Get Involved

You might come to us with a particular knowledge or skillset, or you may be completely new to amateur drama. Below, we've laid out just some of the ways you can get involved, but if you're not sure how you want to help, feel free to contact us. We always have a place for new members, whether you have a background in traditional theatre things or not.

Some roles are demanding; others may take just a small amount of time. If you'd like to get a flavour of the group before taking the plunge, check out the about us page or have a look at some of the photos from our previous shows.

Creative Roles

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Actors
Every production relies on people to appear on stage. We don't hold auditions for our shows, but we will invite you to a read-through of the script so we can get a feel for your abilities. You can tell us what size of part you would be comfortable with and we will do our best to accommodate. 
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Costume Design
If you have knowledge of fabrics, looks and style, and have an eye for a bargain, this role is ideal. We operate on a budget for our costumes. If you have making skills, that would be great too, but not essential!
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Make Up artists
This role has been vacant for a while. We really need someone who can help create unique looks for our cast and help on show night to bring these looks to life. If you're a dab hand with a brush, this could be for you.
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Set Design
Can you make a lot out of a little? We create our sets on a budget, without a huge number of resources. But if you're artistic and can see creative potential in even the most basic of materials, then we want your help!
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Lighting Design
Enjoy fiddling with electrics? Have an idea about shadows and colours? Then you might enjoy trying your hand at lighting one of our productions. We were recently awarded a grant from the Lord Provost of Edinburgh to buy a brand new lighting set up. We look forward to the lighting deck's debut during our 2022 pantomime!
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Choreography
We don't do a lot of dance, but one of the key features of pantomime is movement, particularly fight scenes. If you have an eye for rhythm and movement, get in touch.
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Writer
As an equal opportunities group, we like to give everyone a chance to try something new. This means many members of the group have had a go at writing our scripts. Interested in seeing your creation on stage? Get in touch and we'll have a look and see if your script could be suitable for our group. Equally, as some of our members have tried their hand at writing, they are in a position to give you hints, tips and support to make your script the best it can be.
Practical Roles
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Front of House
Allocating and selling tickets, directing people to their seats, serving refreshments. Every audience needs taking care of. Want to help, but don't want your name in lights? Then this is the ideal job for you. Get in touch now!
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Stage Manager
This backstage role keeps the show running smoothly, keeping props in order, ensuring actors are where the need to be at the right time and organising communications between back and front of house.
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Box Office
If you are good at responding to phone calls and emails, and wish to help us sell tickets, including keeping track of bookings, this could take some of the pressure from our current box office team. You could also act as a point of contact for any enquiries from customers.

Why Choose Us?

Unlike some amateur groups we're not cliquey and have no pecking order. It's just as easy for a brand new member to take a main part or a responsible production role as for a long-serving member.
We tailor all our productions. Our Christmas shows especially are written by the group for the group. This means characters are written with specific cast members in mind, and we always have in mind our group size and budget.
We have about 15 members at the moment. We welcome new acting members, and we always want to find technical people, costume people, makeup people and other backstagers. If you know a little bit about lighting, sound, computers in theatre or costume, then we'll be delighted to hear from you. You don't have to be an actor to do AmDram (and sometimes it doesn't even help!)

New to AmDram?

If you haven't done amateur drama before, here's some things to consider. Amdram is enormous fun, done on a shoestring, very social. Nobody gets paid, everyone works hard!
But it's a team effort, so to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone, some individual commitments are involved:
  • You'll need to turn up to rehearsals/meetings as scheduled, on time
  • You'll need to let your director know in good time about holidays and other time you can't be at rehearsals
  • Actors need to be prepared to put in a bit of work on the backstage side
  • You'll need to be prepared to be a little bit challenged, be open minded about trying new things, and work co-operatively with your director
  • Actors need to learn lines!
  • Shows can be a bit stressful! You'll need to be able to keep smiling under the stress of live performance, and do your best to keep a calm and professional attitude with everyone.
When everyone's showing good commitment it really raises the experience and makes us feel like we know why we do this!