Stage and Screen

The University Drama Officer is a full-time staff member who helps students to plan, programme and publicise student productions, organises free workshops and talks and can advise those planning a career in theatre or film on graduation.

Get in touch at drama.officer@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Oxford University Drama Society (OUDS) is one of the many drama societies here that nurtures new talent and encourages involvement. It is the society which helps drama happen at the University of Oxford, and is primarily a funding body providing financial support to student productions. However, it also oversees student drama more generally, ensuring it offers fair opportunities to all.

It is not a ‘traditional’ drama society in the sense that it is not a group who put on plays, but is made up of a committee which meets every week to discuss funding for shows and to make decisions which improve opportunities for drama across the University. 

OUDS nurtures new dramatic talent and works hard to introduce new students to drama in Oxford. The annual Cuppers competition, and the programme of workshops in Michaelmas term, aim to give new students the confidence and experience they need to put on their own shows.

The extensive and varied range of plays put on each term - for people of all levels of experience and of every interest - ensures that this is a vibrant scene with something for everyone. OUDS also hosts a national tour every summer.

The Oxford Imps are a mixture of Oxford students and locals who perform improvised comedy every Monday night at the Jericho Tavern, as well as one-off specials around Oxford at the Bullingdon and Old Fire Station. They've been performing in Oxford since 2003, and you can also see them at the Edinburgh Fringe for the whole month each summer! They are a training as well as performance company, offering a boot camp and workshops for each new generation of comedians and actors.

Every year, they hold stage auditions (no experience required!) but also need technicians, production assistants, improvising keyboard players and a keen audience to provide suggestions for the show. The Imps are a regular fixture at college balls and charity events, and put their skills to use in a wide variety of other formats, from full-length improvised musicals and radio plays to short films. To find out about upcoming shows, public workshops, and more Oxford Imps events, check out their website or get in touch via oxfordimpsproduction@gmail.com.

If you are interested in writing and/or performing sketch, stand-up, musical, and alternative comedy, then the Oxford Revue may be for you.

Since its conception in 1953, the Oxford Revue has produced a number of the UK's best-loved actors and comedians, with the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Phillips, Armando Iannucci, Monty Python’s Michael Palin and Terry Jones, Beyond the Fringe’s Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore, Lee and Herring, Richard Curtis, and Al Murray as former members. 

The Revue regularly performs sketch, stand-up, and comedic variety shows in and around Oxford, with regular performances at the Jericho Tavern, Library Pub, St Aldates Tavern, and at various other college venues and student theatres. The Revue also hosts an annual flagship sketch show at the Old Fire Station Theatre in Hilary Term and performs both sketch and stand-up annually at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every summer.

In addition to in-house shows, the Revue also hosts tri-termly stand-up showcases as well as bi-termly etceteras — a variety comedy showcase for which non-Revue Oxford students who are keen to try their hand at comedy are invited to audition and perform — as part of our mission to facilitate and promote comedy across Oxford.

Oxford University Technical Theatre Society (OUTTS) is for those who work on the technical side of theatre and theatre design, including stage and production management, lighting, sound, props, and costume and set design.

As a society, it provides support, advice and training for students who are interested in technical theatre. It also seeks to increase the understanding of technical theatre in the broader University theatre community. Throughout the year it runs workshops on a variety of aspects of technical theatre.