FRINGE TWISTS™ • Hi all, expat New Yorker, 2+ decades in Bonnie Scotland. Creative business strategy consultant (international), author, publisher, sometimes painter. 2025 PhD, incl. new history of the Fringe. 17+ years NYC agency exp.; advise two major Fringe venues/ in the working group of venues. Produced a number of past Fringe shows. Worked many years with some original Fringe/book festival founders. Street cred below*.
The skinny:
Most of this FRINGE insanity began in Jim Haynes’s ‘The Paperback’ bookshop’s dusty, dug-out basement 1959-1966. You can see a Rhino head sculpture which marks the location — Informatics Bldg., Bristo Square). The Paperback was reputed to be the ‘first real centre’ of the FRINGE movement. A small 1961 play — ‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’ (photo attached), by David Hume — was a breakout hit, eclipsing some of the much larger events. The rest is in the history.
This summer I’ll be offering ‘FRINGE TWISTS’ — from my 2-decades’ experience and research to help you make more out of your experience.
FRINGE TWIST #1: KEEP IT SIMPLE
Keep your Fringe simple, short & sweet.
Less ‘transaction’, more ‘interaction’.
It’s a bear to get here, and an uphill climb to get it all mounted. Well done! And I know my fella’ Americans all too well: plan, plan, plan. Achieve, achieve, achieve. Result, result, result. Cue cortisol overdose. My best take, after 20+ years of this madness, is to do the minimalist thing: KEEP CALM & CHILL OUT.
Fact is, sorry to say, most shows won’t be anywhere near filled, and a good goal financially is to break even. Unless you are backed by the tsumanis of the BBC, or other behemouth, the dividends will be the experience. Keep a hopeful perspective: a good audience of whatever number is a GOOD AUDIENCE. I’ve seen shows performed for a handful of people. In one case, this just happened to be the reviewers for major news outlets. You never know.
The reason the Edinburgh International festival was started in November 1945, was to celebrate “the flowering of the human spirit” (Lord Provost) in the aftermath of WWII. While America was booming, Britain was heavily in debt and still rationing food. Later, according to Haynes, the best thing about the FRINGE, is for “people to gather, and talk” … and the “Do-ers”.
“It’s not just the audience, it’s actually the people who are doing the things which are [equally] valuable. It’s a learning experience to put on a play, or dance performance” (Haynes, 2007).
So, my first suggestion is to simplify everything, so you can engage and enjoy all the people, YOUR PEOPLE who gather in Edinburgh for August.
Progress not perfection. You will be swimming in legions — literally millions — of wayward travellers and fellow performers. That one extra poster, that perfect stage, that expensive outfit won’t get you very far.
“A-list”–this and “VIP”–that should arguably be treated with scepticism. The relationships you make, the conversations you have, the exchange of ideas, learning and hopefully some love (or lovers) along the way will take you places.
Some of you may know the American author Vivian Gornick. I take inspiration from her quote, which I’ll adapt for FRINGE TWISTING:
“Every [work of art] has both a situation and a story. The situation is the circumstance. The story is that which precoccupies the [artist], the thing that one has come to say”. -VG
Come to Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-burh-ah, like ‘bread ‘n butta — NOT ‘burrow’ or ‘berg’), simplify the circumstances, and share your stories.
Keep it simple: What are you coming to say?
*MLB PhD Street Cred:
Have just completed my PhD on all origins Fringe. Advise two major venues, and am in the working group of Fringe venues. Produced a number of past Fringe shows. Was close with several Edinburgh Festival/Book Festival/Fringe co-founders, namely John Calder (publsher of 31 Nobel laureates) and Jim Haynes (Traverse co-founder); remain close with dear Richard Demarco (Demarco Gallery). Haynes and the Traverse Theatre (graciously) entrusted me with a first-ever study of the previously unseen archives. The result — a new history of this deliciously messy August event/new research theory/new ‘liminality and communitas’ Turner-Boal-based practice model.
While I work as a consultant to venues and some shows (happy to talk/answer questions) this is not about peddling services. I plan to offer some Tips & Twists & (my hard-learned) Lessons for you to have an amazing FRINGE experience. My experience is both lived and researched. Safe to say — I know where some bodies are buried and potholes to avoid, and hope to help put some FESTIVE back in FESTIVAL.
Let me know if any of this works.
Take what you like, leave the rest…
:)