| On the Inside: Performing in The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Something appealing The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland began in 1947 in an empty pub just off the Royal Mile. It was launched together with the Edinburgh International Festival as a post-war initiative to re-unite Europe through culture. Both projects were instant successes and now August in Edinburgh has become a pastiche of festivals. There is always something going on and too much to see or do at any one moment. This past August, the Fringe festival ran from August 7-20 with previews beginning August 3. The Jazz and Blues Festival began the 29 of July for ten days of jazz and The Edinburgh Military Tattoo ran throughout the month. The International Book Festival took over Charlotte Square mid-month until the 30th. The Edinburgh International Festival always features the finest in the classical arts and that was the event that first brought me to this magic city in 1986. Brian MacMaster is the force behind this festival and he never fails to achieve the perfect balance between avant guarde productions and the traditional. Unlike other festival managers, MacMaster is more interested in quality than profit. Under his reign, there have been increasing numbers of programs to educate the public, encourage young musicians, playwrights and dancers to realize their talents and countless courses, lectures and discussions to give a new perspective to beloved masterpieces and insight into new works of art on every level and genre But it is the Fringe Festival that gives artists an opportunity to be seen by huge audiences and make their mark on the artistic world. It is a that golden opportunity for everyone who believes his genius is undiscovered. Here they are seen by professionals and reviewed by major median critics. Audiences love the fringe because the shows are outrageous, original and cheap. The variety of entertainment offered on the Fringe expands every year. One can experience plays, concerts, stand up comedy, one man (or woman) shows, cabaret, and street performers in non-stop entertainment filling the streets, the halls, the churches, restaurants, basements and parks. The Fringe Festival is now 58 years old and still growing. When I first discovered it in 1986, you could get a ticket for a superb play for about 2 pounds ($5.00) I first saw Mike Leigh’s ABIGAILS’ PARTY there. I will never forget my introduction to Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary. I have seen countless productions of this play here in the states but none could touch the one I saw in an attic room on the Fringe. The productions at the Traverse Theater rival any I have seen on New York or London stages. This past year the fringe festival presented 26,995 performances of 1800 shows in 247 venues and hosted 16,190 performers. I was one of those performers and I starred in two shows: PAINT WITH LYNN and a stand up comedy show featuring comedians from the San Francisco bay area: WEAPONS OF LAUGH DESTRUCTION. There are only a few major venues that are known for the quality of the productions they stage. Major among those is C venues a space that presents the most eclectic program on the Fringe. When I first discovered Hartley Kemp, the genius behind the venue, he staged all his productions on Princes Street in the old Overseas House. I was amazed the quality of the performances in that small space and their professional presentation. Every year C venues has grown and in 2005, their 14 th year, they offered 170 shows and boast the largest and most ambitious program of new writing and theater on the fringe. My productions were performed at the newest C venue C-Electric, a converted old-fashioned movie house. The building celebrated its 75 th birthday while I was there and I had the pleasure of jumping out of a cake at their party singing Happy Birthday to the theater with the Playhouse Festival Chorus. I had never realized what went into a production before I appeared in my own show. I had always thought that you just stood in front of a mike and said funny things when you were in a comedy show. Suddenly I had to worry about the lighting, where to get the microphone and how to attract audiences when there were well over 500 comedy shows competing with mine. I had to stand on the High Street passing out flyers, post signs all over the town and wear a t-shirt advertising my show to anyone who would look at me. Most of the show’s reviews were four star (out of five) but I discovered that the reviewers never reflected the joy we had putting on the show and the delighted response of every audience. We had several people return to see us again and again or stop me on the street to tell me how much they loved our comedy show. Said one enthusiastic reviewer: “T his show features nobody you ever heard of... BUT IT'S GREAT!!! This is what stand-up comedy should be about ... a bunch of different comics knocking you dead.” The art show was a different story. There is obviously a need for hands on shows in a setting like the Fringe and we sold out every day. Children and their parents flocked to C Electric to “Paint with Lynn,” although every youngster under three (and there were many of them in each session) ended up with more paint on him than on the paper. Said one reviewer: “Ideal for children under ten, the best endorsement came from Lucy, aged 6, who when asked if she enjoyed herself, immediately answered, “Can we come back tomorrow?” (Three Weeks) Busking is a major part of the Fringe experience. Performers are on the street day and night doing magic; juggling, singing and dancing for anything the spectators care to throw in a hat. Fred Anderson from San Francisco is a professional comic and juggler who entertains on cruises and San Francisco’s famous Pier 39. He came to the 2005 Fringe for the experience of seeing hundreds of shows every day and for the excitement of entertaining thousands as they paused to watch him on High Street. “ Its absolutely thrilling to do a show outdoors on a cobble-stoned street next an 800 year Cathedral (St Giles) on a mountain with a castle on top,” he said. That sums up the Fringe experience for us all. A thrilling, exciting, exhilarating, and yes…exhausting month when everyone who attended, performed, and enjoyed its ambience filled it with the endless love it needed to make it the success it is. It was the biggest festival of the arts in the whole wide world and we will never forget that we were part of it.
Mixed notices-they were good and rotten
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