Untitled hand-painted programme: Cicely Read 1922
This hand-drawn and painted programme was created in 1922 by
one of the college’s teaching staff, Cicely Read. Miss Read had been a student
of the college herself and returned as a teacher in 1918; her name can be seen
on the bottom left of the programme cover. Although the title remains a mystery
we do know that it represented one of the ‘Entertainments’ that were an
extracurricular part of college life throughout the 1920s and 30s, and the
programmes were produced and decorated by hand.
‘Entertainments’ were not for public performances but
were laid on either for Old Students during Holiday Week or (in the case of
this programme) as light-hearted fun for the college. The college curriculum
did not include Drama as a taught subject until the 1950s; indeed the students followed a rigorous timetable which left little time for leisure activities. We can surmise from the attention to detail present in the hand-drawn programmes that the students embraced the opportunity to perform these entertainments.
Reviewing the types of plays that were performed gives us an idea of the trends in popular entertainment of the time. Performances varied between recreations of existing plays and re-telling of traditional popular tales, to self-penned pieces, often parodying life in the college and serving as an insight into the characters and events of the day.
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Untitled programme (1922)
Ref: BPEA SOC 3/1/1 |
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