DRAMA FILE
Posted at 4:10 pm on 31/1/97

A brief round-up of news, reviews and actions of the omnipresent and ever ready current day University of Herts Drama Society.

OSCARS V

Held on Saturday April 27th, the fifth annual Oscar ceremony proved to be another pat on the back and eclectic look back on the Drama year that was. 95-96 had no shortage of shows, though as was expected the efforts for the two major productions, Jack and His Big Stalk and Little Shop of Horrors, picked up the main share of awards.

The ceremony originally started back in 1992 when Simon Hopes arranged the very first HPDS Oscars. From then on it was always clear that the event was going to be the Drama social event of the year. Thus, it has been a legacy for the society ever since. This year proved no exception, of course there was still the collection of old Madhatters, however rather better behaved this year!

Amongst this year's Oscars recepients were Ken Rodrigues, Chris Evans, Quintin and Raoul for Tech Services, Husband and Wife team Dave Marriot & Sarah Biggun for Actor/ess in Little Shop and John Wyatt for Funniest performance. The evening ended with a special award going to Mike Crane for long service. Mike, who still works and studies part time at the Uni was honoured in the traditional way of heckles and abuse but he loved it really... congratulations, Mr Crane!

LONG STANDING MEMBERS REWARDED IN SOCIETY OF THE YEAR SHOCKER

Interspersed between the hard work of the year was the Society's proudest night of the year. Firstly, two of the longest serving members received awards at the Clubs and Society's Awards ceremony. Ken Rodrigues got the Roll of Honour for his long lasting contribution to Drama with Chris Evans also receiving a special award for his contribution. This was overshadowed though, by the efforts of the whole Society being recognised as the first ever winners of the "Society of the Year" Award.

SUMMER SHAKESPEARE: MERCHANT OF VENICE

Summer 1996 saw Drama and MH taking another bite of the Shakespeare cherry, this time in the form of 'Merchant of Venice'. By all accounts great performances at both Wall Hall and Hatfield by all involved, though unfortunately reviewers were a little thin on the ground as the Hatfield performance clashed with the England/ Germany` game. Madhatters stalwarts once again involved, Brian Benson as Prince of Arragon, Mike Crane as Antonio, John Wyatt as Bassanio, Simon Bennett as Gratiano, Gary Sherin as Lorenzo and Honey as Portia. Special mention to John Wyatt and Caroline Green as joint Directors.

GASPING START TO THE NEW YEAR

The first Thursday of Fresher's Fortnight gave centre stage to a Drama Society production of Ben Elton's 'Gasping'. Staged in Hutton Hall, nearly 200 people saw the seven strong cast, who had been preparing hard over the Summer for the first Drama production of the year. It was perhaps part of a commitment to recruit new members and perhaps just the opportunity to tread the boards - and indeed, the commitment was there in earnest, but unfortunately the delivery and line learning let things down a little. Of note were the strong performance performances of both Honey Langcaster-James as 'Kirsten', Ashley Pearson as the 'Waldenesque' Minister and Nick Wiggins as the chief. Still a good effort to start the year.

CHRISTMAS PANTO NAMED

The usual rummage around for Christmas show ideas has been avoided this year. The Xmas Panto has just been named as Dracula, how... we don't know, why... who can say, wherefore... we can but wonder. MH takes this opportunity to wish this year's team all the best for the forthcoming year.