Greetings, social media and metaverse Wombles. This is Episode Seven. The next three or four maybe even five or six podcasts are going to be Edinburgh Fringe 2022 related.
I attended the Edinburgh Fringe many years ago. I would really love to go every year and the times that I have been I had the privilege of being guest of equity UK being taken as part of the independent Theatre Arts Committee, which is now covered by the low pay no pay assistant. When I went up to the Edinburgh Fringe, I had four days and a small stipend in which to see as many shows and talk to as many companies and performers as I could. And it's a daunting prospect and the routine would go as such, I would arrive at the accommodation and the equity team would have left on my bed, a programme a physical paper programme of the Edinburgh Fringe programme. And it's chunky.
Where do I start? And how I started and how I saw 19 shows in four days. Plus all of my duties.
I am going to share with you over the next few podcasts. And it's my hope that I'm also going to do some live streams on a Thursday. Not sure what time yet. Live on to my Facebook page PCM projects, which will also live stream to twitch and to YouTube. And whichever platforms stream yard allow me to simulcast to, but the idea is, is to meet up with some friends. Some colleagues may be for some people that I've not met from my network who are either going to the Edinburgh Fringe or are wanting to engage with the fringe but can't be there because there is an online programme for the Edinburgh Fringe. And for me that online programme is a big part of what I want to explore over the next few weeks. But I also want to help people see the things they want to see and see the things that fulfil their shedule.
Okay, so very briefly what's going to happen is on the first podcast, I'm going to take the PDF brochure and I'm going to screen share it. I'm basically going to go through the first 20 pages, a bit of a react video to a PDF document, which outlines what the festival is. There's some really key information that if you haven't read that first 20 pages, you might not know really what the fringe is about where it came from. It's the 75th anniversary this year.
And then I'm going to take you through especially on the first podcast, the process in which I start to try and understand what is on at the fringe the different categories this year. What shows stand out to me who done their job with their marketing because you've got to go on something and basically seeing what stands out to you and marking those doesn't matter when they are when they're playing when they're sheduled it just matters that you're starting to look at what sort of things interest you from there, all start to look into some of those. There's a few shows that I know that if I was there, I would want to see and I'm going to profile and shout out to those.
When they're wanting an itinerary, I will block those in as if I was going and what we will do is focus on the guest that attends look at the times and the dates that they are going to be at the festival and look to put together an itinerary to get as much out of their time at the fringe as they can. Basically this is a an exploration of time versus compromise versus content versus distance between venues. It's also about things that you want to see and making sure that that thing is seen. But there may be the next slot that you have. There isn't anything in that slot that you really want to see. So you choose Do you want to take a break or do you want to go to a show?
So it's going to be about how we shedule our time at the fringe. I do hope to get a few friends that are at the fringe and we'll hear a little bit about the mayhem that takes place about putting a show on the fringe. But mainly this is going to be me week by week, finding a Saturday show probably that is digital that I can take part in. It's not just watching now with theatre, it's about engagement participation experience.
There is so much emerging from the independent sector and this size of show that is anything from 10 people in a very small room to probably 80 in the major fringe venues. Some of the big fringe venues may have more but you're looking at probably an audience of about 80 people and the extraordinarily ordinary shows that I want to take out as experiences. We'll have probably around about an 80 audience that's that's my optimal audience and with those audiences, I like to try and get to know them as they're booking their tickets. Who are they where are they from? How are they going to travel, making the experience even if it's not an extended theatrical experience, the experience of coming to see a show something that's personally welcoming, that's really important to me as as as an audience experience whether you're seeing something that's very different in a genre or whether you're just coming to see a straight play.
So let's wrap up because this is a regular Westpark Park Bench Podcast, but it's also an intro to what the podcasts / live streams are going to be over the next few weeks of August.
So do join me you can find my tweets on @pcmcreative. If you search for 'pcmcreative' on Google you'll find my stuff. The podcasts are on Anchor, depending on where you've listened to this. So it's going to be some podcast chats.
You want to join me personal message me in whichever way you can either use the form on my website DM me on Twitter, DM me through the equityOLB. As well as the PCM projects, Twitter, wherever you think that I might be or respond to this podcast.
If you want to join me if you want an itinerary if you've got a date and time and the shows you want to see if you have a show and you want to fit that into someone's itinerary get in touch with me. But basically, let's talk Edinburgh Fringe and find Saturday shows to watch online because if you can't be there with a physical presence. You can participate with a digital presence and it's a phenomenal festival.
There's so many people coming together so let's do the Edinburgh Fringe
