__NOTOC__ :''This club should not be confused with the

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

of New York.'' The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) is a student

dramatic society Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, England. It was founded in 1936 by

Nevill Coghill Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill (19 April 1899 – 6 November 1980) was an English literary scholar, known especially for his modern English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. Life His father was Sir Egerton Coghill, 5th ...

as an alternative company to the Oxford University Dramatic Society (

OUDS The Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England. Not all student productions at Oxford University a ...

), and produces several productions a year. The club has staged the first productions of many new works, including ''

Epitaph for George Dillon ''Epitaph for George Dillon'' is an early John Osborne play, one of two he wrote in collaboration with Anthony Creighton (the other is '' Personal Enemy''). It was written before ''Look Back in Anger'', the play which made Osborne's career, ...

'', written by

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...

in 1957 and directed by Don Taylor.

Etceteras

ETC was home to Oxford's student revue company, the Etceteras – by the early 1970s a rather poor relation of the

Cambridge Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

. Then, in 1975, two figures who would together become major players in TV and film comedy met after answering an advert to join the Etceteras revue-writing team. They were Richard Curtis and

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and ''Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–201 ...

– a graduate engineering student who made his memorable Oxford debut in a Leapyear Revue at the

Oxford Playhouse Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxfor ...

on 29 February 1976, directed by Etceteras president,

Robert Orchard Robert Orchard is a freelance British journalist and lecturer. One of three children born to a Devonshire farmer and a Welsh nurse, he was educated at a grammar school in mid-Devon and read Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Corpus ...

. Curtis had already taken his own first bow in another show by the same director, "Allswellthatendsrock!". From 1977 to 1981, Paul Twivy and Ian Hislop then took over the Etceteras, producing several shows at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

and Oxford Playhouse. ETC funded the Etceteras' first major revue in years, "After Eights" at the Oxford Playhouse in May 1976, featuring Atkinson, Curtis, Robin Seavill and others, with material written by the cast, director

Andrew Rissik Andrew Rissik (born 23 April 1955) is a British scriptwriter, journalist and critic best known for the BBC Radio 3 trilogy, ''Troy'' and the five-part thriller serial for Radio 4, ''The Psychedelic Spy''. He was theatre critic at ''The Independe ...

John Albery Wyndham John Albery, FRS (5 April 1936 – 3 December 2013) was a British physical chemist and academic. Early life Wyndham John Albery was born on 5 April 1936. His father Michael James Albery (1910-75), a barrister, was part of a sprawling ...

, Orchard, Iain Moss and other contributors. ''(Note: The Etceteras' brief as part of ETC was to stage regular revues in Oxford, while the show performed at the annual

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

as the Oxford Revue was produced and funded by the separate

Oxford Theatre Group Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

(OTG), which also took several plays to the Fringe. Today's thriving

Oxford Revue The Oxford Revue is a comedy group primarily featuring students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, actors and satirists. The Revue w ...

company combines both roles.)''

Alumni

People who have contributed to ETC productions include: *

* Lindsay Anderson * Alan Bennett * Richard Curtis * Michael Flanders *

Piers Fletcher Piers Fletcher is a television producer and researcher, mainly working for the British panel game '' QI'', broadcast on the BBC. Before working in television, Fletcher served in the British Army, where he was in charge of the northernmost Observat ...

Philip Franks Philip Franks (born 2 February 1956) is an English actor and director, known to the public chiefly for his roles in English television series, such as '' The Darling Buds of May'' and '' Heartbeat''. Early life Franks was born on 2 February 19 ...

Howard Goodall Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1958) is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was na ...

* Tom Hooper * Ian Hislop * Terry Jones * Ken Loach (President) *David Marks * John McGrath (playwright) * Dudley Moore *

* Michael Palin *

Diana Quick Diana Marilyn Quick (born 23 November 1946) is an English actress. Early life and family background Quick was born on 23 November 1946 in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of four children. Her father was Leonard Quic ...

* Tony Richardson *

* John Schlesinger (President) * Don Taylor *

Jeremy Treglown The biographer, cultural historian and critic Jeremy Treglown (born 24 May 1946) is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick. He was editor of ''The Times Literary Supplement'' through the 1980s and Chair of the Arvon Foundation, 2017-2 ...

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...

(President) * Samuel West (President) * Sandy Wilson * David Wood Visiting directors include Peter HallShakespeare Quarterly information
JSTOR. and

Terry Hands Terence David Hands (9 January 1941 – 4 February 2020) was an English theatre director. He founded the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and ran the Royal Shakespeare Company for thirteen years during one of the company's most successful periods; h ...

References

{{reflist

Bibliography

* Glynne Wickham, A Revolution in Attitudes to the Dramatic Arts in British Universities, 1880–1980. '' Oxford Review of Education'', Vol. 3, No. 2 (1977), pp. 115–12
JSTOR
* Roderick Robertson, University Theatre at Oxford. ''

Educational Theatre Journal The ''Theatre Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the theatre arts, with articles from the October and December issues centering on a predetermined theme. It is an official publication of The Association for Theatre i ...

'', Vol. 8, No. 3 (October 1956), pp. 194–20
JSTOR

External links

Experimental Theatre Club website
1936 establishments in England Arts organizations established in 1936 Student theatre in the United Kingdom Clubs and societies of the University of Oxford Theatre in Oxford

Etceteras

Alumni

See also

References

Bibliography

External links