Amateur Dramatic Club: Papers and Photographs

The Amateur Dramatic Club (or A.D.C.) in Cambridge was founded in 1855, and is the oldest University dramatic society in England. The Club produces a diverse range of productions each university term. Many of the shows are performed at the A.D.C. Theatre in Park Street, where the Club is the resident company, but there are also performances at other Cambridge venues, annually at the Edinburgh Fringe, and sometimes abroad. As well as the shows, the Club runs a programme of professional and student-run workshops for actors, directors and technicians and a series of late-night experimental pieces known as One Night Stands.

I. Minute Books of the Committee, 23 volumes, 1855-1976, with some lists of members, lists of plays performed, letters, rules, press notices, printed programmes, and accounts

Ia. Minute Books of Club General Meetings, 1947-1968.

II. Account Books: main series, 3 volumes, 1859-1929; subsidiary items (accounts of members's subscriptions), 1879-1967.

III. Various Administrative Records: secretarial, 2 volumes and 1 box, 1861-1927; stage managers' and other logbooks, 16 volumes, 1957-1974; club dinners, 1860-1922; visitors' books, 3 volumes, c. 1901-1966; library catalogues (2), c. 1879-1921.

IV. Plays and Programmes, c.1826-1971, with some press notices

V. Photographs, consisting mainly of albums of mounted photographs produced by the Club: club series, 1856-1978, including some press notices and programmes; other collections, c. 1856-1901, mainly photographs belonging originally to members and acquired later by the Club.

The initial batch of material was deposited on permanent loan in 1966. Additional material was added during the 1970s.

Readers seeking to reproduce material found in the collection must obtain prior permission from the Trustees of the A.D.C.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Amateur Dramatic Club: Papers and Photographs, MS Add.7675