Act One is Cardiff’s biggest drama society. Last year we put on eight productions, which included a range of genres, and also held our annual night of original writing, Staging a Coup! If you enjoy acting, dancing, singing, socialising, or are interested in helping backstage with costumes, make-up, set design, publicity, stage management, sound or lighting, then we are the society for you!
Previously winner of 'Best Large Society' for three years running, we have a reputation for our friendly, inviting atmosphere, impressive productions, imaginative socials - including our annual trip abroad - and the Act One Ball! We also run smaller-scale productions, workshops and open mic nights, so if you're a fresher and want to direct, or you don’t get cast in a main production, there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved!
Want to get in touch?
If you are interested in joining Act One or have any questions please contact a member of the committee through Facebook, or send a message to our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ActOneDramaSociety
You can also keep up to date with this our current events on our Facebook group: ACT ONE 2019/2020
N.B. If you are not a Cardiff University student and wish to purchase a ticket for one of our productions you can do so by creating a 'temporary account'.
Get Involved!
We have seven performances on this year for you to get involved with including an original pantomime, a variety night, a tragicomedy, a musical and more! With something for everyone why not come along to our auditions and/or crew sign-ups!
Panto
Written and Directed by: Beth Hall and Aditi Mohan
Produced by: Owen Strawbridge
Once upon a time, in the magical, mystical world of fairy-tales and princesses, and apparently millions of Prince Charmings, there lies secrets and scandal, and everything is not as it seems. Join our unexpected heroes as they fight, sing and dance their way through a land of glass slippers, ugly sisters and fairy godmothers in an attempt to unearth the shocking truth!
Variety Night
Director: Sarah Whitelaw
Musical Director: Jake Dufton
Production Manager: Grace Knowles
Variety Night returns for its second year with the theme Divas! A glamour filled night that will combine classic hits and showstopping musical numbers with dramatic performances. The night will raise money for Same You, a charity which aims to increase access to neurorehabilitation for stroke and brain injury survivors, and the society.
Hothouse
Directed by Zachary Peake
Produced by Caitlin Burns
It’s Christmas in the institution, the patients are quiet, and everything is under control. At least, it seems that way until two mysterious and brutal events throw ‘the hothouse’ into turmoil. Roote, the institution’s authoritarian Director, must unearth the culprits or risk losing control of the institution completely. Yet, as he asks more questions, his inadequacies are revealed with hilarious and eventually deadly consequences. This entertaining and disturbing black comedy exposes in great detail the many failings of bureaucrats.
Into the Woods
Directed by Laura Martin
Musically Directed by Owen McCarthy
Produced by Angus Lapslie
Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s is a Brothers Grimm Fairy-tale inspired musical where “Be careful what you wish for” seems to be the ongoing theme. The story follows The Baker and his wife who wish to have a child, Cinderella who wishes to go to the King’s Festival, and Jack who wishes his cow would give some milk. When the Baker and his wife are visited by the neighbourhood witch, who reveals to them that she placed a curse on their family, the two set off on a journey into the woods to reverse the curse. Also in the woods, we meet Little Red who is trying to visit her grandmother, the Wolf who loves tasty little girls, the Witch’s daughter Rapunzel, and Princes chasing after their loves. By the end of Act I, everyone has gotten their wish and will seemingly live happily ever after. But in Act II, when Jack’s beanstalk brings them a visit from an angry Giant, we see how the consequences of their actions haunt them in disastrous ways. The community must come together to save each other and their kingdom, but sacrifices must be made.
Julius Caesar
Directed by Ella Kaufmann
Production Manager Rosie Paul
Caesar has returned to Rome victorious; the sons of Pompey are defeated. But not all are delighted by this triumph. A group of conspirators lead by Caius Cassius and Marcus Brutus hatch a plot to assassinate the Roman leader. The execution of this act threatens Rome with civil war, the conspirators squaring up against Caesar’s allies, Antony and Octavius. As the assassins’ camp begins to falter, the fate of the Roman Empire hangs in the balance.
A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir
Written and Directed by Kimberley Taylor
Co-director David Whelan
Production Manager Angus Odling
A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir is an original comedy, in which a group of strangers are forced together in a mediocre hotel in the middle of nowhere. The hotel has won an award for best hotel-restaurant, an award which the hotel manager, Mr. Cartwright, and the head-chef, Sue Walker both fight over as they both feel they alone have earnt it. They both place too much value on the award, while no-one else cares about it, so when the award goes missing one night, they put all of the guests and staff under lockdown in an attempt to find the person behind the theft (much to the other characters’ annoyance!). During interrogations, life-changing secrets about the guests come out, but Cartwright and Walker don’t care about that. They will stop at nothing to find their most prized possession…
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Directed by Samuel Whitworth
Production Manager Byron Jones
You’ve all heard of Hamlet? Possibly the most revered piece of Shakespearean tragedy ever to grace the stage? Yes? Good… But do you remember the names of Hamlet’s two “excellent good friends” from childhood, whom he condemns to an early grave? No? Good… because neither do they! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a classic tragi-comedic re-imagining of Hamlet, told from the perspective of his two best friends; a duo of woefully indecisive and forgetful (yet ironically quick-witted) misfits that banter and blunder blindly towards their fate, questioning the meaning of life, the universe and everything as they go. Written by Academy Award and four-time Tony Award winning author for ‘Best Play’, Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead will have you in stitches one moment and questioning your very existence the next… this is not one to be missed.
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