Fringe Guidance

Submitted my Fringe Guide Copy form at 7.30 this morning so that's another hurdle I've clambered over. I thought I'd finalised my 30 words yesterday but then Michael said it didn't make it clear that the show is a comedy. I was keen to avoid the sort of overselling that puts me right off other people's shows in the form of inflated claims like "absolutely hilarious" or "funniest show on the the Fringe" which give the audience such high expectations that they are almost guaranteed to come out disappointed. I think such phrases are only allowable if they are direct quotes from reviews, as long as they are genuine and not taken out of context (e.g. if it actually said "this is certainly not the funniest show on the fringe but...."!). I finally settled for "Have men and women always spoken different languages? This whirlwind tour of Space, Eden, Ancient Greece and the Jungle takes a humorous look at the issues. Sophisticated silliness. Aprons. 15+" I asked for Bianca's advice on whether there should be an age limit and if so, what it should be and she reckoned that sexual references including the presence of the words "pr*ck, c*ck and f*ck" would give it a 15 rating if it was a film, so we agreed I should specify 15+. The Fringe Office was very prompt in e-mailing me my proof to check. They have vetoed my capital S for Space, which I was hoping would make it clear it was outer space I was referring to as opposed to theatre space (as I didn't have room in the word count for "outer") and have also corrected my capital J for jungle. They referred to these as "a couple of minor grammatical corrections" which I wasn't too chuffed about as I like to think of myself as the Queen of Grammar (with a capital Q and a capital G). Of course, technically they are right. I do like to invent my own grammatical rules from time to time, which can either be interpreted as creativity or bloodymindedness. So I suppose I have to accept that house style wins over individualism. My final copy is therefore "Have men and women always spoken different languages? This whirlwind tour of space, Eden, Ancient Greece and the jungle takes a humorous look at the issues. Sophisticated silliness. Aprons. 15+"

Deadline looming

Final Fringe Guide deadline is tomorrow. Missing the reduced rate March date due to not having a venue by then is costing me nearly £100 (£377.20 instead of £282.90). Started on my on line form weeks ago and finished filling in most of it yesterday. Today I must settle on precisely which 30 words I will use to describe my show. The allowance is actually 40 including the title and, as mine is 10 words, that takes up a quarter. It’s crucial that I get this vital marketing tool right. Have already written several different versions but am not entirely happy with any of them. It’s harder than writing the actual script!

Also need to finalise decisions on ticket prices and what, if any, reductions I am offering for previews. It always irritates me that some shows are priced higher on Friday and Saturday nights and I try to avoid seeing those at weekends. Am hoping others will do likewise in favour of mine if my prices remain the same.

Originally intended the show to run 60 minutes but my allocated one hour venue slot includes get-in and get-out so have to cut it to 50 minutes, starting at 1.05pm and ending 1.55pm. Good thing about this is that the 13:05 list in the daily guide will be shorter than the 13:00 one, making my show stand out more.

All change!

I spoke too soon. Venue is now The Space on The Royal Mile @ The Radisson Hotel, time 1.00pm (or possibly 1.05pm) daily, 7th - 29th August (excluding Sundays). I have accepted this offer as it is EVEN MORE central and has a LARGER seating capacity (55) so, with the opportunity to sell more tickets, I have the potential to just about break even financially whereas, however I rejigged the figures for The Grassmarket, I was guaranteed to make a loss, even if I sold all 31 seats every day. I feel terrible about backing out of the deal I verbally agreed yesterday as Julian who runs Sweet Venues is such a nice guy and had given me loads of his time in two long phone calls while I ummed and aahed about whether or not the space would be big enough. Apart from feeling bad about wanting to be a nice person myself and not piss anyone off, I am fairly confident that I have made the right decision.

Venus has Venue

It's official! We now have a venue. Venus and Mars and Other Myths of Mr and Ms will be performed at 12.45pm daily throughout the Festival (7th-31st August) at Sweet Grassmarket City 2.

Venus soon to have Venue

Not had time to update this lately as been frantically busy with various things including another production - Table Talk for WRiTEON which was a sell out success. Meanwhile, progress has been made on the Edinburgh front, including, most importantly, some venue offers and I am currently trying to decide between a choice of three spaces/timeslots. Watch this space for confirmation of my decision!