Putting on a show at New Cellars

Putting on a Show at New Cellars

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW to put on a show

01 Pitching

The first step to putting on a show at New Cellars is to pitch one to Pembroke Players. Pitching for any term usually comes out at the end of the previous term (e.g. pitching for Lent comes out at the end of Michaelmas). All you need to do to pitch a show is to fill out a Google Form and send us your script! Note that we particularly encourage new student writing, but we also do rights shows. The form will ask you for a bit about the show, why you want to stage it and what you want to do with it, and give us some information about budget (including cost of rights, so look into that if yours is a rights show); content warnings; and diversity and inclusion.

We’ll usually give you well into the vacation to submit pitches. Once all pitches are in, we might invite certain candidates to a short online interview (don’t worry if you don’t get one, you are still being considered!). We will then decide on slots and if you get your pitch, we’ll send you an acceptance email with a slot offer (e.g. Week 5 Late).

If your show is taking place outside of New Cellars, but you’d still like us to fund it, reach out to us and we’d be happy to consider this!

We're eager to celebrate new student writing—

particularly pitches coming from Queer, BME, and other marginalised perspectives!

02 Admin

Congratulations, you’ve got your pitch! Unfortunately there’s some annoying admin to get on with before you start the rehearsal process (unless, of course, you’re a producer and you enjoy this…)

When your show is approved to put on, we’ll send you a show contract which you will need to sign. This outlines the obligations we will have towards you and vice versa, mainly concerning budget, publicity, ticket sales, cancellation, communication, and use of New Cellars.

The first thing we’ll need to do is agree on a budget for your show. A standard budget for a New Cellars show (excluding rights) usually comes to £150-200. Additional budget requests can be negotiated with us. The budget will be agreed to in the show contract.

The Pembroke Players have a costume and props store, which is located in a supply closet adjacent to New Cellars. If your show is funded by us, you are entitled to use any of the items in there (unless reserved by another show the same week) for your production. If you are a New Cellars Late Show, you may want to email the mainshow to check if they are reserving any props/costumes, as they usually have priority.

You’ll be assigned a Show Rep for your show, one of the committee members who will essentially be your first point of contact in Pem Players if you have any questions about the production process, room bookings, or run into any issues with your show. They should help you with any necessary admin (mainly organising room bookings and Camdram authorizations) and check in with you periodically to see how things are going. You can also contact one of the Pembroke Players Presidents or the treasurer (contact details to be found on our Meet The Committee page) with specific queries relating to ex. the budget of your show (or if your show rep is being bad at responding!).

We’ll set up a Camdram page for your show, so that you can advertise the show online and provide info + so that you can advertise all role openings for your team. Once your show is programmed (or once you’ve recruited a director/producer), your show rep should aim to meet with you in person or online to give you some pointers on important bits of information for your show. This may also be a group meeting with one of the presidents. However, don’t hesitate to stay in touch with us throughout your show process! You will actually have to… (SPAT Reports! More on those in the ‘Production Process’ section at Step 5).

03 Getting a team together

First, you’ll want to create an audition pack to advertise your auditions. This is a document which usually includes a bit about the show and your vision for it, potentially any welfare/intimacy/accessibility/content warnings info you want people to be aware of, and descriptions of the roles available. It also should have information on how to audition for your show, with extracts from the play for people to prepare, unless you’re running auditions differently or letting people choose their own extracts. It should also include a link for audition sign-ups (e.g. via Strawpoll or a spreadsheet).

Auditions need a venue, so make sure that you book a room in the right timeslot(s) for your auditions! If your show is funded by Pembroke Players (even if it’s not taking place at New Cellars) then New Cellars is available for your show’s use. If you are a student at Pembroke, you can book a room on RMS. If not, contact your show rep or a member of the committee to book a room for you (more on room bookings in Step 4).

Once both of those are ready to go, you’ll need to advertise your auditions to get people to sign up! The best places to advertise are Camdram (via the Pembroke Players or your own show page, once it’s up) and Facebook (on the Cambridge Theatre group). If you’re not a member of Cambridge Theatre, request to join and you should be let on in a few days! You can also advertise via relevant WhatsApp and Facebook groups (e.g. BIPOC theatre group). Make sure to provide links to your audition pack and sign-ups.

Now that you’ve got a time-slot, venue, and have advertised your auditions, you’re ready to go! Make sure that your audition process is clearly explained to auditionees, and that you’re creating a safe and comfortable audition experience. Pembroke Players as an organisation is committed to providing a safe space in theatre to amplify marginalised voices and welcome those newer to theatre. The people auditioning may not have much experience, so you want to make sure to minimise their nervousness and make them feel comfy! Some things that can help: providing info about how auditions will be run and venue in advance, having an AD/Casting Consultant in the room so that there is a third party, and reassuring your auditionees with positive reactions throughout!

Once you’ve selected your cast, don’t forget to email everyone in good time, whether this is with a role offer or rejection! Once your cast is assembled, you may want to collect phone numbers and create a WhatsApp Community for your show, with group chats for cast/prod etc.

You’ll also want to advertise for a prod team, which can include roles from core prod (director(s)/assistant director(s); producer; publicity) as well as wider prod/tech roles (lighting/sound designer; costume designer; set designer; welfare officer; stage manager and others, depending on the size of your show!). Your prod pack should similarly include information about the show, your vision for it (if you’re directing) or what you’d be looking to create, as well as role descriptions. As the prod pack serves to recruit team members, most people usually include questions under each role. This way, people can apply by sending over their answers to your questions! Of course, you may want to recruit people a different way (e.g. by having them send over examples of previous work where relevant, or by doing interviews) – just make sure to make your recruitment process clear and welcoming for people with less experience!

Note that shows at New Cellars have much less required paperwork than, say, ADC shows; therefore having a producer (though strongly encouraged) is not absolutely essential! The required admin which a producer would usually handle (show contract, budget planning and reimbursements, rehearsal scheduling) can be done by a director or spread out over the prod team. For more information on this please see the producer page!

Welfare isn't just the responsibility of the designated welfare officer

—it's important that ALL members of the cast and certainly the production team make a mutual effort to ensure everyone feels comfortable and welcome

04 organising rehearsals

Once you’ve assembled your cast and directing team, you’ll want to get rehearsals organised. This is usually done by the producer, but can also be done by the director! First, you’ll want to have a look through the script and decide how to organise rehearsals in terms of scenes rehearsed. If your script is split into ex. ten short, similar-length scenes, you may want to schedule one rehearsal per scene! However, in scripts which are not split, or where the scenes vary in length, you’ll need to see if you want to do 1 rehearsal per scene (and vary the length of rehearsals) or you might choose to split the script up yourself into what feels natural for rehearsals.

When doing this, keep in mind which (if any) scenes or rehearsals might have triggering moments or themes which could be difficult for actors. If this is the case, you may want to ensure that a Welfare Officer is present for those rehearsals, and you will want to warn actors in advance if they will be rehearsing a difficult scene. Some directors choose rehearsal scenes on the day, or choose to not warn actors about scenes in advance (for example, to test their improv skills or to reduce preconceptions or over rehearsing). In my experience, however, I’ve found that the more in advance actors know about rehearsal schedules and the scenes they’ll be doing, the better! This helps to create a safer environment where actors can prepare for more demanding rehearsals.

For each scene or rehearsal that you decide on, you’ll want to make a note of which actors and crew members (usually, an AD or Welfare Officer) are needed. This will help you once you know everyone’s availability, as you’ll be able to create the schedule more efficiently.

You’ll also want to decide on the order of rehearsals (if you’re producing, make sure to consult with your director on this!) that works best for your show. It happens that, with a busy cast, your rehearsal order is completely dictated by the availability of specific cast members. However, deciding on a rehearsal order can be helpful and important when thinking about what might work best for your actors and your own process (if you’re directing!). For example, cast may find it helpful to rehearse scenes in the order they appear in the play, to get a sense of the evolution of the narrative and to avoid confusion during full runs. Alternatively, you may find it helpful to tackle more difficult scenes first, or vice versa, starting with easier ones and then diving deep. If your piece includes choreo or musical numbers, getting those out of the way first, and then using them as a warmup in subsequent rehearsals, can be great!

The next thing you’ll need to do is to find out cast and crew availability. You can do this by using websites such as CallTime, which is probably the most common one (other websites exist, such as When2Meet or Lettucemeet – or if you’ve got a tiny cast, you could just ask them…). These allow people to fill out their availability and will make it easy for you to tick the cast members you need for each rehearsal and go from there.

The other essential thing you’ll need to do when scheduling rehearsals is to make sure that a space/venue is available to use at the times you require! If you don’t have a venue booked, your rehearsal obviously cannot go ahead. Any Pembroke Players show is entitled to use of New Cellars. However, the room booking process at Pembroke is quite tricky and so warrants explanation.

The only people able to book rooms at Pembroke are Pembroke College members/students. Therefore, if you’re doing a Pembroke Players show but don’t have Pembroke students on your cast/crew, you’ll need to go through committee to book New Cellars. (N. B. if you do have Pem students on the team, use them if possible - it’ll be much more difficult to liaise through us as we are busy little people with degrees! We love you though). This year’s committee only has 3 Pembroke members, however, which makes room booking much harder as your show rep may not be able to book rooms for you directly. Therefore, if you want to use New Cellars for rehearsals, you’ll need to get in touch with us quite far in advance to book it out – this means pretty much as soon as your cast is assembled! We may not be able to accommodate last-minute requests. For each rehearsal you’d like scheduled, you need to specify the date and time, how many people will be there, and who will be collecting/returning the keys for New Cellars at the Porter’s Lodge (with their phone number and CRSid! – more on key collection shortly).

If you’re not at Pem, but your college offers bookable rehearsal spaces, do use those! Some colleges which are known to offer good free (and central) rehearsal spaces (even for events taking place outside the college) are Newnham, Clare, Downing, Trinity, Christ’s, or Queens. Therefore, if anyone on your team goes there, prioritise using those spaces and use New Cellars for full runs or rehearsals where you need to be in the space, thus minimising booking and key collection chaos. Note that you cannot drink alcohol in New Cellars or handle any equipment under the influence. Furthermore, you cannot provide your own catering or drinks if rehearsing there.

The use of New Cellars operates on a key collection basis wherein keys are collected from and dropped off at the Porter’s Lodge. You will not be able to keep the keys with you outside of the times you’ve booked for rehearsals. Note that New Cellars has 3 keys - one for the rehearsal room itself, one for the props/costumes store and one for the tech cupboard. Most of the time, you’ll only need the one key, but if you need to check out any of the other stores then please ask the porters for “all three keys” when you go and collect them.

Once your rehearsal is finished (and it must finish within your booked slot, as others may have reserved the room after you!) you must clear the room, leaving it in a clean and tidy condition for the next person to use (if not – you may be fined, queen!) and immediately return the keys to the Porter’s Lodge. If you fail to return the keys, once again, we’ll fine you – but more importantly, you’ll piss off the Porters and us, and we don’t want that to happen. 😇

We should have automatically booked out New Cellars for you on all of your show dates, and on the weekend before your show for your get-in (more on this later), but feel free to contact us if you need to change the get-in date or if you have any questions/concerns.

05a The Production Process

For Producers

As the producer, your initial responsibilities will be: agreeing the budget with Pembroke Players, signing the show contract, and scheduling rehearsals (including handling room bookings).

You’ll then want to start tracking the budget (potentially using a budget tracking spreadhseet), which you’ll need to do throughout the production process to make sure that expenses are accounted. Make sure to explain to all prod team members who will be spending money how they should be tracking expenses at the start of the process. The main thing to remember is that every expense will need a receipt to be reimbursed. If we don’t have a receipt, we will not be able to reimburse you. You will also need to explain what each expense is, with the cost of individual items, and which section of the budget they fall into. Make sure the team does this from the start to avoid issues down the line.

Unlike ADC shows, New Cellars shows don’t involve significant paperwork. We don’t expect you to do PRS forms or fill out a risk assessment, the only important thing to keep in mind is the show contract. You must also make sure to buy the rights for your show before advertising it (it’s illegal not to do so!) and buy the licensing rights to all music used in the show. If a show is written by a student writer on your team, or is over 100 years old, it does not need to be licensed. For music, you can find royalty-free music online which does not need to be licensed, even if it’s less than 100 years old.

Alongside the director, you’ll also need to be checking in with the various prod team members and making sure that things are being done correctly. You'll need to fill out SPAT reports every week to communicate with us on what has been done on your show in the previous week, and what you’re currently working on or aiming to get done.

For Directors

Your role as director is to lead the cast and prod team and to guide the production process. This may sound very general – that’s because the role of director is probably the most work. Directors in Cambridge student theatre often end up picking up the shortfall on the prod side or at least check in with the team throughout. You’ll therefore want to be familiar (and this applies to producers also, as team wranglers!) with the timelines for all the roles detailed here so that you can make sure the production process runs smoothly.

Some things to always remember:

Communication — The worst clusterfucks occur when things have not been communicated to relevant team members on time. You’ll want to communicate with everyone in advance, especially regarding rehearsal scheduling and the date/time of the get-in as it is crucial to have everyone there for this.

Check-in with your teams throughout, and be reachable if members of your team have questions or issues they want to raise! Reminders are also part of communication, and most cast will appreciate it if you send a reminder of rehearsal time/place the day before, for example, as such things are liable to change and can lead to confusion.

Organisation — You’ll want to organise yourself with spreadsheets and checklists to make sure you’re getting everything done in good time.

Welfare — as the team leader, you’re also responsible in the event that anything goes wrong (and in my experience, it probably will). Shows, though fun, can be stressful. The welfare officer is there to help, but you’ll also want to check in with the team consistently. If anyone gives you feedback, try to listen and accommodate them if you can. Make sure to create an environment of kindness, respect and creativity where all feel welcome and able to participate.

Your principal responsibilities at the start of the show are:

- Cementing your vision for the show

- Recruiting a team (this may be easier said than done, you may need to reopen or advertise roles further)

- Once prod team members are recruited, meet with the different teams. Work together to create a vision and a plan/schedule for the process. Ask people how they want to be managed and how you can help them work!

- Checking in with teams throughout the process and covering shortfall/assisting with some tasks (e.g. helping them put ads up for other roles, explaining different processes)

- Running rehearsals

- Communicating key information. Make sure to tell everyone from the start about the date of the get-in and what this involves.

05b (continued)

Getting a cast: how to run auditions

First, you’ll want to create an audition pack to advertise your auditions. This is a document which usually includes a bit about the show and your vision for it, potentially any welfare/intimacy/accessibility/content warnings info you want people to be aware of, and descriptions of the roles available. It also should have information on how to audition for your show, with extracts from the play for people to prepare, unless you’re running auditions differently or letting people choose their own extracts. It should also include a link for audition sign-ups (e.g. via Strawpoll or a spreadsheet).

Auditions need a venue, so make sure that you book a room in the right timeslot(s) for your auditions! If your show is funded by Pembroke Players (even if it’s not taking place at New Cellars) then New Cellars is available for your show’s use. If you are a student at Pembroke, you can book a room on RMS (link here). If not, contact your show rep or a member of the committee to book a room for you (more on room bookings in Step 4).

Once both of those are ready to go, you’ll need to advertise your auditions to get people to sign up! The best places to advertise are Camdram (via the Pembroke Players or your own show page, once it’s up) and Facebook (on the Cambridge Theatre group). If you’re not a member of Cambridge Theatre, request to join and you should be let on in a few days! You can also advertise via relevant WhatsApp and Facebook groups (e.g. BIPOC theatre group). Make sure to provide links to your audition pack and sign-ups.

Now that you’ve got a timeslot, venue, and have advertised your auditions, you’re ready to go! Make sure that your audition process is clearly explained to auditionees, and that you’re creating a safe and comfortable audition experience. Pembroke Players as an organisation is committed to providing a safe space in theatre to amplify marginalized voices and welcome those newer to theatre. The people auditioning may not have much experience, so you want to make sure to minimize their nervousness and make them feel comfy! Some things that can help: providing info about how auditions will be run and venue in advance, having an AD/Casting Consultant in the room so that there is a third party, and reassuring your auditionees with positive reactions throughout! Once you’ve selected your cast, don’t forget to email everyone in good time, whether this is with a role offer or rejection! Once your cast is assembled, you may want to collect phone numbers and create a WhatsApp Community for your show, with group chats for cast/prod etc.

You’ll also want to advertise for a prod team, which can include roles from core prod (director(s)/assistant director(s); producer; publicity) as well as wider prod/tech roles (lighting/sound designer; costume designer; set designer; welfare officer; stage manager and others, depending on the size of your show!). Your prod pack should similarly include information about the show, your vision for it (if you’re directing) or what you’d be looking to create, as well as role descriptions. As the prod pack serves to recruit team members, most people usually include questions under each role. This way, people can apply by sending over their answers to your questions! Of course, you may want to recruit people a different way (e.g. by having them send over examples of previous work where relevant, or by doing interviews) – just make sure to make your recruitment process clear and welcoming for people with less experience!

SPAT reports are an essential part of production—

keeping us in the loop while ensuring that work is on schedule

06 Two Weeks before the show

Producers

- Make sure SPAT reports are being filled out

- Check in with individual teams to make sure things are getting done on time

- Have a look through the budget and make sure that everyone who has been newly recruited is aware of the reimbursements process

- Start recruiting stewards for your show

- Make sure all rights and required licenses have been bought and sent to us

If required, you can organise comp tickets with us. These are for crew members who would like to see the show for free. In general, directors and producers are allowed to see the show as many times as they want, whereas wider prod are entitled to one comp per person. This is if they are not stewarding – as in some cases, a lack of stewards may mean that members of your prod team have to step in.

Directors

- Running rehearsals (more info about how to run a rehearsal on the directors page)

- Checking in with your teams continuously to make sure they are doing okay and getting things done correctly/in a timely manner

Costume

- You should make sure that you by now have a clear idea of each of the costumes, and that you are in the right timeline for having everything ready by the costume fitting, and then dress rehearsal (most likely on the day of the get-in, or the weekend before the show!)

Publicity

- You should be posting on a regular basis, make sure that all posters are up, and be encouraging the cast and crew to repost on their social media. Keep following people and use all networks to advertise. Use the sales reports (or ask us) to track how effective publicity is.

Tech

- You should be working on the tech script and starting to visualize what specific scenes will look like.

07 The Week before the show

Producers

- Make sure that you have enough stewards signed up for every night of your run! These are essential to your show running smoothly. If you don’t, push this on Facebook and ask your friends to sign up. When stewards sign up, make sure to collect their emails/phone numbers and send them information before the day. Remind them that once they’ve signed up, they cannot back out at the last minute.

Directors

- Your actors should be nearing the point of a full run by the weekend before the show.

Make sure all other prod processes are streamlined! Especially check in with publicity and check your ticket sales regularly so that you are able to push these if needed.

Costume

- Organise a costume fitting a week before the dress run to make sure that all actors have costumes which fit and that they are happy with, giving you time to modify these if not! You may want to ask the director to do this during one of the scheduled rehearsals.

Publicity

- You should really be pushing publicity at this point! You may want to post cast and crew headshots on social media so that people can repost theirs. This is a nice way to create hype about the show. Rehearsal photos work well too!

Tech

- Prepare for get-in by having your tech script ready to go; having any sound files on hand to program and an idea of your lighting design.

08 The Weekend Prior

The get-in is the major day of preparation for the show in terms of tech/set etc. It usually occurs the weekend before or a couple days before your show. For example, if you’re a New Cellars show which opens on Tuesday/Wednesday, the get-in would probably happen on the Sunday or Monday before.

Tech / Director

The main aim of get-in day is to set up/program all of your tech for the show. This may take quite a while depending on your production. You might want actors around to stand in their cue places. If you have important SM cues or scene transitions with furniture, practice these and coordinate with your cast. Once tech is programmed, you may want to do a tech run with your cast to run through all tech cues. You can also aim to have tech & dress rehearsal(s) on the day of your get-in as all of your team should be there!

09 Show Week: Yay!

Before each show:

Check that you have enough stewards the day before
Check that all props/costumes are ready to go
Check that all tech is working and that you have someone to operate it
Set up seating in New Cellars
When stewards arrive: you should have provided them with information in advance. There should be one at the Porter’s Lodge, one at the back gate (with a Pembroke loan Camcard to obtain from and return to the porters every night) and one on the door to check tickets. We can also set up an on the door ticket link for you – but do encourage people to buy tickets in advance so that you can estimate audience numbers.
Warm up with your actors!

After each show:

Put back your chairs & leave the space clean and tidy. Most shows will be operating on a shared use of the space between mainshow and lateshow
Return the keys to the Porter’s Lodge. Even if you are a mainshow and have a lateshow after, you must return the keys to plodge and not give them directly to the lateshow! This is to ensure that the Porters can account for keys at all times.

Final night – this should be done by the lateshow, or ideally by members of both shows together!

Make sure that New Cellars is left clean and tidy. If you’re the last show of the week, you should give the space a proper clean with a broom and mop, and stack and tidy away all chairs!
Return all props and costumes to the props store
De-rig technical equipment that is specific to your show

Return the keys!that you are in the right timeline for having everything ready by the costume fitting, and then dress rehearsal (most likely on the day of the get-in, or the weekend before the show!)

10 Post Show Admin

Producer

Your main responsibility after the show is to handle reimbursements for your team. Make sure that everyone sends you their receipts, with the description of items they have purchased and with a total of money owed to them (or you can calculate this and communicate with them if they’ve been sending you stuff as they go). You’ll need to fill out the receipts form that our treasurer will have sent you at the start of our process (thus, you’re able to fill it out as you go if that works better, and minimise your work at the end!) within 1 calendar month of the final night of your show run. We can either reimburse all of the money to you – then letting you reimburse members of your team individually) or send reimbursements to individual accounts. This latter option is more complicated for us, however, so if you want us to do this you must specify the amount to reimburse to each account – we will not calculate that for you – and provide relevant bank details. The maximum number of accounts we will do this for is five.

I recommend being prompt with reimbursements, and communicating with your team on their needs to make sure no one feels financial strain throughout the process! Some producers choose to do ‘rolling reimbursements’ – essentially this means that the producer or director reimburses people from their own account as soon as team members send over receipts, and then get everything reimbursed to them at the end. This can be beneficial as it ensures that no one feels financial stress during the production process. Not all producers are able to do this, however (and Pembroke Players cannot do rolling reimbursements – all expenses will be paid at the end of the show) so choose the option which works best for you and your team!

Director

Check in with your producer on handling reimbursements
Make sure that everyone who has worked on the show with you has received the relevant credits for their work on Camdram

Costumes / Set and Props

Ensure that all items have been returned to their relevant owners! If this is a New Cellars show, any items you’ve bought should be left in our costume store at the end of your show and not given to actors. Any items borrowed from us or other societies should also be returned.

Good Luck!

Feel free to reach out to any of the committee if you have any queries

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