Chances are, you’re familiar with Footlights Smokers. “An eclectic evening of sketches, songs, monologues and stand-up comedy,” or so they are billed. Eclectic in every particular, except from the performers that occupy the stage, that is.

You’d be forgiven for holding onto the belief that to take part in such events, it helps to be a part of a certain inner-circle. It is no secret that this inner-circle of ADC stage frequenters is comprised mainly of white, middle-class English students and that not being part of this group precludes such a close engagement with the theatre scene.

To this end, casting director, Ken Cheng and producer, Saskia Ross and both tell me that there have been whispers of staging a BME Smoker to improve inclusivity ever since the massive success of last term’s Lady Smoker. “There were a few calls for doing a BME smoker after they did the Lady Smoker last term and it was absolutely amazing. A few of the Footlights wanted to run with this and they got us involved as there are no BME people in the Footlights at the moment.”

Having been approached by Footlights member Mark Bittlestone, Ross and Cheng tell me that it seemed inevitable that they both should be involved with the project. “Mark applied for the BME Smoker to the ADC initially and is helping run it - he asked me as I’m involved in comedy and Saskia is involved a lot with theatre, so it felt like a natural choice to bring us in.”

“I think the quality has been really, really good and it just goes to show that anybody can do it, it’s just about confidence”

When I arrived at the ADC, out of breath and slightly sweaty having cycled there frantically (sorry, Ken) due to the never-ceasing essay crisis that I had been in the midst of, Cheng had greeted me cheerfully, telling me that he was glad to have seen some new faces at auditions. And the pair, along with producer Siyang Wei, have been tweaking the audition process to ensure that this would be the case.

Ross reminds me that while the audition process itself wasn’t all that dissimilar from usual, auditionees this time had the opportunity to apply by emailing in. Cheng admits that to him, this is something quite close to home. “And that was my idea, essentially because I think that it’s quite intimidating for people to come in and audition in front of a panel. The issue with BME inclusion starts here, in that I think the kind of people who do well in this scenario tend to be very confident and often come from very good backgrounds. It does relate to issues of race, and I think a lot of people don’t feel comfortable. Definitely myself - I never felt comfortable auditioning, coming in when I was 18 or 19.”

There is a definite consensus between the two that in order to improve representation, it is absolutely vital that people should feel confident in the audition room. After Cheng reveals the jitters that he had experienced while at university, Ross recounts the audition of a particularly talented individual, whose material had them in hysterics, but whose nerves were palpable.

“We want to give people who are nervous the opportunity to try rather than feeling already worse about it than they should. They already feel like they’re being excluded even though they aren’t specifically being told ‘you can’t do this’. If you go into an audition room and you’re the odd one out, that’s always nerve-wracking.”

And so the pair hope to break down this barrier, building a collective confidence that should result in a greater engagement. “Hopefully we can improve that for people, gaining their confidence in projects like this that are catered specifically to them, leading to the normalisation of BME people being involved theatre and the Footlights. I think then, that whole lack of confidence phenomenon will start to dissipate a bit.”

Despite the common belief that the Cambridge theatre scene is microcosmic, Ross suggests otherwise. “It’s another case where university doesn’t necessarily reflect the progress being made in the actual industry right now. Currently, there are a lot of BME comedians that are becoming very prominent and it’s really good, but just the same as with regular theatre, Cambridge is following very, very slowly. So it is definitely a case of trying to make people feel more comfortable.”

“We want to give people who are nervous the opportunity to try rather than feeling already worse about it than they should”

Although progress seems slow at the moment, Cheng and Ross seem very keen to rev things up a notch and the ADC seem to be embracing this with open arms, with Ross telling me that directors and producers have been in touch with her, relaying their concerns about representation and asking for advice. “I think it’s really good how well the people involved in the ADC theatre have really championed BME theatre. Ken also led a writing and comedy ideas workshop, which was really good.”

It is obvious that the two feel encouraged and energised as result of the whole process and the standard of performance. “I think the quality has been really, really good and it just goes to show that anybody can do it, it’s just about confidence. Almost everybody who auditioned today was hilarious, everybody had really good material, it’s just all about getting out there.”

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: we must keep creating BME space in student theatre

I catch Cheng looking at his phone and he tells me that he’s just had some more applications in. I take this as my cue to leave and cycle back sweatily into the sunset, with the promise in mind that the BME Smoker is set to be a truly eclectic and diverse evening of comedy.

The Footlights BME Smoker is on Tuesday 9th May, 11:00pm at the ADC Theatre