August 24, 2015
Lessons Learned from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
I've done a fair amount of thinking about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. I've just clocked two and half weeks on repeat: sleep, eat, theatre, eat, theatre, theatre, eat, drink, sleep. Repeat. I've spent my time seeing some fifty shows, hosting discussions over tea and that professional thing called networking. Last week I was questioning why we even bother with taking work to the Fringe when it seems we care so ...
August 21, 2015
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015: Top Picks
I've spent the best part of 10 days at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe assessing for the Total Theatre Awards which means I've not been allowed to talk about any of the shows I've seen. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know how difficult that must have been for me not to blab about some of the promising (and awful) work I've seen. Now that the shortlist has been announced I'm free to reveal the shows that I've been wanting to ...
August 11, 2015
Why Take Theatre to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
It's a strange thing coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. You can spend from the moment you wake to the moment your head hits the pillow watching, talking and writing about theatre. I've been in Edinburgh for a week now and the question I keep asking is 'why?'. What drives the industry up to this city each year? What purpose does it serve? Why are theatre-makers putting on shows and sharing with audiences? Why, god ...
August 04, 2015
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Talk with me over Tea
In a recent article for The Stage on advice to performers and creatives I wrote that you should "Share your learning with others. Support your peers. Open your books and share data." I also suggested that "tea fuels theatre" (it really does), which is why I'm combining the two and offering some time for informal 'advice sessions' during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over a cup of tea. In the last six years of working in ...
My close friend Chris Withers is on the other side of the world working at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and sending me texts about how devastating and amazing Bryony Kimmings' new show, Fake It Til You Make It, is. Kimmings is trialling the new show which she has made with her partner Tim Grayburn about men and mental health. Withers, for all his love and devotion to theatre (he's a brilliant lighting designer) rarely ...
I've just finished reading Sarah Thornton's 33 Artists in 3 Acts, a look at contemporary art seen through interviews with thirty three different artists from across the world. Thornton - writing for The Economist as their chief contemporary art writer - has covered much of the contemporary art world several times over; from Mexico, to China and countless biennale's her airfares would be enough to make your head spin. In ...
