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Festival Players is a group of Cambridge-based amateur dramatics performers who currently produce one major musical production each year. We also stage a variety of workshops, concerts and social events. 'The Witches of Eastwick' was our highly acclaimed 2007 production, following on from the success of 2006's 'Jekyll and Hyde - the musical'.

 The Cambridge Festival Players

Originally formed to enter musicals in the Cambridge Festival, the Festival Players sprang into life as an amateur dramatics group in 1973 with a production of 'The Arcadians', an Edwardian musical by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot. There followed seven years of Festival Players' entries into the Cambridge Festival, and by 1980, membership had escalated and the Festival Players moved their productions to the Mumford Theatre on the campus of Anglia Polytechnic University.

Throughout their history, the Festival Players have tackled an enormous variety of amateur productions, from favourites such as 'Fiddler on the Roof' and 'Oklahoma!' to Cambridgeshire premieres of a number of exciting and demanding productions, including 'Singin' in the Rain' (2000), 'Crazy for You' (2003), 'Jekyll and Hyde - the musical' (2006) and 'The Witches of Eastwick' (2007), which involved some extremely technical special effects, including exploding banners, self-playing cellos and, of course, flying witches, and our latest production, 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' (2008). The society's next production will be 'Little Shop of Horrors', followed by Stephen Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street', continuing our commitment to stage interesting, new musicals - whatever challenges they may present!

We have been lucky in the last few years to have been graced by a number of talented leads and directors. Our 2002 production of 'Oklahoma!' won a number of accolades, including the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) award for best amateur show in the area awards for best amateur musical and best actress from Combinations (the Cambridge amateur dramatics newsletter). In 2005, we again won the Combinations best amateur musical award for 'Hello, Dolly!'. Our 2003 production, 'Crazy for You' was also very successful, and critically acclaimed, with 97% audiences throughout the show week including three sell-out performances. Our latest musical, 'The Witches of Eastwick' also boasted three sell-out performances and received rave reviews in a number of local publications.

The Cambridge Festival Players are a lively and dynamic society that has performed a wide variety of modern musicals since its inception. The society currently stages one major amateur musical production a year, but has an active year-round social calendar including concerts, quizzes, workshops and, of course, trips to see both professional and other amateur musicals.

Festival Players is a friendly society of all ages that welcomes new members by open audition. If you are interested in joining the group, please look at our How to become a Festival Player page and please contact our friendly secretary, Suzanne .