Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

RHOscars: The RHUL Red Carpet Event of the Year

The life of a student is rarely associated with glamour. One night of the year, however, we dust off our bow ties, scrub our faces and revel in the glory that comes with prancing along a red carpet and actually having freshly washed hair. We arrive on the arms of handsome men, and the majority of us stumble out a few hours later, with a lucky few drunkenly brandishing the revered ‘little golden man.’

While we spend the majority of the year at each other’s throats, battling over deadlines, rehearsals and meetings; this is an evening which quite simply reminds us why we have so much love for what we do. Since 2007, the RHOscars have been uniting all manner of performance loving folk. Bringing the techies down from the rigs, the musicians away from their pianos, and the actors down from the stage – this is the evening where we have the opportunity to appreciate each other’s work and unique disciplines; looking back with pride and forward with anticipation.

On Saturday 11th May, the Drama Society, Student Workshop, Absolute Harmony, Savoy Opera, Shakespeare, and The Musical Theatre Society gathered in the Student’s Union for an evening of awards, drinks vouchers and debauchery. The evening was led by the dashing and charismatic duo Tom Midgely and Alexander
Jeremy, who’s charming and yet efficient approach to hosting lead us through the awards with grace and humour. By presenting with such panache they reminded us that while the awards were very important, we were really there to celebrate one another – easing the worries of the stress-drinkers amongst us.

Amidst the chaos this hectic year has brought we have seen some diverse and exciting work from all the societies present on the night. The Savoy Opera Society has had magnificent successes with their productions of The Mikado and Bittersweet. We have seen dark history and comedy from the Shakespeare society with Richard III and As You Like It.

The Student Workshop have had an enormous amount of shows this year, congratulations go to the cast and crew of Frozen, winner of the best production award. MTS have once again proved their relentless energy with so many great shows, the winner of which was Mack and Mabel. The Drama Society have taken us from a post-apocalyptic drug fuelled world and into the dark mind of Stanley Kubrick and back again, with the best production award going to Rope.

Congratulations also go to Absolute Harmony, and their talented group of musicians who have created such arrangements as the ‘Bon Jovi Medley’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ Our eritable feast of disciplines and passions has led to an incredible index of work this year.

Special congratulations must go to those winners of the Outstanding Contribution Awards. This is a special award, reserved for those who have truly signed over their hearts and souls to their societies. There is something to be said for these individuals who really are the driving forces behind the various successes of their committees and members. On a day to day basis, they juggle their degrees and the responsibilities they take upon themselves to move their societies forward and to keep producing work to be proud of.

Here at Royal Holloway we have a fantastic thing. The diversity of performances throughout the year is vast, and truly is something worth celebrating. Congratulations to all of those involved with the incredible work of each society – and to all of those award winners & nominees. We have something here to be very proud of, and the Rhoscars evening was such a fantastic way of marking this.

As we look to the end of the year, keep your eyes peeled for the last few bits and bobs: Drama Society’s Quad production of ‘The Importance of being Earnest’, on the 11th, 12th and 13th of June. Grab a jug of Pimms from Crosslands and join us for what we’re sure will be another great production!Of course, this wouldn’t be a gushing review written by a drama student if I didn’t throw in a horrendously cheesy (but nevertheless genuine) phrase such as ‘we are all winners’. ‘Don’t stop believing…’ ‘We’re all in this together…’ ‘My life would suck without you.’

Article: Rebekka-Kate Taylor