Fyse August 22nd, 2005
Just realised that in the absence of email posting to this blog, I might send a few photos to my TextAmerica site. Keep an eye on the thumbnail in the sidebar to check for updates, (but don’t hold your breath).
Fyse August 22nd, 2005
I’ve got 10 mins of internet time left, so I’ll have to make this quick. I’m still in Edinburgh, still performing every day at 17.30, and still to audiences on the small side of tiny. Actually I exaggerate slightly, since things could be very much worse (we haven’t been down into single figures since the first week). We’ve done seventeen performances now, and have eight left. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t royally fed up with the show, and that the songs aren’t now so heavily burned into my psyche that I may never recover. I’ve never done a run as long as this before, and I guess it gives a better idea of what it would be like to do this as a career. (Not that I’d ever seriously consider doing so. I’m far too realistic about my talent levels for that.)
It’s still great to be in Edinburgh though, and the festival is as gloriously frenetic and insane as ever. ‘The Royal Mile’ is the centre of festivities, and runs from some palace that I can’t remember the name of up to Edinburgh Castle in the middle of the old town. With so many shows battling fiercely for audiences the Royal Mile becomes a veritable freak show, with many a costumed thespian mugging unsuspecting tourists with assorted publicity materials. Street performers also abound, for example a man riding a unicycle on a tight-rope juggling flaming torches, or a Can-Can dancing string quartet known as ‘Graffiti Classics’. With nothing bettter to do, it would be more than possible to spend an entire day being entertained for free.
I however have plenty to do, most of all seeing the 30+ shows I’ve managed to get to so far. A recent highlight that I must mention is ‘School Ties’, which has to rank as one of my favourites thus far. An extremely witty and impeccably performed musical take on life in school. Unfortunately, none of you can go see it, but I can assure you it would be well worth it if you could. But since you can’t, that isn’t much use. I’m rambling…
I can’t type any more now, and may not be able to for a while. My posting via email appears to have broken, most likely due to the software upgrade my server recently underwent, and I can’t access the things I need to try and fix it. At least the main site is still functioning, but it may mean I only post a few more times between now and the middle of September. I’m off to Cornwall a week on Tuesday though. Hooray! On a 06.50 train, taking 11 hours to get to Penzance. Boo!
Fyse August 13th, 2005
Unfortunately something went rather wrong with my posting via email, so this never appeared on the site. I’m in an internet cafe, so will post it properly, but the information is rather old now. (The date and time of posting are correct, however.)
‘The Night of a Thousand Jay Ashtons’. That’s the name of a show I saw the other night, and it has to go down as one of the more bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Described as a drag-queen lip-sync musical, it did exactly what it said on the tin. It was basically the same joke for the whole hour, but it was very funny in parts. Funny and not a little disturbing.
Since I last wrote our audiences picked up quite well, peaking briefly at over thirty, but have dropped away again now. Yesterday we had six, and they were the most comatose audience ever. They didn’t even clap after songs, let alone laugh at anything at all. It was grim.
The big news to impart is that my plans for house sharing next year have fallen through, leaving me stuck on a college corridor again. I’d heard nothing from my rather useless friend in ages, until she texted one morning to say that her friend had found a three bedroom place that was too good to turn down. I’m pretty bloody disappointed really, but I guess there’s nothing to be done now. At least it’ll be cheaper living on main site.
Life in Edinburgh has settled into a routine now, involving seeing about three shows a day as well as performing our own. I really must break this comfortable cycle though, going out to find gainful employment of some sort. I have no idea what form this could take, but finances dictate I attempt to find something. A project for later today, I think.
PS Thanks for the comments on previous posts. I can’t reply to them individually, but they are as appreciated as ever.
Fyse August 7th, 2005
Again there has been too long a gap between updates, and way too much to catch up on now. We’re three performances into the run, and in general things have been going well, but with minimal audiences. We got a true taste of the Fringe on our first night, performing to a house of only four. This was by no means unusual, and a friend of mind opened to only one. The festival hadn’t properly started then, however, and things have been at least heading in the right direction, hitting a peak of twelve last night. We got a 4 star review in one of today’s papers though, so hopefully that’ll help things along.
We are performing at one of the C Venues, a chain with around a dozen stages at four different locations around central Edinburgh, and as such get a pass for free entry to any of their shows. This gives us a quite bewildering variety of shows to choose from at any given time of the day, and almost an obligation to rush around seeing as much as possible. Highlights so far include ‘Shakespeare for Breakfast’ and ‘The Threepenny Opera’ (that one by another Cambridge company). This afternoon I’m off to see an Oxford University ‘a cappella’ group (not really sure of the spelling there), then probably something else after our performance this evening. I must remember to sleep at some point too…
Fyse August 3rd, 2005
My plan for frequent, shorter updates has already fallen by the wayside, leaving me with so much I should have said but now can’t quite find the time for. The last couple of weeks have been insanely hectic, with up to 10 hours of rehearsal a day, and there’s been precious little time to stop and take stock of things. We’re now up in Edinburgh, having arrived late on Monday night, and we’re now 30 minutes from the dress rehearsal.
Things have been going ok, but we’re all exhausted and looking forward to getting some sort of audience. Monday involved 8 hours behind the wheel for me and the other drivers, and we were in the theatre till 2.30 last night for the technical rehearsal. I don’t have time to write any more at the moment, but I will try to post again soon. So busy at the moment, but hopefully things will settle down once the run is under way…