Amdram - the amateur theatre network
Easily our favourite amdram site and well worth a visit. Not only does this site host the web pages of many amateur dramatic societies, but it provides links to the web pages of many other societies (including GADS of course) and a number of theatre-related businesses, including Jasper Publishing, Amateur Stage, Samuel French and a whole heap of others. It contains news of the activities of participating groups and listings of forthcoming productions. There’s a Script Centre where you can discover that there is life and lots of good drama outside Samuel French and a Technical Centre for technical queries and responses. And much, much more. Needless to say, we use this site to advertise our productions. If you haven’t visited this site, recently completely re-vamped, then you should! To visit Amdram, click on the logo above.

Little Theatre Guild
Amongst a lot of other interesting information about the LTG, this site contains a useful list of forthcoming productions by LTG members, which provides a good guide to which plays are popular/fashionable nationally. A good starting point for reading committees seeking inspiration! To visit LTG, click on the logo above.

UK Theatre Web

Whilst not strictly an amateur site, UK Theatre Web nevertheless contains much of interest to amateurs, as well as professionals and there is a section wholly devoted to them. And, yes, there is a link back to this site and we also advertise our productions here! Other sections include: Chat, Dance, Gaffer, Gossip, Jobs, Links, Listings, Opera, Search, Seeking and Training. To visit UK Theatre Web, click on the logo above.

Amateur Dramatic

AmateurDramatic was formed “to offer a unique reference point on great advice for anyone interested in drama”.

In their own words: “Do you love everything about the theatre? Would you enjoy acting, directing, writing or producing a play, opera, musical or drama even if it meant you never made any money? Are you thrilled by the ‘smell of the greasepaint’ and ‘roar of the crowd’? Then this is the place for you! We share our secrets, ideas, experiences and best practices, delving into topics such as establishing a board of directors, choosing the right venues for performances, and marketing your plays the right way.”

We think this website is well worth a look. To visit Amateur Dramatic, click on the logo above.

Amateur Dramatics and Operatics DotCom
This site describes itself as “The worldwide directory of Amateur Dramatic and Operatic organisations. News, Views, Whats On, Fun and Classifieds for Actors, Musicians, Singers,Dancers, Theatrical costumers, Theatres, Lighting providers, Programme Printers etc. In fact every one of the hundreds of people it takes to produce a successful show”.

The British Theatre Guide
The Guide to British Theatre web pages, edited by Peter Nathan, have resurfaced as The British Theatre Guide. There’s a veritable cornucopia of information here, of interest to both amateur and professional theatre folk, updated daily. Well worth visiting and another place where we can advertise. To go to the site, click on the logo above.

TheatreNet.com - the entertainment centre
If you are British and enjoy the theatre, you will love this site. Here is all the information you could possibly want on the UK theatre scene today. Links galore! Since this site is mainly concerned with the professional theatre, there’s not much about the amateur stage, though a few groups have links. To visit TheatreNet.com Guide to British Theatre, click on the logo above.

Theatre by the Lake
Since GADS is one of the sponsors of the new theatre at Keswick, which opened last August, we thought it only fair to provide a link to it. This is a most comprehensive site, including full details of all the season’s productions, the dates and times of all performances. Best of all, there is an on-line booking facility. You can visit the site by clicking the logo above.

BBC Radio Cumbria
Since they were kind enough to devote no less than 8 minutes of air time to allow me to promote www.gads.org.uk it would be churlish of us not to link to them although, sadly, they have apparently removed their links not only to us but to all other Cumbrian websites featured in their programmes (If you know otherwise, please let me know.). They are, after all, our local radio station and, from what I have heard of the others whilst rushing up and down the motorways, one of the best. Like the radio station itself, the BBC Radio Cumbria pages are truly professional and were certainly very helpful to me in mugging up in advance on the people I would meet during my visit.

Cumbria Genesis
The good news is that this site used to contain a comprehensive What’s On list for Cumbria, which we could use to advertise our productions. The bad news is that it was run by the county council, so we’re not entirely surprised that it has folded and the domain name is up for grabs. What else can we say? We leave the link because we quite like the logo, and in the hope that the clowns in Carlisle will reinstate it.

UK Villages
Not specifically a theatre site, ukvillages.co.uk was started in October 1999 as a project to provide free quality web site facilities for all villages and communities in the UK. In its own words, “UKVillages is not just another community web site - it is a national collection of community web sites that communicate and ‘understand’ each other [providing] local information on cinemas, events, notices, societies, groups, businesses, post offices, rail travel, property, jobs, pictures, where to stay, where to eat, tourism, environment, local government, maps, doctors, trades and services, statistics...” One of its useful features is that it allows users to post information in their own format, using HTML. We use it to post details of all our productions, needless to say, and Mel Gould has a link to his site, which includes an on-line version of his well-known “What’s on in Gosforth” newsletter. It deserves and, no doubt will eventually enjoy, a wider usage.

Visit Cumbria
This is a site run by Julian Thurgood, an old colleague of mine, of Instinct Training Ltd., Cockermouth. Julian has created about 700 pages concerning all things Cumbrian, illustrated with about 1400 photographs. Amongst other things, it contains a nice page about the Theatre by The Lake, and it is to this page that we take you. There are also links to the web sites of other theatres in Cumbria and, of course, to the main Instinct Training site. To visit this huge site, click on the logo above.

Lakestay
Another site about all things Cumbrian, with links to a large number of Cumbrian sites, including ours. It also has an events page where we can advertise our productions.

All England Theatre Festival
At last the All England Theatre Festival has its own presence on the web. This still-developing site tells you most of what you need to know about the AETF, including the competition rules and the rules for the Geoffrey Whitworth trophy. It also contains details of the locations, dates and adjudicators for all District festivals, and Divisional, Area, English and British finals for the coming year. Worth a look.

Cumbria Libraries Interactive Catalogue
The Cumbria Libraries Catalogue is available as an on-line searcheable database. We’ve had a little play with it and we like it. If you’re a Cumbria Library card holder, not only can you find out what’s in the library, but you can also renew items, check your account or request items online. Oh, and there’s also a directory of Cumbrian societies (including GADS) where basic information and contact details are listed although, sadly, what at first appears to be a link to the GADS site isn’t. As usual, click on the logo.

The Stage
The website of the long-established weekly newspaper for the theatre industry. Whilst it has a directory to amateur societies, we haven’t asked for GADS to be included since we feel that it is really aimed at near-professional groups with their own Little Theatres. The directory to professional theatres throughout the UK is, as you might expect, quite extensive.

EntsWeb
An ambitious, though necessarily incomplete, guide to all forms of entertainment and leisure, not only in the UK but also worldwide.. If you search for “Amdram”, you’ll find a directory to UK dramatic Societies which, although not by any means comprehensive, at least has an entry for GADS.

Peter Wilson’s Plays
Here you will find the complete works of Peter Wilson - and a lot of other stuff. Peter is a long-standing member of GADS who, in addition to his frequent appearances on stage, also puts pen to paper from time to time. You don’t have to wade through each play to find out what it’s about, since Peter has helpfully included synopses.

John Larkham’s Original Web Site
A bit of recursion here, since from the home page you can link immediately back to the GADS pages, which currently live on the site. You can also link to the Cumbria Drama Festival pages and to a set of pages of interest to nobody else except John’s ex-colleagues from his days at Bristol University. The Methodist Church Cumbria District’s web site also lives here.

Whitehaven and District Amateur Operatic Society
Our nearest neighbour and one with whom we Occasionally exchange actors. Lots of information about the history of the society, how to join it, its past productions (with photos) and biographies of many of its members (also with photos). It would be churlish of us not to give WADAOS a link!

Grange Amateur Dramatic Society
The new, improved, Grange Drama website carries all the information you need to know about the society and the home page is kept up-to-date, though the Coming Soon page was lost in a time warp when we last checked on it.

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Arnside Players
We understand that Arnside Players are currently struggling, so we’ve temporarily disabled this link. Of course, we’ll rstore it if and when the group’s fortunes improve. If so, will we still have to endure the musical accompaniment, we wonder!

Grasmere Players
The Grasmere Players’ site has a list of past productions (some with photos) and lots of information about the society. There’s also minimal information about their forthcoming programme. Sadly, the gallery of photos of the local scenery has been removed.

Workington Amateur Operatic Society
This site contains minimal information about the society’s next production and lists of past productions. That’s all.

Keswick Amateur Operatic Society
Hooray! This website has reappeared, and better than ever. We apologise to KAOS for not spotting it sooner.

Cockermouth Amateur Dramatic Society
Another near neighbour. This site has a new home and has been totally redesigned. There’s a wealth of information about the society, though there’s the odd link which didn’t work when we last looked at it.

Lakes Players
Based in Windermere, this society’s principal activity is its annual pantomime. It performs at, and has close links with The Lakes School. Its website gives lots of information about the society, though the advertising linked to the slideshow on its home page may annoy some of you, as may its use of Facebook.