DTF: Doing The Fringe

Isobel McArthur is a writer, director, and actor, best known for doing all three in Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of), her award-winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, from the perspective of the servants. The show started off at the Tron in Glasgow, before transferring to the West End and going on multiple tours. She has also adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped with NTS and The Fair Maid of the West with the RSC.

Finn Den Hertog is a Glasgow-based theatre-maker. He trained in acting at the RSC and went on to have a series of roles across tv, stage, and radio. Now, Finn spends more of his time directing, and has worked with NTS, Young Vic, The Traverse, and the National Theatre, to name a few. In 2024, he has directed Morna Young’s adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel, Sunset Song, as well as directing Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder in The Fifth Step, David Ireland’s latest play for the Edinburgh International Festival.Credits include: The Enemy (NTS), Square Go (Francesca Moody/Paines Plough), Squash (Traverse), The Last Dictator (Oran Mor), Amadeus (National Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Young Vic).

Laura Keefe is an Associate Director and Head of Training at Wise Children, the theatre company led by Emma Rice.Part of Laura’s role is overseeing Wise Children’s training programme. Before working for Wise Children, Laura worked with Watermill Theatre, the North Wall in Oxford, Kneehigh, and the National Theatre, amongst many others.

Alex Bird is one of the founding members of Tortoise in a Nutshell, a Leith based theatre company with a focus on making creative work that often uses puppetry, physical theatre, and cameras. Credits include: The Lost Things, Feral (Winner Scotsman Fringe First, Winner Kotorski Festival Grand Jury Prize, Nominee Total Theatre Awards, Nominee Drama Desk Awards), The Last Miner (Nominee Arches Brick Award), Grit (Nominee Arches Brick Award, Nominee Total Theatre Awards) and Fisk (Winner Outstanding Performance Kotorski Festival).

Chris Snow has worked as a theatre producer, working on around 30 shows, 9 of which went on to the Fringe. He then had a series of roles working in facilities and management, before landing a job at the National Theatre as Head of Support Services and Procurement. He’s now Head of Artist Services at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. This role oversees the support and development of artists across all aspects of their career.

1983 Mark Fisher performed at the fringe, returning to work in the Fringe office in 1986 and has been a part of every Fringe Festival since. He is currently a theatre critic for the Guardian, as well as contributing to other publications like the List and The Scotsman. He has also written and co edited several books including ‘The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide: How to make your show a success’ and ‘How to write about theatre’, as well as contributing to books on the landscape of criticism, David Greig, and the arts under the SNP. https://www.edinburghfringesurvivalguide.com/

Orla O’Loughlin is currently the Vice Principle and Director of Drama at Guildhall. Before that she was the Artistic Director of The Traverse and Pentabus Theatre, and Associate Director of The Royal Court.Her list of directorial credits is extensive. She’s worked with The National Theatre of Scotland on Enough of Him, Traverse with Mouthpiece which then transferred to Melbourne and Auckland, and What Girls Are Made Of travelled around Scotland as well as Adelaide and Sao Paulo.She’s been named in the Observer as one of the top fifty cultural leaders in the UK, and the List’s top 100 women in the arts.

In this episode we chat with three of the people we interviewed pre-fringe, to find out what their experience of fringe 2022 was like. First, we speak with Pollyanna Esse (Director of 20 Minutes of Action) about expectations and the effect of a verbatim play. Second, we speak to Julian Spooner (Co-Director of Rhum + Clay) about what you can learn after a decade of making fringe theatre. Finally, we speak to Fergus Morgan (Theatre Critic) about the number of shows he saw, and question just how successful this year's fringe was.

Lauren-Nicole Mayes is a Blackpool born and bred actress currently living in Manchester. She was awarded a full scholarship to Italia Conti Academy where she studied musical theatre for three years. Shortly after graduating, she started working in musicals on cruise ships, before returning to the UK and starting work in TV. She played Gina King in The Bay, and Chantelle Wilder in Coronation Street. Now, Lauren is taking her one woman play ‘Dear Little Loz’ to the Edinburgh Fringe. The play started life as a monologue for Burn Bright, before being developed into a one act play. Dear Little Loz explores love, and the price we are willing to pay for it, it is a poetic exploration of love – love for the scabby boys in Blackpool, dodgy dates with Dave and the desperate need for a daddy-daughter connection.

Hazel Anderson is a performer who doesn’t limit herself to one style of performance. On one side, we have a one-woman clown character called Able Mable, who can be found performing on streets worldwide, wearing a golden sequin dress. Able Mable has entertained crowds in places like Edinburgh, Hong Kong, and Dubai, with a performance that involves quick change, escapology, and juggling. On the other side of Hazel’s performing CV is her role as Co-Director of ‘Likely Story’ who focus on making stories come alive with magic, for communities who might not otherwise see professional work. ‘Likely Story’ often focuses on making work for younger audiences by reworking and putting their own spin on classic fairy tales.

Julian Spooner is one of the founders and co-Artistic Directors of Rhum + Clay, a theatre company born out of Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. The Lecoq focus on physical theatre, the body and mime remain a key device in Rhum + Clay’s work. Other graduates from Lecoq include Steven Berkoff and Complicité’s Simon McBurney. In this episode, we discus how 'play' influences the creative process and the influence of the Edinburgh Fringe on Rhum + Clay as a theatre company.

Fergus Morgan is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in outlets like What's On Stage, Time Out, The Stage, Vice and The Independent. In this episode we chat about the realities of working at the Fringe, the issues with ‘social hiring’ and the issues facing arts journalism today.

Anthony Alderson is the Director of The Pleasance, both in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. In this podcast, we chat about the support that The Pleasance offers to emerging artists, the impact the fringe has on the arts, and the city of Edinburgh, and how performance is an important part of our society.

'20 Minutes of Action' is a piece of verbatim theatre from Pollyanna Esse. Verbatim theatre gives the real words of real people to actors to perform. '20 Minutes of Action' scrutinises one of the most pertinent conversations of our time: women's safety. Using the exact words of the victim, the perpetrator and their families, '20 Minutes of Action' guides you through one of the most controversial sexual assault cases in recent American history. This episode discusses sexual assault.

In this series we’ll chat with the people who work behind the scenes to make this all happen. We’ll speak with reviewers, people in charge of running venues, we’ll look at the marketing side of things, as well as speaking with actors, writers, and directors who are taking work to the Fringe. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival takes over the city throughout the month of August. Actors, comedians, clowns, acrobats, writers, producers, directors, singers, dancers from all over the world, descend on the city bringing fresh new work to the largest arts festival in the world. There are over three hundred venues, over three and a half thousand shows and over 55,000 performances.

Wonder Fools is Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse. They met at RCS and make work that is socially engaged – working with communities to help putting on a work. Over the past few years they’ve worked with David Greig, told stories about Scottish involvement in the Spanish Civil War, won awards, and written stories about the Homeless World Cup.

David Greig is a playwright, producer, artistic director, and dramaturg, the list goes on. After studying at Bristol University, David Greig started his career working with ‘Suspect Culture’, writing most of their shows. From there, he focused on playwriting, with his work being picked up by The Traverse, Paines Plough, the RSC, and the Edinburgh International festival. He worked with the National Theatre of Scotland when it was founded in 2006, as well as taking roles in the Traverse, before becoming Artistic Director (a decade later) at the Lyceum Theatre, alongside Zinnie Harris.   He recently announced that he’ll be stepping down from the Lyceum to focus more on his own writing.

Sophie Swithinbank is a London-based writer whose 2018 play, Bacon, was developed through Soho Theatre, resulting in her winning the Tony Craze award. When this play was staged in 2022, it won several Off West End awards, before transferring to New York and coming to Edinburgh in 2023. That year she also won the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award.   This year, she’s worked with Phoebe Ladenburg on Surrender, a play that explores prison, motherhood, and abandoned love.

Tony Mills, the artistic director of Dance Base, joins us to explain what’s happening at the fringe this year. Dance Base was started as a charity in 1993 to encourage and develop dance of all styles. In 2001, the purpose-built centre was opened in the heart of Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, becoming Scotland’s National Centre for Dance. Fast forward to September 2021, when Tony Mills was appointed artistic director. Dance Base Festival 24 (in partnership with Assembly) is the first full programme curated under his tenure, and the second in partnership with Assembly. This year they will present 274 performances of 29 shows by 33 companies from 2-25 August. Tony’s background is in break dancing, but he has also turned his hand to choreography and studying to become a vet.

Aisling Galligan is a senior programmer for underbelly, working across the fringe festival as well as at the company’s other events and their new Soho Boulevard venue. This role covers programming a range of different venues, as well as acting as a point of contact for artists thought the festival and beyond.