1st September
This is the way the Festival ends, not with a bang but a whimper. I am actually back home now so technically I’m cheating still calling this my Edinburgh blog… The last 3 nights brought 0, 9, and 1 in the audience and I call that a whimper.
Lots of lessons learned.
8th September
Last Tuesday was supposed to be the final entry but a week of reflection has somehow emerged; aided in no small way by a massive computer breakdown which meant, amongst other things, trawling through two and a half years worth of emails to recover an address book. Oh the joys.
I should sum up. I am, secretly, a bit pleased with myself for having done this. It was in turns dispiriting, futile, dull and deeply satisfying. I stood up on my own for 70 minutes a night for almost a whole month and delivered a piece of art I created (with some help from a great poet of course) at a standard I can be proud of. As a performer I have learnt and grown. As my Director kept telling me, I should not get too carried away by becoming competent, its no great shakes, but the challenge was met.
On the other hand I could have taken a luxury round the world trip and broadened my mind that way. I compared what I did to vanity publishing (where you pay for it) to a friend the other night and she pointed out that it was, in some respects, even worse than that. If you pay to have something published you do at least have the printed copies to then market; a live show exists only in performance and is thus dependant upon creating a buzz if it is to continue. Now I have a choice: look back and say that was a great episode, move on now; or spend more time and money on pursuing development and promotion of the project.
The only interest I seem to have generated, one week post Festival, is from the remarkable 78 year old Californian Lynn Ruth Miller. She has emailed twice to ask how I am getting on; and she didn’t even see the show! I am lucky to have had the resources to do what I did and certainly I spent more than I needed to; that’s one of the lessons learnt. Even so you would be hard pushed to do what I did for under £4,000. Free accommodation would help of course but otherwise the only route for the performer(s) who don’t have that kind of cash is the Free Fringe.
I would like to think that changes will happen to the Fringe, especially curbing the power of the half dozen major venues, but whilst there are poor saps like me out there willing to put their money on the line to try and achieve recognition then I must be sceptical. Its a challenge for the City Council who, as I understand it, are ultimately responsible. Personally I am convinced that the edge lies with the Free Fringe. Aspects of the Fringe have become bloated and budget driven, some advertising budgets must be quite substantial, and maybe the times they are a changing.
Thank you CULTUREWORKS for inviting this blog / reflection. Apparently over 900 visits have been made to my words. That’s about nine times the number of people who watched the show over the 27 performances. Maybe I am in the wrong business.