It feels like we’ve been planning this for ages. It has been 3 years since our last appearance at the fringe. We wanted to find the right venue and we wanted to be sure we had the right show. This year we were invited to be part of the Summerhall programme. Summerhall is a venue we fell in love with three years ago. We are doing fifteen shows in fifteen days. There’s nothing like a good run to embed you in a performance, help you to find new space and nuances that surprise or sometimes infuriate. The show is the most appealing part of all of this. Doing what you love the most … performing. The rest can be a bit of a slog. Box office guarantees, technical riders and expensive extra’s, marketing, social media, van hire, accommodation, parking, print design and distribution, press releases, publicity stunts, PRS certificates, late night postering etc etc…and then there are the network events. It’s a wonderfully varied microcosm, a year’s worth of business in just two weeks.
Sometimes it’s hard to keep your chin up. The endless rounds of trying to get Lyn Gardener, or a similar counterpart, to your show is at times gruelling for a small company like ours. We have limited resources. We are a cottage industry, actually it’s a rented terraced house. And yet to ply your trade with the many thousands of other companies in a blizzard of creative abundance is undeniably … irresistible.
And this year there be will more of us… Smash It Up is a collaboration with Newport’s finest avant garde arts collective… Bosch. Steven and Andrew will be feeling the force of the fringe for the first time and we are excited for them and embarrassed that we are all going to be sharing the same sofa bed. Becky Davies our collaborating artist, set and costume designer is visiting and we have with us the best technical support and lighting design in Newport who just happens to be quite heavily pregnant. I know it’s madness or magic… Helen is of course a sensible person who knows her own capabilities. A live birth at 4.35pm between the above dates might just give us the exposure that seems so elusive. However lets hope that is not the case… as we are ill equipped to really deal with anything else.
I should also mention that this show has benefitted from the expert and insightful mentoring of Andre and the splendid and original choreography of Catherine both of whom have spouses showing work at this years fringe. We wouldn’t be here without them yet their loyalties may well be divided.
So it’s back to that social media campaign. On with the cardio training and the relearning of moves and words. We have been lucky thus far to find friends who have helped us beyond the call of duty and we are grateful beyond words. However our sense of gratitude will be enhanced when we arrive in Edinburgh on the 13th unpack the show, brush off the uniforms and stand on the Royal Mile with a fist full of fliers and a confident sneer saying “This show will change your life”. And it will…. if you let it.
Gareth
SMASH IT UP – SUMMERHALL (Venue 26) 15 – 29 August