20/08
Work, inspite of feeling really rather ill, went ok and I have finally taken over my role as stationary-tyrant-in-chief. Not sure whether I can be bothered going out tonight, but I reckon if I get a couple of hours sleep this pm then I should be ok. Hmmm, sleep is good. Oh, damn, forgot about the form-filling and uni reading I need to do too :( Probably should do them first.
Later:
Well, we didn't even get nominated for any of the catagories of the MTM:UK awards! I'm utterly speechless and depressed - I just can't believe that a production which I believe to be as good as it can be was passed over in favour of other, rather rubbish productions (not just being rude - it've seen a couple of them) which are not even really 'musicals' per se. I just do not understand what happened. I really feel like crying because the review was good with staging being the only criticism - I just didn't think that it was serious enough for them not even to nominate it. The real bugger is that judges may nominate shows which are only showing in the third week and they haven't even seen! Seriously! I can't help but feel that someone has put a curse on the show. We also recieved our invite for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards: Thom Dibdin (of the 2* fame) gave two other local groups 4* (Tempo, who probably deserve it, and a primary school group, who he wouldn't dare insult for fear of alienating potential readership), so I really don't hold out much faith for getting anything when you combine it with the 3* review from Forth FM (who gave Almost Haunted 4* when everyone else slated it) - and one of the 5 judges had to drop out, so it would take two 5* reviews from the other two judges to even get us considered. My money is on the primary school production to sweep the board - damn 'cute' factor. Now I remember why I hate the Fringe.
21/08
Another day at work - ho hum. Didn't do anything terribly interesting before the show. The show itself went ok, inspite of some rather serious on-stage f**k-ups (the audience didn't notice though, so that's ok) - the audience were pretty posative and seemed to enjoy the production. Celia, Heather and her Chris, and Simon were all in the audience, which was nice (caught Simon checking out the lighting a few times during the show - tut tut ;D). Went out to Bedlam for a while after, but didn't really feel like it so went home not long after Chris.
22/08
It's about 20 days til term starts, so am really starting to feel excited about starting uni again :) Went to WHSmith and picked up stationary stuff for the start of term (it's rather sad how excited I get about choosing new notebooks - it's a problem!) But before that can happen, I must really fill-in the forms for the registry and send them off, plus do a number of other things before tomorrow. This afternoon my Mum and one of her friends are up to see some shows so will be coming along to Guilds later (poor Mum - I called her this morning and she was having a little fit: the dish-washer has died...rather messily...), as will a few people for the firm I work for :S Really cannot afford to mess up like we did last night!
23/08
Just back from work - nothing interesting to report apart from that I got to see the picture that Andrew bought for his wife's birthday: it was a beautiful Scottish sunset over Mull, and it managed to captured the peculier opalesance of the light there - very well executed indeed. Oh, and that I have a long weekend because there's a bank holiday on Monday :) So that means I can stay late at the cast party! Huzzah!
Last night's performance went very well - great audience and good energy from the cast. Went out to Bedlam (suprising, huh?) for a few drinks afterwards. Spent the evening chatting to a few people: was nice seeing Simon again, and of course, Lil' Stu.
It's a beautiful day so I think I'll go and read in the garden for a little while and wait for my costume to dry!
24/08
Today has been rather random in a number of ways - not obvious ways, just little odd things. Had a sleep-in til 11am (huzzah!), popped down to Sainsburys to get a shop, made soup and flapjack then went to get changed before the show. This may not seem terribly odd in itself, but I just cannot remember what I did with the rest of the time between afore mentioned activities! I have a feeling it may just be that my brain now runs an 'efficiency filter': it filters out the stuff I have no need of remebering and leaves me with the 'key points', as it were, to allow me to just get to the point (I'm not entirely certain the filter works correctly because getting to the point is still a bit of a challenge!). The show itself went quite well: we were recording it this evening, and there were no major cock-ups, which is good. The audience, alothough fairly large, were rather more mute than might have been desired, but in some respects this was a good thing because the amount of laughter we' ve had most evenings would mess with the recording. Afterwards, just to be original, we went out to Bedlam for drinks: pleasant evening with random chat - I popped of home around 1ish.
Bedlam last-night party on Saturday! Woot!
25/08
Not much happened during the day, but Chris and I went to see The Naked Voices - they were fantastic as ever :) Popped along to Bedlam briefly and ran into my Geography teacher from Highschool. Didn't do much else until the show - we had a great audience and they went completely nuts! Whooping and cheering - the works! It was a nice show - only one more to go :( Met up with Maya and Doug afterwards and we went to see the Imps then onto the Bedlam post-fringe party. It was ok, but for various reasons it wasn't as good as previous parties :( Oh well.
26/08
The last day of the Fringe for us :( Boo hoo! But fortunately we went out on a high: the audience were great! Whooping and cheering and all that jazz - we hadn't expected a good turn out or a particularaly responsive group, but we were in for a suprise and a lovely one at that :) Post-show we got all the set out and off to its appropriate destination before heading to Jenny's place for the party. The party was much more fun than I had expected given the previous evening: there a music, drinks and general merriment. I got the "I have a talent for public relations" Jelly Baby Award, as well as a cast photo and a jesters hat as my honoraria. Chris, Maya and I hung around til 4ish before heading home.
27/08 - Fringe Overview
All in all, it has been a very mixed Fringe: I've seen some very good shows, some not so good shows, had some late nights and some fun, but for the most part it has been a little flatter than the past three years. I'm glad I did the show because it was a fantastic show to go out on, and I learned a lot, but it is most certainly my last show on-stage. I am looking forward to a return to normality then the start of university.
Monday, 20 August 2007
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Part the Second
13/08
A day off :) Well, not off really as I did have work this morning, but I then met Maya, Heather and Chris at the FunFair for an afternoon of Bumpercars and candyfloss. It was good fun (and more expensive to go on rides than I remember - £2?! Am I just old because I remeber rides at 50p) and a bit of sun didn't go-amiss. We then headed up to Teviot (Guilded Balloon to non-Edinbuggers) so Gareth and Hazel could pick up tickets for that evening. The rest of us chilled out with a drink in the 'beer garden' overlooking the building site: there was a large explosion on-site which we reckon must have been a water pump giving up - there was no smoke but lots of 'rain'! We all headed up to Buffet King for a meal: Heather and I were being good and sticking to small portions of bad stuff with lots of veg. G and H went off to see the show, Chris went off to prepare for a job interview, Maya and Heather and I went back to my Chris' to watch DVDs for the evening. Yet again I didn't get to bed before 1am.
14/08
Work again - joy. Got back. Still tired - NOT GOING OUT TONIGHT! Will have proper meal for the first time in a week and sit back without anyone around :) I get to relax and not worry about anything re anyone else (ie Maya and Jay/Helen and Kim etc - It's not that I mind really, it's just added to the general stress level lately). But the bummer of the day was hearing that the Edinburgh Evening News gave us two stars for the show.
15/08
A day off :) Went to Scottish Slimmers meeting - lost another 0.5lb: not great, but still a loss. Met Heather and we popped down to the Lothian Busses office to pick up my bus card (since I'll be travelling back and forth to Stockbridge I reckon it'll be better value to get a bus card), then went to the bank to tell them that I'm still a student, so bloody well give me back my student account thank you very much! Had lunch at Black Medicine with Nick and Heather before heading back to the flat to meet Maya. Heather was telling me about her rather scarey ghostely experiances - she's not the sort of person to make stuff up, so I'm willing to believe what she says: I've always been rather cynical about peoples paranormal experiances, but with what she said combined with various other stories maybe there's something more to it. I'm almost jealous that I've never had any of these sorts of experiances.
Maya and I have been de-junking our flats so were taking everything to a charity shop (in my case because I'm sure my new flatmates will not want their new rooms filled with junk), took the recycling down to the centre at Sainsburys and got a shop. We pigged out on Pizza and Icecream and watched Shaun of the Dead: hope it's making her feel better. It's so irritating that Jay's behaving like an utter knob - I've never seen her so upset.
16/08
Last round of work today for the week - never have I felt so incompetant! It was just one of those days where everything seems to go wrong - stupid little things. But it was over soon enough and I spent the afternoon watching shows at Augustines. First went to see Meleoncolia down in the Studio: it was a fantasic anti-war play performed by a group of young American actors. The premis of the story is a young solider reviews his life up until the point where he has to make the decision: do I step off this chair and hang myself or do I carry on? It's a mixture of music, acting, physical theatre and dance. The image which really caught my imagination what that of skeletons in wedding dresses, ready to recieve the main character, Mario, as their grooms (there's an odd multiplicity of characters which I can't really explain easily - you'd have to see it). It really was a fantasic show, but the time of day meant that there was a very small audience unfortunately: however the cast gave a stunning performance which would have been as good in front of one person as in front of a full house - there was real comitment to the show from everyone. The second show I saw was Choking Point: the premis is a young, African American journalist seeks to make his career with a story on a 17 year old snipper, but arrogance and carelessness are his downfall, and has unforseen consequeses for those around him. It was an interesting, well acted show, but could have been a lot shorter - it was unfortunate that it ran over: I was 20 mins late for dinner with Chris and his parents. We went out to Inca for dinner then on to see The McCalmans at the St Bride Centre - they were very good, but it just wasn't quite as good as last year, but never mind. They preformed The Brooms of the Cowden Knows - which makes me cry every time: a lot of their songs are about how it feels to be far from Scotland - songs about homesickness and longing for soaring mountains and the rugged coastlines - how I will probably feel when I leave.
17/08
Although today was supposed to be my show-seeing day, it has in that department been rather disappointing for various reasons. I was meant to meet Helen at 12.00 at the venue, but for one reason or another she was being rubbish, so I helped Maya take some more junk up to the charity shop. We then went out to lunch at Double Dutch: poor Jamie has lost his voice :( We then went up to Augustines and saw An Insult to Beckett and Fo: I spent the next 45 mins both confused and disappointed by the production. I'm certain that if I understood the essential message of the production (which was a double-bill of Waiting for Godo and Accidental Death of an Anarchist) then it would probably have been quite good, but because I didn't I felt rather cheated by the whole thing (inspite of not paying).
18/08
Had a lazy morning - nothing to report except a bit of cleaning in preparation for arrival of the parental units. Met up with Chris and went to see "Comedy and Cake" - does exactly what it say on the tin, with the addition of tea. Was amusing for an hour, but not fantastic - can't really complain because of the whole free-ticket thing. We popped down to Bedlam briefly between shows to say hi to the staff and pick up something to drink before racing back to Augustines to see "Melancholia" again: I'm determined that the whole cast should see this show - it's brilliant but they need a large supportive audience as much as anyone else. Chris' responce was that "It was interesting" - which translates roughly as "Hmm, didn't really get it but I know it'll piss you off if I don't give somesort of reaction, so this'll do": because I know this is what he means by "interesting" it still annoys me. Is it too much to want to have a debate and discuss the relative merits and flaws of a production afterwards without the sole response being "meh *shrug*"? We were going to head on and see "Songs for a New World" but I had to head home to let the parents into the flat. That done I went up to James' Singstar party: it was fun but there were far too many renditions of "Torn" for my liking. Spent the evening chatting to randoms and finding out that we had friends in common etc, was entertaining swapping stories ;) Got home at 3am utterly shattered and trying not to wake the parents! Oh to be a teenager again! :)
19/08
Blah. Sleepy. Rehearsal. Sleepy. Food shop. Sleepy. Drinking. Sleepy. Home - still sleepy. Don't want to work tomorrow :( Have a feeling I'm just not going to be able to cope with the hours of the job plus uni hours. Am slightly tipsy, so should go to bed before I say silly things. End of week 2.
A day off :) Well, not off really as I did have work this morning, but I then met Maya, Heather and Chris at the FunFair for an afternoon of Bumpercars and candyfloss. It was good fun (and more expensive to go on rides than I remember - £2?! Am I just old because I remeber rides at 50p) and a bit of sun didn't go-amiss. We then headed up to Teviot (Guilded Balloon to non-Edinbuggers) so Gareth and Hazel could pick up tickets for that evening. The rest of us chilled out with a drink in the 'beer garden' overlooking the building site: there was a large explosion on-site which we reckon must have been a water pump giving up - there was no smoke but lots of 'rain'! We all headed up to Buffet King for a meal: Heather and I were being good and sticking to small portions of bad stuff with lots of veg. G and H went off to see the show, Chris went off to prepare for a job interview, Maya and Heather and I went back to my Chris' to watch DVDs for the evening. Yet again I didn't get to bed before 1am.
14/08
Work again - joy. Got back. Still tired - NOT GOING OUT TONIGHT! Will have proper meal for the first time in a week and sit back without anyone around :) I get to relax and not worry about anything re anyone else (ie Maya and Jay/Helen and Kim etc - It's not that I mind really, it's just added to the general stress level lately). But the bummer of the day was hearing that the Edinburgh Evening News gave us two stars for the show.
15/08
A day off :) Went to Scottish Slimmers meeting - lost another 0.5lb: not great, but still a loss. Met Heather and we popped down to the Lothian Busses office to pick up my bus card (since I'll be travelling back and forth to Stockbridge I reckon it'll be better value to get a bus card), then went to the bank to tell them that I'm still a student, so bloody well give me back my student account thank you very much! Had lunch at Black Medicine with Nick and Heather before heading back to the flat to meet Maya. Heather was telling me about her rather scarey ghostely experiances - she's not the sort of person to make stuff up, so I'm willing to believe what she says: I've always been rather cynical about peoples paranormal experiances, but with what she said combined with various other stories maybe there's something more to it. I'm almost jealous that I've never had any of these sorts of experiances.
Maya and I have been de-junking our flats so were taking everything to a charity shop (in my case because I'm sure my new flatmates will not want their new rooms filled with junk), took the recycling down to the centre at Sainsburys and got a shop. We pigged out on Pizza and Icecream and watched Shaun of the Dead: hope it's making her feel better. It's so irritating that Jay's behaving like an utter knob - I've never seen her so upset.
16/08
Last round of work today for the week - never have I felt so incompetant! It was just one of those days where everything seems to go wrong - stupid little things. But it was over soon enough and I spent the afternoon watching shows at Augustines. First went to see Meleoncolia down in the Studio: it was a fantasic anti-war play performed by a group of young American actors. The premis of the story is a young solider reviews his life up until the point where he has to make the decision: do I step off this chair and hang myself or do I carry on? It's a mixture of music, acting, physical theatre and dance. The image which really caught my imagination what that of skeletons in wedding dresses, ready to recieve the main character, Mario, as their grooms (there's an odd multiplicity of characters which I can't really explain easily - you'd have to see it). It really was a fantasic show, but the time of day meant that there was a very small audience unfortunately: however the cast gave a stunning performance which would have been as good in front of one person as in front of a full house - there was real comitment to the show from everyone. The second show I saw was Choking Point: the premis is a young, African American journalist seeks to make his career with a story on a 17 year old snipper, but arrogance and carelessness are his downfall, and has unforseen consequeses for those around him. It was an interesting, well acted show, but could have been a lot shorter - it was unfortunate that it ran over: I was 20 mins late for dinner with Chris and his parents. We went out to Inca for dinner then on to see The McCalmans at the St Bride Centre - they were very good, but it just wasn't quite as good as last year, but never mind. They preformed The Brooms of the Cowden Knows - which makes me cry every time: a lot of their songs are about how it feels to be far from Scotland - songs about homesickness and longing for soaring mountains and the rugged coastlines - how I will probably feel when I leave.
17/08
Although today was supposed to be my show-seeing day, it has in that department been rather disappointing for various reasons. I was meant to meet Helen at 12.00 at the venue, but for one reason or another she was being rubbish, so I helped Maya take some more junk up to the charity shop. We then went out to lunch at Double Dutch: poor Jamie has lost his voice :( We then went up to Augustines and saw An Insult to Beckett and Fo: I spent the next 45 mins both confused and disappointed by the production. I'm certain that if I understood the essential message of the production (which was a double-bill of Waiting for Godo and Accidental Death of an Anarchist) then it would probably have been quite good, but because I didn't I felt rather cheated by the whole thing (inspite of not paying).
18/08
Had a lazy morning - nothing to report except a bit of cleaning in preparation for arrival of the parental units. Met up with Chris and went to see "Comedy and Cake" - does exactly what it say on the tin, with the addition of tea. Was amusing for an hour, but not fantastic - can't really complain because of the whole free-ticket thing. We popped down to Bedlam briefly between shows to say hi to the staff and pick up something to drink before racing back to Augustines to see "Melancholia" again: I'm determined that the whole cast should see this show - it's brilliant but they need a large supportive audience as much as anyone else. Chris' responce was that "It was interesting" - which translates roughly as "Hmm, didn't really get it but I know it'll piss you off if I don't give somesort of reaction, so this'll do": because I know this is what he means by "interesting" it still annoys me. Is it too much to want to have a debate and discuss the relative merits and flaws of a production afterwards without the sole response being "meh *shrug*"? We were going to head on and see "Songs for a New World" but I had to head home to let the parents into the flat. That done I went up to James' Singstar party: it was fun but there were far too many renditions of "Torn" for my liking. Spent the evening chatting to randoms and finding out that we had friends in common etc, was entertaining swapping stories ;) Got home at 3am utterly shattered and trying not to wake the parents! Oh to be a teenager again! :)
19/08
Blah. Sleepy. Rehearsal. Sleepy. Food shop. Sleepy. Drinking. Sleepy. Home - still sleepy. Don't want to work tomorrow :( Have a feeling I'm just not going to be able to cope with the hours of the job plus uni hours. Am slightly tipsy, so should go to bed before I say silly things. End of week 2.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Edinburgh Festival Fringe: The Saga Begins
03/08
Today the first of the shows opened for previews - the Fringe is nigh! Having been out for drinks for Doug's 22nd birthday the previous evening I was feeling a little tired to begin with, but met up with Maya for an early lunch at Double Dutch - had a very nice chat about her adventures in France over the past 6 weeks :) We then headed over to the Green Room: I had been asked over for an interview for a flyering job (thought it would be a good idea to help bolster the old bank account). We got there upon which I was told that the girl who was supposed to interview me had gone home to sleep, having been working for about 48hrs straight: on the one hand I was sympathetic because I know what hard work it is prior to opening a venue, but on the other hand I was annoyed because if you make an appointment you keep it or at least call to cancel. So having waited for 30 mins to talk to someone called Steven (who promptly also failed to materialise) we had had enough, so bought tickets to Dr Sketchy's Burlesque Art Salon (we weren't about to waste a chance to get preview tickets): the general concept was that you were given art materials, a bit of burlesque-style entertainment and the chance to sketch a model for an hour or so. Our hostess for the afternoon was the lovely Ophelia Bitz, along with our model Kitty Wildcard (who I had seen previously in Glasgow at one of Kirsty's evenings). It was a fun hour, and there were some very talented artists there - fortunately the emphasis was not upon good art work! I freely admit that my art skills are rusty, but I was never good at drawing people so most of my sketches were rather abstract! But I would recomend it for those both capable and incapable of drawing. We then headed off up The Royal Mile to take a look at some of the street performances, then wandered back down: I booked tickets for The McCalmens and Naked Voices (an a cappella group we saw last year - very good). We went into Shue because there was a sale on - there were some lovely shoes (Rocket Dogs) that I took a fancy to, but I decided against them for the moment). Maya had to disappear off home because she was going to see Jay that evening: I spent the evening cleaning the flat before going out to Revolution for a little while to celebrate Josh's birthday.
04/08
Didn't do very much today really. Got up lateish and popped into town to get some white fabric for a headscarf as part of my costume: also got some black muslin to do a wall hanging with that i've been planning for a while, but I did think the £5 was a bit much for the two considering that they were reminants. Got back to the flat and spent a while doing some sewing. Went up to the Venue for the tech run for 5pm to get into costume to be ready for 5.30. I hadn't realised it, but the ex-changing-rooms had undergone a major re-fit and were now more toilets and a kitchen - and not a mirror in the place! Ended up doing my make-up using the reflection from a hand-drier nozzle. I was ready to go for 5.30: got my pass and lanyard, then spent the next hour sitting waiting for orders from the techies. The whole thing went fairly well, and we got everything we needed to done with some time to spare. Saw Helen briefly, but she had just got off the train from London and gone straight to the venue, so was clearly shattered anyway, so didn't appear at the pub after. A few of us popped over to Bedlam for drinks after the tech run: it was a nice, relaxed evening - busy, but not heaving.
05/08
So far: Went out for brunch with Kirsty, Steven, Chris, Dave, Claire, Nick, James and (a guy who's name I can't remember - oops) at Double Dutch (again!) - had lots of coffee and some lemon drizzle cake - yummo! Was a nice relaxed morning with a minimum of tech/show talk. Kirsty and Steven went on to Dr Sketchys Burlesque Art Salon, and the others went on to watch the F1 - dull. Chris and I went to Lidl for food before Chris went to Jitsu at Meadow Bank. I half considered going up to see the cavalcade, but decided that it was drizzling too hard for my liking and that I'd better get stuff ironed before I start work tomorrow! Since then I've just been booking in reviewers for "Guilds" :) We have judges for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards coming on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of week 1, and a judge for the MTM: UK Awards at somepoint (I didn't have to book tickets for them, so I don't know the date). Later I will have a production meeting (last one before the show opens) so will be reporting on press-related progress, but I guess there's only a limited amount I can say really. Following the meeting it's THE DRESS REHEARSAL: I'm slightly nervous because we are not in the venue for it, so do not have the set or lighting to work with until the opening night! But hopefully it will go well: the cast really need to concentrate and remain focused from now on - and the energy needs to be there all the time from now onward. Certain cast members are bugging me increasingly: there's lots of unnecessary whinging going on, a lack of concentration, an unwillingness to do a fair share of the work (a blonde female chorus member seems to think that she is above carrying set up to the store -she'll learn). Anyway, I'll stop bitching now. After the dress run I'll be heading down to C venue to see The Pornographer Diaries: it's not that I particularly want to see it, but there's a flyering job up for grabs with them and they want me to see the show before I take the job, which is fair enough - it's just a bit annoying that it doesn't start til 10.45 and I start work early tomorrow, but never mind - I can probably make about £70 for 12 hours flyering over 6 days. It's not much, but anything that keeps my Fringe spending to a minimum is good, even if it's just a bit of cash for drinks later on. Right, need to make some food to take to rehearsal and do some washing before I head to production meeting. Will report back later.
later:
I got the flyering job without any problem... actually, without any interview: I turned up, was told what was expected of me, and given a comp to see the show then told to turn up tomorrow at 3pm to report for duty. As I mentioned earlier, the show is called The Pornographer Diaries: I wasn't sure what to expect going in to see this production - it could go one of two ways; filthy and abhorant, or a piss-take. Fortunately for my sensibilities it was the later! The show charts the achievement of one man's ultimate fantasy: to work for a porn mag (a la Nuts or FHM). The show myth-busts some of the hype surrounding 'the ultimate job' in comic style which will appeal to 'blokes' and feminists alike. Of course it's a bit smutty, but it never gets truely seedy or disgusting (still WOULD NOT recomend taking Granny to see it). So, it will be my job to sell this production to your adverage Fringe-goer: this could be funny, or I'll get attacked by scarey feminists and Christians before I have a chance to explain that as a pro-feminist Christian woman I didn't find it too bad. So I start that job at 3pm (at which time I am supposed to be meeting the head of publicity for the National Trust for Scotland to arange a publicity stunt for "Guilds" - I think I'll have to leave this to Simon, but I have no problem with this if he doesn't). And the 'actual' job starts at 9.30 tomorrow morning! So that's two jobs, a "Guilds" flyering session and the opening night of the show to do tomorrow - it'll keep me busy anyway. On a Savoy-show note: the dress-run went ok but there's still a lack of focus from the cast.
06/08
This is being done swiftly as I eat dinner before heading up to Dave's to change for the show. First shift at work was fairly straight-forward: got there early so went for wander along Stockbridge high street. The morning passed fairly smoothly with only one minor hiccup involving a misunderstanding with a cast member over press stuff, but it was sorted out quickly. I spent my time working out the phone system and the programs to use, and doing some audio-typing. A good start I think. Then at 2pm I headed back to Southbridge to pick up the flyers and t-shirt for The Pornographers Diary: it wasn't too hard to sell in the end. Did that for a couple of hours before rushing back here for a quick meal and wash. I'm looking forward to tonight - the opening night is always good, and Nottingham Uni G and S soc are coming and they are barmey! They will laugh at everything, which makes the rest of the audience more responsive than they might otherwise be. But it's another early start tomorrow, so drinking'll just have to wait. Shall report on success/otherwise of the opening night tomorrow :)
07/08
Last night: We sold out!!!!!! First night and everything :D Very, very happy! The audience was fantastic and there were no major on-stage cock-ups, and we got so many laughs! I love the Fringe! And we had at least two posative audience-reviews on the edfringe website. Popped over to bedlam briefly afterwards to see Helen.
Started work at 8.45am today - was utterly shattered from the word go, so will be having a nap before going to get changed! But can go out tonight as I don't have work tomorrow :)
later:
It's very odd that for a show which sells out one night and has people crying with laughter can have such a differant reaction with a differant audience: it's not that tonight's audiance didn't enjoy it, becuse I could see them smiling, but there were very few laughs, even at the most obvious of jokes. The show is genuinely funny - it's witty and sharp - but tonight's lot didn't give us much to work with: we had to give 110% energy to get anything back. Audiences can be either mirrors or black holes: they will either reflect the energy you put into a performance accordingly, or they will suck everything in and you won't get anything back out no matter how hard you try. I think it has disappointed everyone, and that can be a recipe for disillusionment, and a poor show consequently. I really hope that the reviewer picked up one how much we were giving it - if only he had come last night!
08/08
Tonight was much better - although it was still quite a small audience they were far more responsive than the other night, which was great because we had a reviewer for Forth FM in. The review will be out tomorrow. The rest of the day was pretty quiet as I wasn't at work: went to Scottish Slimmers meeting and had lost 3.5lb this week :) Then met up with Maya and went to see Transformers: I wasn't expecting much from the film, but how wrong I was! It was brilliant: great plot, great CG and great soundtrack - I will be going back next week for certain!
09/08
Another good day :) Work from 9 - 2pm, then out flyering for an hour, then met Dad for a quick coffee. Dad was telling me about his and Mum's trip around France - it sounds to have been great, I'm very jealous and am considering going on holiday to France in October. The flyering was very effective and I think that it's probably why we had another large audience this evening. No major mess-ups on stage, except for a couple of missed lines, but it wasn't one that was terribly obvious fortunately as we had 3 reviewers in tonight. Audience reviews are looking good too (http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4687).
Went over to Bedlam after the show for a couple of drinks - it was a lovely evening spent with Chris, Bruce, Hogg and Richard, among others, and I got home around 2am. Huzzah for being able to sleep in in the morning!
10/08
Huzzah! Sell-out show :)
11/08
Huzzah sell-out show! And a bloody good review from Three Weeks:
Guilds
Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group
A
joy to watch; 'Guilds' is a wonderfully topical comic musical. The play
centres on an election campaign between two jesters both vying for the
title of village idiot. Cunningly it's contemporary politics that is
being poked fun at; negative campaigning, photo ops, sound bites and
voter apathy are all mocked, and brilliantly. On top of this, the play
is a showcase of talent, with technically difficult pieces sung to
perfection. Laughter also graces the stage - Ed Curry's performance is
one of particular comic brilliance. Not often do whole audiences
giggle throughout a musical, but the comedy, both slapstick and subtle,
that adorns this musical is extremely amusing. So we have wit and
intelligence, talent, and laughter: this show is hard to fault.
Augustine's, 6 - 12, 21 - 26 Aug, 9:15pm (10:15pm), £8.00 (£5.00), fpp 163.
tw rating 5/5
12/08
SSOOOOOOO TIRED! But now til a week on Tues is our week of rest - thank goodness! Spent the day relaxing and watching The Vicar of Dibley before heading up to Nick's to change. The streets were very quiet when we went to flyer the Royal Mile, but that's not terribly suprising given that it's a Sunday and lots of people are headed home already. But we had quite a good audience (maybe 80ish) inspite of the aparent calm, and among those people were 3 MTM:UK awards judges assessing the show - which was rather off-putting. But all went off without a hitch, and we transfered all the set down to the store on Candlemaker Row for the week. We then headed down to Bar Italia for the cast meal: the food was ok, but pricey for what it was (unsuprisingly). After that we headed to Bedlam for the PGP post-week-one party (briefly in my case because of work).
Today the first of the shows opened for previews - the Fringe is nigh! Having been out for drinks for Doug's 22nd birthday the previous evening I was feeling a little tired to begin with, but met up with Maya for an early lunch at Double Dutch - had a very nice chat about her adventures in France over the past 6 weeks :) We then headed over to the Green Room: I had been asked over for an interview for a flyering job (thought it would be a good idea to help bolster the old bank account). We got there upon which I was told that the girl who was supposed to interview me had gone home to sleep, having been working for about 48hrs straight: on the one hand I was sympathetic because I know what hard work it is prior to opening a venue, but on the other hand I was annoyed because if you make an appointment you keep it or at least call to cancel. So having waited for 30 mins to talk to someone called Steven (who promptly also failed to materialise) we had had enough, so bought tickets to Dr Sketchy's Burlesque Art Salon (we weren't about to waste a chance to get preview tickets): the general concept was that you were given art materials, a bit of burlesque-style entertainment and the chance to sketch a model for an hour or so. Our hostess for the afternoon was the lovely Ophelia Bitz, along with our model Kitty Wildcard (who I had seen previously in Glasgow at one of Kirsty's evenings). It was a fun hour, and there were some very talented artists there - fortunately the emphasis was not upon good art work! I freely admit that my art skills are rusty, but I was never good at drawing people so most of my sketches were rather abstract! But I would recomend it for those both capable and incapable of drawing. We then headed off up The Royal Mile to take a look at some of the street performances, then wandered back down: I booked tickets for The McCalmens and Naked Voices (an a cappella group we saw last year - very good). We went into Shue because there was a sale on - there were some lovely shoes (Rocket Dogs) that I took a fancy to, but I decided against them for the moment). Maya had to disappear off home because she was going to see Jay that evening: I spent the evening cleaning the flat before going out to Revolution for a little while to celebrate Josh's birthday.
04/08
Didn't do very much today really. Got up lateish and popped into town to get some white fabric for a headscarf as part of my costume: also got some black muslin to do a wall hanging with that i've been planning for a while, but I did think the £5 was a bit much for the two considering that they were reminants. Got back to the flat and spent a while doing some sewing. Went up to the Venue for the tech run for 5pm to get into costume to be ready for 5.30. I hadn't realised it, but the ex-changing-rooms had undergone a major re-fit and were now more toilets and a kitchen - and not a mirror in the place! Ended up doing my make-up using the reflection from a hand-drier nozzle. I was ready to go for 5.30: got my pass and lanyard, then spent the next hour sitting waiting for orders from the techies. The whole thing went fairly well, and we got everything we needed to done with some time to spare. Saw Helen briefly, but she had just got off the train from London and gone straight to the venue, so was clearly shattered anyway, so didn't appear at the pub after. A few of us popped over to Bedlam for drinks after the tech run: it was a nice, relaxed evening - busy, but not heaving.
05/08
So far: Went out for brunch with Kirsty, Steven, Chris, Dave, Claire, Nick, James and (a guy who's name I can't remember - oops) at Double Dutch (again!) - had lots of coffee and some lemon drizzle cake - yummo! Was a nice relaxed morning with a minimum of tech/show talk. Kirsty and Steven went on to Dr Sketchys Burlesque Art Salon, and the others went on to watch the F1 - dull. Chris and I went to Lidl for food before Chris went to Jitsu at Meadow Bank. I half considered going up to see the cavalcade, but decided that it was drizzling too hard for my liking and that I'd better get stuff ironed before I start work tomorrow! Since then I've just been booking in reviewers for "Guilds" :) We have judges for the Edinburgh Evening News Amature Drama Awards coming on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of week 1, and a judge for the MTM: UK Awards at somepoint (I didn't have to book tickets for them, so I don't know the date). Later I will have a production meeting (last one before the show opens) so will be reporting on press-related progress, but I guess there's only a limited amount I can say really. Following the meeting it's THE DRESS REHEARSAL: I'm slightly nervous because we are not in the venue for it, so do not have the set or lighting to work with until the opening night! But hopefully it will go well: the cast really need to concentrate and remain focused from now on - and the energy needs to be there all the time from now onward. Certain cast members are bugging me increasingly: there's lots of unnecessary whinging going on, a lack of concentration, an unwillingness to do a fair share of the work (a blonde female chorus member seems to think that she is above carrying set up to the store -she'll learn). Anyway, I'll stop bitching now. After the dress run I'll be heading down to C venue to see The Pornographer Diaries: it's not that I particularly want to see it, but there's a flyering job up for grabs with them and they want me to see the show before I take the job, which is fair enough - it's just a bit annoying that it doesn't start til 10.45 and I start work early tomorrow, but never mind - I can probably make about £70 for 12 hours flyering over 6 days. It's not much, but anything that keeps my Fringe spending to a minimum is good, even if it's just a bit of cash for drinks later on. Right, need to make some food to take to rehearsal and do some washing before I head to production meeting. Will report back later.
later:
I got the flyering job without any problem... actually, without any interview: I turned up, was told what was expected of me, and given a comp to see the show then told to turn up tomorrow at 3pm to report for duty. As I mentioned earlier, the show is called The Pornographer Diaries: I wasn't sure what to expect going in to see this production - it could go one of two ways; filthy and abhorant, or a piss-take. Fortunately for my sensibilities it was the later! The show charts the achievement of one man's ultimate fantasy: to work for a porn mag (a la Nuts or FHM). The show myth-busts some of the hype surrounding 'the ultimate job' in comic style which will appeal to 'blokes' and feminists alike. Of course it's a bit smutty, but it never gets truely seedy or disgusting (still WOULD NOT recomend taking Granny to see it). So, it will be my job to sell this production to your adverage Fringe-goer: this could be funny, or I'll get attacked by scarey feminists and Christians before I have a chance to explain that as a pro-feminist Christian woman I didn't find it too bad. So I start that job at 3pm (at which time I am supposed to be meeting the head of publicity for the National Trust for Scotland to arange a publicity stunt for "Guilds" - I think I'll have to leave this to Simon, but I have no problem with this if he doesn't). And the 'actual' job starts at 9.30 tomorrow morning! So that's two jobs, a "Guilds" flyering session and the opening night of the show to do tomorrow - it'll keep me busy anyway. On a Savoy-show note: the dress-run went ok but there's still a lack of focus from the cast.
06/08
This is being done swiftly as I eat dinner before heading up to Dave's to change for the show. First shift at work was fairly straight-forward: got there early so went for wander along Stockbridge high street. The morning passed fairly smoothly with only one minor hiccup involving a misunderstanding with a cast member over press stuff, but it was sorted out quickly. I spent my time working out the phone system and the programs to use, and doing some audio-typing. A good start I think. Then at 2pm I headed back to Southbridge to pick up the flyers and t-shirt for The Pornographers Diary: it wasn't too hard to sell in the end. Did that for a couple of hours before rushing back here for a quick meal and wash. I'm looking forward to tonight - the opening night is always good, and Nottingham Uni G and S soc are coming and they are barmey! They will laugh at everything, which makes the rest of the audience more responsive than they might otherwise be. But it's another early start tomorrow, so drinking'll just have to wait. Shall report on success/otherwise of the opening night tomorrow :)
07/08
Last night: We sold out!!!!!! First night and everything :D Very, very happy! The audience was fantastic and there were no major on-stage cock-ups, and we got so many laughs! I love the Fringe! And we had at least two posative audience-reviews on the edfringe website. Popped over to bedlam briefly afterwards to see Helen.
Started work at 8.45am today - was utterly shattered from the word go, so will be having a nap before going to get changed! But can go out tonight as I don't have work tomorrow :)
later:
It's very odd that for a show which sells out one night and has people crying with laughter can have such a differant reaction with a differant audience: it's not that tonight's audiance didn't enjoy it, becuse I could see them smiling, but there were very few laughs, even at the most obvious of jokes. The show is genuinely funny - it's witty and sharp - but tonight's lot didn't give us much to work with: we had to give 110% energy to get anything back. Audiences can be either mirrors or black holes: they will either reflect the energy you put into a performance accordingly, or they will suck everything in and you won't get anything back out no matter how hard you try. I think it has disappointed everyone, and that can be a recipe for disillusionment, and a poor show consequently. I really hope that the reviewer picked up one how much we were giving it - if only he had come last night!
08/08
Tonight was much better - although it was still quite a small audience they were far more responsive than the other night, which was great because we had a reviewer for Forth FM in. The review will be out tomorrow. The rest of the day was pretty quiet as I wasn't at work: went to Scottish Slimmers meeting and had lost 3.5lb this week :) Then met up with Maya and went to see Transformers: I wasn't expecting much from the film, but how wrong I was! It was brilliant: great plot, great CG and great soundtrack - I will be going back next week for certain!
09/08
Another good day :) Work from 9 - 2pm, then out flyering for an hour, then met Dad for a quick coffee. Dad was telling me about his and Mum's trip around France - it sounds to have been great, I'm very jealous and am considering going on holiday to France in October. The flyering was very effective and I think that it's probably why we had another large audience this evening. No major mess-ups on stage, except for a couple of missed lines, but it wasn't one that was terribly obvious fortunately as we had 3 reviewers in tonight. Audience reviews are looking good too (http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4687).
Went over to Bedlam after the show for a couple of drinks - it was a lovely evening spent with Chris, Bruce, Hogg and Richard, among others, and I got home around 2am. Huzzah for being able to sleep in in the morning!
10/08
Huzzah! Sell-out show :)
11/08
Huzzah sell-out show! And a bloody good review from Three Weeks:
Guilds
Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group
A
joy to watch; 'Guilds' is a wonderfully topical comic musical. The play
centres on an election campaign between two jesters both vying for the
title of village idiot. Cunningly it's contemporary politics that is
being poked fun at; negative campaigning, photo ops, sound bites and
voter apathy are all mocked, and brilliantly. On top of this, the play
is a showcase of talent, with technically difficult pieces sung to
perfection. Laughter also graces the stage - Ed Curry's performance is
one of particular comic brilliance. Not often do whole audiences
giggle throughout a musical, but the comedy, both slapstick and subtle,
that adorns this musical is extremely amusing. So we have wit and
intelligence, talent, and laughter: this show is hard to fault.
Augustine's, 6 - 12, 21 - 26 Aug, 9:15pm (10:15pm), £8.00 (£5.00), fpp 163.
tw rating 5/5
12/08
SSOOOOOOO TIRED! But now til a week on Tues is our week of rest - thank goodness! Spent the day relaxing and watching The Vicar of Dibley before heading up to Nick's to change. The streets were very quiet when we went to flyer the Royal Mile, but that's not terribly suprising given that it's a Sunday and lots of people are headed home already. But we had quite a good audience (maybe 80ish) inspite of the aparent calm, and among those people were 3 MTM:UK awards judges assessing the show - which was rather off-putting. But all went off without a hitch, and we transfered all the set down to the store on Candlemaker Row for the week. We then headed down to Bar Italia for the cast meal: the food was ok, but pricey for what it was (unsuprisingly). After that we headed to Bedlam for the PGP post-week-one party (briefly in my case because of work).
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