"What is this Ram's Head thing anyways?"
"Who are you guys?"
"What makes you so cool?"

If you're asking any of these questions, you're in the right place. This is a list of some of the more commonly asked questions about Ram's Head. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Ram's Head is Stanford's oldest student theatrical society. We regularly produce Big Game Gaieties in the fall, Original Winter One Acts in the winter, and a big Broadway musical in the Spring. We also occasionally produce Special Projects that are deemed worthy by the organization. Any member of the Stanford community is enthusiastically invited to join us in any of these endeavors, as an actor, singer, dancer, technician, artist, electrician, publicist, usher, director, choreographer, vocal director, musician, or any one of many, many other positions. Even if you've never been involved with anything remotely theatrical, we'd love to have you help out! For more information, read on, or visit our contact information!

(Ram's Head encourages people of all backgrounds to apply for staff positions and to audition for our productions.)

Big Game Gaieties is one of Stanford's oldest traditions: an original, student-written, student-produced musical parody which runs in Memorial Auditorium during Big Game Week just before the football game against Cal. The entire show, including the title, is a tightly-held secret until just before it opens.

Here is a rough schedule for Gaieties: Production and artistic staff are hired late winter or early spring quarter. Writers and composers are hired in the spring, and finish a rough draft by the end of Spring Quarter. The script is polished over the summer. Auditions are held the first week of classes fall quarter. Pit orchestra auditions are held soon afterwards. Rehearsals last for five or six weeks, in the evenings. The show opens on Wednesday of Big Game Week, and usually holds three performances for packed houses of adoring students.

The Original Winter One Acts (or OWOA for short) are original one act plays by Stanford students, usually performed in a small performance space like the Nitery or Pigott. In previous years, OWOA plays have gone on to win awards at regional and national competitions.

Here's a timeline of events for OWOA: Production staff are hired spring quarter. Scripts are selected and artistic staff are hired during fall quarter. Auditions are held mid-fall quarter. Rehearsals go through part of fall and part of winter, and OWOA opens the second week of winter quarter, holding about three performances.

Spring Show is generally a professional Broadway musical that we license performance rights for and present in Memorial Auditorium. The production showcases some of Stanford's best theatrical talent, and provides students with performance, directing, and design opportunities on the largest scale available on campus.

Here is a timeline of events for Spring Show: Spring Show Selection Committee selects three musicals for Ram's Head to choose from in the middle of spring quarter at Membership Meeting. Shortly thereafter, production staff is hired. Artistic staff is hired mid-fall quarter, and auditions are held right after winter break. The show loads into Mem Aud over spring break, and performances begin the second week of spring quarter, running for about five nights over two weeks.

You mean that isn't enough?

We love doing Special Projects which fall outside our usual scope, and fill some sort of gap in the campus theater community. Previous Special Projects have included Little Shop of Horrors, Our Country's Good, and an original musical entitled One Bad Apple which went on to its professional debut in Washington, DC in September, 1994. More recently, we produced Rumors and an original opera entitled Pinkertons.

In the past, we also helped encourage Stanford's tradition of dorm theatre by providing informational flyers, resource packets available on request, and holding our famous Dorm Theatre Awards in the spring. Unfortunately, in recent years there has been a decline in interest in dorm theater.

We have a yearly Membership Meeting and Gala, which are pretty well advertised, and open Board meetings every week, which are not as well advertised, but still open to the public. These are all great ways to become involved in the governance of Ram's Head.

And then there's the stuff we do mostly just for fun, like beach retreats, ski trips, Vegas trips, theatre trips, movie nights, techie tea-times, "brenting", midnight chalkings, birthday parties, dinner parties, poster parties, cast parties, picture parties, karaoke parties, Hawaiian parties, a huge costume ball on the stage of Mem Aud, and much much MUCH more we can't even tell you about!... you'll just have to join us and see for yourself.