year-olds for their new societies, and are spending their week at freshers’ fairs and in audition rooms. If you want to get into those audition rooms but you’re new to the scene, why not start your stage career at the OUDS Acting Workshop, this Thursday, 12pm in the Baring Room, Hertford College, or the Directing Workshop, on at the same time, same place this Friday. You will almost certainly get to play drama warm-up games, the thespian’s equivalent of socialising. If you’re into the design or marketing aspect of theatre, there’ll be workshops for those next week.
If you want to join a group for the year, the comedians and singers are recruiting round about now: keep an eye out for O-town’s two main resident funnies The Oxford Revue, running all sorts of auditions for performers, and The Oxford Imps. If you’re new to uni and you think Americans are cool, you’ll probably be interested in what feels like the hundreds and thousands of resident a cappella groups. Audition for the jazzy Gargoyles (email oxfordgargoyles@gmail.com, auditions this weekend) or the male-only Out of the Blue, who we heard went on Britain’s Got Talent once so they’re kind of a big deal. There are two all-female groups, In The Pink and The Oxford Belles, and the Alternotives, who don’t do gender discrimination and have a pun in their name.
Just as musical but less all-year consuming is Chicago (email chicagooxford@gmail.com), which we’ve heard is auditioning for two more male cast members this weekend. If you can only go to one of all the other auditions in Oxford this week, pick of the week is probably The Caucasian Chalk Circle (auditions@
Spectators, you are quite short changed this week, but the stages aren’t totally empty: there may be no student productions hitting the Playhouse but Austrian dance production Out of the Shadow, opening Tuesday, 7.30pm, is a good one (review here). It’s not cheap (ÂŁ12-ÂŁ19): call it a start-of-term treat. You’ve just got your loan, right?
All you lucky freshlings will probably have performances running all week at your college, so don’t miss out on those. Or do, but you won’t have any friends for the rest of your degree.
Want to be featured on What’s On Stage? Send details of your performance and 30 words telling us why you deserve a mention to drama@oxfordstudent.com.
