Downing Dramatic Society

Most shows in college are staged in the upper Howard Building and many in the college chapel. The Mayweek shows traditionally use either the Fellows' Garden or a marquee on the Paddock. The annual Cabaret takes place in the college Hall.

The Howard Building has theatre-style lighting and sound systems. There are three lighting bars in front-of-house positions, each internally wired with six sockets. There are two halogen lights (fixed) in the top corners of the stage. There are also fluorescent tubes, cornice lights and dimmable tungsten house lights controlled seperately from the rest of the system via controls offstage right. All IWB sockets have standard 15A round-pin connectors and lead to a patchbay in the offstage right area. There are 12 dimmers which can be controlled from an analogue desk via control sockets offstage right and in the projection room. There are eight Thomas 650W Fresnel and three Thomas 650W Profile lanterns available. All this fixed equipment is owned by the college, including the lanterns.

Note that the college does not permit the use of a ladder to alter the lighting rig. The college does not own equipment suitable for moving the positions of lanterns so a show's budget must allow for the cost of hiring one. A scaffolding tower from HSS Hire costs about £50+VAT for one day, and you may additionally have to pay for overtime work by college staff if they are required to assist you outside their normal working hours.

DDS itself owns two 650W Strand Quartet fresnel lanterns with spigot stands and T-bars and a 3-channel dimmer pack with a 13A mains plug. A supply of TRS cable and a relatively small selection of gel is also available.