Antony Tudor Drama Fund

Financial assistance is available to student groups and societies for the support of drama and other forms of staged entertainment in the University, including music and dance.

The University Drama and Music Committee will consider applications which meet some or all of the following criteria:

  • A strong business case - helping to enable student groups to make their productions viable (for example, evidence of having shown initiative in securing additional funding sources; evidence that the grant would be a long term investment);
  • Evidence of positive reviews of previous productions by the applicant, group or society;
  • Demonstrates supporting students in doing something creative that enhances their student experience; develops individual and group transferrable skills (for example, that may enhance employability) and projects student activities to a wider audience;
  • Focuses on supporting new events, activities or festivals which would otherwise not be possible
  • Fosters positive town/gown relations;
  • Demonstrates its anticipated cultural impact;
  • Forms part of or contributes to an educational initiative;
  • Promotes the University’s commitment to student performing arts.

The University Drama and Music Committee will consider applications at regular intervals during the academic year. Productions in progress can be considered for funding. Please apply using the and instructions for submission are on the last page of the form.

For application deadlines throughout the year, please refer to the Memos page.

Additional information about student drama

The Byre Theatre

The Byre supports students as producers, curators and performance makers, developing transferable employment skills and embedding the value of lifelong learning, as well as offering employment and volunteering opportunities. The Byre works with student groups and festivals including Mermaids, Just So Society, Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Opera Society, Dance Club, Blue Angels, On the Rocks Festival and Jazz Works. Providing a professional theatre, equipment and resources, technical team and marketing support provides student societies and festivals with a high-level professional environment, the fruits of which are enjoyed by their fellow students as well as the public.

The Barron Theatre at the Byre

The Barron Theatre is dedicated to student drama and is run by the University of St Andrews Students’ Association. It has a permanent residency at the Byre Theatre, providing a home for student-led drama activities at the University.

Mermaids

Mermaids is a sub-committee of the Students' Association, meaning that all matriculated students are automatically members. It controls the Students’ Association performing arts funding and provides support to allow all students to explore their own creativity. Mermaids can help you get involved in any aspect of the performing arts, off stage as well as on.

Frank Muir Prize For Humour

Frank Muir began his entertainment career in the post-war 1940s, writing scripts for the English comedian Jimmy Edwards. In 1948, he teamed-up with fellow comic writer Denis Norden to create Take It From Here, a weekly series starring Edwards and Australian comedian Dick Bentley.

This was the beginning of one of comedy’s most enduring writing partnerships; Muir and Norden continued to collaborate for almost 50 years, producing such comic masterpieces as Peter Sellers’ sketch Balham, Gateway to the South, and starring together in radio panel games My Word! and My Music.

But Muir did not stop there. He was a writer and presenter on a number of other shows, including the infamous 1960s satire show That Was The Week That Was and The Frost Report, though he was perhaps best known to television audiences as a team captain on the long-lived BBC2 series Call My Bluff.

In 1976, Frank Muir took up the post of Rector of the University of St Andrews, a position he held for 3 years. In 1979, towards the end of his term, he made a gift of £1000 to the University, to be endowed as an award given to the student who wrote and submitted the best piece of original, humorous writing.

Could you be that student?

Further Particulars

  1. For the purpose of this prize, Humour is defined as literature written primarily to amuse the reader. The submitted pieces may have other qualities, e.g. wit and satire which have humorous elements, but the effectiveness of the wit and satire should be subordinate in the judges’ mind to the risibility of the humour.
  2. The prize is open to presently matriculated students of the University.
  3. Entries must be original: in verse, prose, dialogue or any form which is essentially literary.
  4. There is no minimum length, but entries should not exceed 1500 words.
  5. Only one entry is permitted per student.
  6. Entries may deal, however tangentially, with an aspect of the University based on the experiences of being a student at St Andrews. However, any piece of original, humorous writing will be considered.
  7. The University reserves the right in any year (a) to withhold the Prize or to award a Prize of less value if no entry reaches the expected standard and (b) to share the Prize among more than one candidate whose entries are adjudged of equal excellence.
  8. Entries should be submitted by email to pa-facdeans@st-andrews.ac.uk. For this year’s submission deadline, please check the student memos on the memos page.
  9. The value of the Prize is £350 subject to the conditions in paragraph 6 above.
  10. Submissions will be identified by student number only.