Our university has a wide range of societies, but none that will make you giggle as quickly as USLES! Preparing for upcoming show The Chosen Ones, the University of Sheffield Light Entertainment Society (USLES) are gearing up for one of their busiest times of the academic year, but two of their members found time to tell us all about their time in one of our university’s silliest societies!
USLES is one of the three main theatrical societies at the university, alongside the Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCo) & the Sheffield University Performing Arts Society (SUPAS). The society puts on two shows every year, one in each semester, with proceeds going to charity. The society was recently shortlisted for three Activities Awards, namely Small Society of the Year, Most Innovative Society of the Year, & Outstanding Individual Achievement of the Year for President Martha Allison.
Anneli Brett ~ she/her
I became a new member of the society quite spontaneously when a friend had asked if I would join her at the auditions. All I knew was that everyone who auditions gets a part. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I arrived at the auditions and immediately knew I would love it. The atmosphere was friendly, extremely chaotic, welcoming and fun. We did an activity to warm up, which was called ‘Moaning and Screaming’. Everyone was expressive and carefree, which immediately allowed me to enjoy myself and feel more confident.
We stood in a circle, then one person would make a noise and as it would move round the circle it would change. Often, this would end up with a moaning or screaming sound, hence it being named ‘Moaning and Screaming’. We were then put into groups and assigned characters, where we would go to a different room to practice, before acting it out in front of some of the USLES directors. The whole experience was fun and the fact everyone had different experiences of acting, from novice to expert, meant it was laid back and enjoyable.
USLES is a society open to anyone from those with no acting experience to those with lots, people who like making props or behind the scenes roles like stage handing. The society creates their own plays once a semester which are light hearted comedy and it is all for charity. We meet twice a week on Wednesday and Friday evenings. It is welcoming and inclusive, doing a range of socials and being flexible to people’s schedules. There are plans of socials in Bar One after rehearsals on Fridays, a games night, a quiz night and the Treehouse Cafe to name a few. There is something for everyone!
After finding out that I had been assigned the part ‘Final Girl’, I went to my first rehearsal as a new member of the society, which I was excited for. As I knew it would be, it was very chaotic, welcoming, fun and friendly. It was nice to be surrounded by enthusiastic people while immersing myself in the play The Chosen Ones, written by the president Martha Allison! The first rehearsal went well; we were figuring out the positions of people on stage and how to “die” safely, all while having a great time. The committee is also really accommodating, asking if I wanted to try stage handing as well – which I am yet to practice but am looking forward to trying something new!
The most important thing about USLES is it is about having a great, fun and chaotic time. Everyone is welcome and we would love you to join our future plays! A friend who is also a new member of the society perfectly summed up what it is like to be part of USLES: “Everyone is really nice, there is literally no judgement. I had met them all for a day and I already felt like they would take whatever I said on board without questioning. Everyone is easy to talk to.” The play, The Chosen Ones, is in May. See you there for some chaotic moments!
Mason ~ he/they
Assuming, firstly, that we’re talking about one of the relevant days (as much as I love USLES, I couldn’t spend every waking hour rehearsing!), a typical USLES day would be fairly relaxed, there’s honestly not a lot of requirements. I’ve gotten our current script, The Chosen Ones, printed out on paper, so whenever I get bored or just generally distracted, I can get that out and quickly go over whatever scene we’ll be rehearsing next. It won’t take me too long either, maybe twenty minutes to go over a single scene and four days in which to fit that in twice, which considering that I’ve somehow gotten myself a leading role, is pretty generous.
Rehearsals are typically Wednesdays or Fridays, with Thursdays added in as necessary, and take place at the SU. There’s a calendar with specific rooms, which I always forget to check ahead of time and have to awkwardly pull up when I get there! Rehearsals are generally quite casual, even on a stricter schedule; arrive at 6 for some games, warm-ups and general banter, then we run the first scene from 6:30-7:30, have a half-hour break, and run a second scene from 8:00-9:00. Those scenes generally take the whole hour to get through, which is more to do with general tomfoolery than anything else.
The people at USLES are definitely a tight-knit bunch, which is fairly impressive considering how many there seem to be and how many continue to be pulled out of the woodwork. Someone recently made a joke about how USLES is pretty much their entire social life and the source of all their friendships or something, which absolutely tracks and definitely feels true for me as well (not that I don’t have friends outside of USLES, but it’s easier to convince those friends to join USLES than to convince USLES people to change their course, year, level of engagement with rock-climbing, etc!).
In any case, I’ve somehow managed to fall into the unofficial (and largely self-assigned) role of ‘Scribe’, meaning that it’s my job to record on the Discord server for all eternity the most insane thing that gets said in rehearsals, so I’m generally there even if I’m not needed for a scene. Socials do pop up, about as occasionally as they do for any other society. A few of us went to go and see SUTCo’s Why We Stay; the most expensive social so far at only £7.53 total, which is what I’d have paid anyway. The other socials are all fairly chill too – apparently there’s a picnic coming up, which feels quite typically USLES! Socials definitely seemed intimidating to me at one point, but then I realised that they were largely just 5 people hanging out in someone’s living room and it suddenly seemed less so. Not that we’d object to more members, but it’s nice to not have to deal with hordes of people.
Honestly, the most shocking part of USLES to me so far, in the one and a half shows I’ve now done with them, is how open it is to pretty much anyone. We definitely mention a lot our rule that everyone who auditions gets a place, but even that feels almost like underselling it. If you’re willing to commit to any degree (and again, committing to any degree is not that time-consuming), then you can kind of easily make yourself a fixture. Not even a full year into my time with USLES I’m taking on a lead role, talking to people about writing a show or being on committee. Bearing in mind, that still puts me on the extreme end of how willing I am to engage. There’s people who’ve been members longer and shorter than me who have other things they want to do, and still manage to get in on the action and make their mark. In all the other societies I’ve tried out, I don’t think any are as chill and accommodating as USLES.
USLES’ The Chosen Ones is playing from May 10th to 11th at Theatre Deli
