Novelist, historian and playwright,
Eric Linklater (director 1922–24) wrote and directed the first Student Show proper; 'Stella, the Bajanella'. His play 'To Meet the Macgregors' was performed as the Student Show in 1946. This was during his tenure as Rector of
Aberdeen University from 1945 to 1948. Douglas S. Raitt (known as "Rab The Rhymer") (director 1931, 1933–34, 1938–39) was a marine biologist who worked in the Marine Laboratory in the Aberdeen district of
Torry. He was also a popular radio performer, singing at the piano in broadcasts from the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Aberdeen Studios. He died age 41 as a result of an accident with a car on 4 October 1944. The shows from 1935 to 1939 were musical comedies, mostly written by students under Raitt's direction. of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Moultrie Kelsall, while head of the
British Broadcasting Corporation's
Aberdeen Radio Station,
2BD, produced 'Aurora Borealis' in 1932. Kelsall subsequently had a 30-year acting career in television and movies. Reginald Barrett-Ayres (1920–1981), a graduate of
Edinburgh University, was Director of Music at the Quaker
Ackworth School near
Pontefract,
Yorkshire from 1942 to 45; and at
Glasgow Academy from 1945 to 51. He joined
Aberdeen University's Department of Music and Drama, as a Lecturer in January 1951. He became acting Head of Department in 1956 and remained in post (latterly, as Reader and Head of Department) until his death in a road accident at age 61. He was an expert on the music of
Haydn, particularly the string quartets. His own compositions included three operas, concertos for violin and double bass, operettas, choral works, solos, duets, anthems and hymns. He was involved in many of the University's theatrical and musical productions, directing or co-directing an unsurpassed nine Student Shows between 1955 and 1965. With George Low he co-wrote the Show theme song "Spirit of Show". 'Laughing at Life', a show consisting of original music and arrangements, is listed as "c. 1961", but is likely to be the 1954 Student Show of the same title. "A. Hay Prestowe" (co-director 1944) was the
pseudonym of Andrew Shivas. While he was an undergraduate at Aberdeen he played in the university dance orchestra, was a tympanist for the university symphony orchestra, a pipe band big drummer, and student show
xylophonist. He was also an accomplished
conjurer, from which arose his pseudonym (a play on hey presto!), and co-founder, in 1925, of the Aberdeen Magical Society. A pathologist in later life in Edinburgh, Shivas died of a stroke in 1996. Roddy Begg, director of the 1974, 1979 and 1983 Student Shows, and of the 2000 and 2005 reunions, has a lifelong interest in the theatre, acting and directing for Aberdeen's Studio Theatre Group (which he co-founded in the 1960s) and other dramatic and musical groups. He was Director of the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and Honorary Vice President of Aberdeen Opera Company. A graduate of the
University of Aberdeen, he was a member of staff for over three decades, as Secretary to the Faculties of Medicine and Science, Registry Officer, Clerk to the Senate, and Secretary to the University. He retired as Secretary in 1999, taking up the post of Director of Alumni Relations. He retired from the University in February 2002. In November 2006 he was awarded the Degree of Doctor of
Honoris Causa by
Aberdeen University, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the Institution. Charles Barron (1936-2012) was Student Show director 1977–78 and reunion co-director 2005. He had a long and prolific tenure in the dramatic arts,
Doric dialect and history of the Scottish North-East. He graduated from
Aberdeen University with a First Class Honours Degree in English Language and Literature, taught in Aberdeen and
Inverurie, where began a 40-year association with
Haddo House, as
Shakespearean actor, Director of Operas, Arts Director and creator of the Youth Theatre. In 1970, he became Head of Speech and Drama at Aberdeen College of Education (later the Northern College of Education, which eventually became subsumed within Aberdeen University). He was the award-winning author of the Doric plays ‘Fooshion’ and ‘Amang the Craws’. Rhona Mitchell choreographed the 1978, 1979 and 1981 shows, and also directed in 1981. She has worked professionally on radio and stage and as a freelance voice coach, drama tutor and director for more than 25 years with
Scottish Television,
BBC Scotland and many theatres across Scotland. She founded the Mitchell School of Drama in
Inverurie in 1983. She co-directed the Abderite Theatre Company, in which capacity she directed 'Gobi's Eyes' in 2004, and 'Ouch' in 2005. She also produced the first Garioch Theatre Festival in April 2005. Ronnie Middleton, an Arts Graduate of
Aberdeen University, mathematics teacher at Powis Academy He was also closely involved in the Attic Theatre Company, in Powis Academy stage productions, Temporary Fault and Punchline, until his death from cancer in 2002. Ronnie is also remembered for his secret, but well-known, fortnightly role at
Pittodrie Stadium as
Angus the Bull,
Aberdeen Football Club's mascot. ==Other notable contributors==