DTF: Doing The Fringe

Katie Posner is the joint Artistic Director at Paines Plough, a touring theatre company that develop new writers and share their work with audiences around the country. Since its inception in 1974, Paines Plough have worked with over 300 British playwrights and tours to somewhere in the region of 40 places each year. 

Katie took over artistic leadership of Paines Plough, alongside Charlotte Bennet in 2019. Before joining Paines Plough, Katie was Associate Director at Pilot Theatre, as well as having a varied life as a director.

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.

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.

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.