The RAFTA Yearbook

The position of Yearbook Editor is currently vacant and RAFTA is not currently producing a yearbook.

The RAFTA Yeabook - A Brief History

As part of the 25th Anniversary 1999 Yearbook there was an investigation into the background to the Yearbook itself from Newsletter in 1974 to the RAFTA Billboard of the 1980s. This is an excerpt from that article ...

The first Yearbook appeared in 1990 and covered the project, ‘On the Razzle’. Was that a project or a motto – I wonder what’s Latin for ‘On the Razzle’ ? I have not been able to find a copy of the 1991 and 1992 Yearbooks – they are probably just late in being sent out I suppose! The 1993 sees James Langridge in charge as Editor, under Jim Brown as Chairman, and this and the 1994 20th Anniversary publications are both excellent Yearbooks.

So I found myself co-opted as Assistant Yearbook Editor. The 1998 Yearbook took very much the World War One theme, relating it to the 1999 project of ‘Oh What A Lovely War’. The colour was limited again by how much you can get for free – even though ‘free’ meant a bill for £127.12 !! I still think the Treasurer is unsure about that one…The future, well you are reading it……….. Yearbook 1999, professionally produced at RAFTA’s cost, semi-colour (hopefully total eventually). Advertising to cover our costs and to provide a service to the membership, all-in-all we need a publication and product worth reading and worth using….the future, well it is up to us is it not

The 1993 covers what Theatre 101 were up to at Coltishall. It is by Martin Truss and details their hopes for the future – well they are certainly part of the RAFTA furniture now. The Twentieth Anniversary was done justice by the 1994 Yearbook and brought real colour to the Yearbook with it’s bright cover. The 1995 and 1996 Yearbooks saw the return to black and white covers, the restraints of a limited RAFTA Yearbook budget – zero !! The activities of the Mount Pleasant Amateur Dramatic Society (MAD) are documented in the 1995 publication the year they were awarded the Endeavour Award. The 1997 Yearbook meant a late-Christmas phone-call, from the Vice-Chairman Adrian Parrish, to ask me to ‘help edit’ the Yearbook. One thing led to another, not to mention no-one wanted to print it for us – so we have a one-time A4 photo-copied yearbook. Still the biggest Yearbook to date and with colour too !!