h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How to Survive Amateur Dramatics - A87758824
Author: minorvogonpoet - U3099090

This is my contribution to May's 'hobby' theme.

I'm a bit doubtful about it. It's written from memory, and I'm 30 years out of date!

Bravo!

A very good entry .
My aunt, mother and sister have been involved in musicals and operettas, especially Gilbert & Sullivan, all my life. As a member of the audience who have watched several amateur productions, I had a slightly different interpretation of ' How to Survive Amateur Dramatics', especially when much of my home life consisted of my family rehearsing singing songs such as 'O what a beautiful morning!' from morning to night, day after day, for a good month or more before the performance...

You may wish to consider links to these related entries:

A12736965 Amateur Voice Acting
A795558 Filling in for the Stage Manager in an Amateur Production
A701047 The Perils of Amateur Dramatic Stage Lighting

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This is a finely crafted piece of writing and I am sure will be useful to people thinking of taking this hobby up.

I wonder if you would like to add a little bit more about how to find companies, how to approach them in the first place, or expectations that might be in the mind of the person taking this new hobby up for the first time.

One thing that I have heard often mentioned, is that am drams frequently have a lot of women in comparison to men. Is this true or just one of the common misconceptions?

I would also like to suggest more of a final paragraph, which sums up the rewards that you'd get from being part of a company like this - eg
new friends, outside interests in an otherwise dull life, more understanding of the performing arts, playwrights etc?

Finally, would you be so kind as to add some links to other Edited Entries? I am sure there are a good selection of Entries in the Guide, and choosing your own will really save the sub editor a lot of time as well as ensuring they are to your taste.
This one is one of my favourite:

A53660595 Who Does What in the Theatre


Thanks for submitting this - it is excellent!

I think you meant A87718053, Lanza.


Geggs

Sorry about that! I'd obviously not noticed I'd pasted one I'd recommended in a previous response to another Entry here in PR


I really meant the edited version of the one that geggs just found, ( thanks geggs) which is here: A87723200

for some reason, my links to A pages are not always being rendered properly ( yes I have a bug, I hope it's not catching) If this link doesn't show up in Pliny as "clickable", just paste it into the url after h2g2.com/

Tip: Just make sure the A number is not the first thing in the line, and both Pliny and Ripley will be able to render it properly.

Thanks Lanzababy.

How to find companies?

Universities have am dram groups, which will probably have websites these days.You will see mention of local groups in local papers.

I belonged to the Environment Players, in the old days when the civil service departments were big enough to have their own recreational organisations. We used to put on our performances in a small theatre in a civil service building in Northumberland Avenue, which had been a hotel, which means that I could claim to have acted on the West End stage.

I'll add some links when I've worked out how to do it.

Nice one.

I'm with Lanza, though. I really wouldn't know where to look for an am dram in my area - or even the whole town. I've never seen any advertisements, but maybe it's because I live in a big city with lots of professional groups?

I suppose the best place to look would be the internet. Google has told me that this website is a place where many groups advertise http://amdram.co.uk/groups/ you can also search for the group nearest you.

Of course some groups may not use this website. I'd have thought the easiest way would be to search for Amateur Dramatics + Your Home Town.

Any more comments here, or are we all happy?

This looks ready to me.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Thanks for this.

I've been rather neglecting the Edited Guide in the last few weeks - what with travelling, and writing other things. I would have added some links to this, as commentators have recommended. Sorry!

If you suggest links here, it will make it easier for the sub-editor, as otherwise they would have to search for suitable links.

Links within h2g2 should be to Approved/Edited entries. Links to external pages should be to reputable sites that are not too commercial.

Some suggestions:

In the first paragraph, there could be a link to 'The Theatre' -A301960

In 'How to Find a Group' - there could be a mention of the website for Amdram.co.uk - http://amdram.co.uk/groups/

In 'Starting Out' - 'Who Does What in the Theatre' A87723200
or 'Filling in for the Stage Manager in an Amateur Production' - A795558

In 'The Play' , there could be a link for pantomime - 'Pantomime' A16413699

Under 'Rehearsals', lighting could link to A701047 - Perils of Amateur Dramatic Lighting -