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6th January 1924 saw the birth of the Loughton Amateur Dramatic Society. Its founders wished to establish a “village society” and declared an aim of presenting plays with “genuine dramatic worth”. Eighty three years and over 310 productions later, the LADS are still going strong. Loughton can no longer truly be described as a “village” but one thing has remained constant - that original aspiration of “genuine dramatic worth”. We carefully plan each season of four plays as a whole, aiming at variety and balance, while still trying to adhere to our forefathers’ aims. The criteria for our play selection are varied. Top of the list is challenge: we look for plays to challenge the actors, the director, the designer and even the audience! Against this we must consider audience appeal. Like all companies LADS depends on “bums on seats” to keep us going and whilst a season of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekov and Shaw would certainly be a big challenge for the society, it would also challenge the good will of our bank manager. These playwrights have all regularly featured, but not in the same season. To balance the books, our repertoire includes evergreen favourites such as When We Are Married and Hobson’s Choice, as well as plays by contemporary crowd-pullers, such as Neil Simon and Alan Ayckbourn. Although primarily a dramatic society, LADS has occasionally entered into the world of music with shows such as Oh, What a Lovely War!. The LADS are proud of their reputation for presenting plays fresh onto the amateur circuit and so we always keep an eye on potential new releases. The society was one of the first amateur companies to produce David Hare’s Amy’s View and are also proud to count Amadeus, The Madness of George III, Steel Magnolias, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Communicating Doors as among our local “firsts”. In this season, Proof by David Auburn, is only available for amateur production in the UK from January 2008, and so we will almost certainly be the first company in the UK to present it. |