Sharing People’s Dreams at Edinburgh

I am honoured to have the chance to have a day of one-on-one conversations with extraordinary creative folk who are making theatre, or seeing theatre here in Edinburgh. I’ve been running my CGO Surgeries for 5 years now in London and its lovely to bring the same model to Edinburgh.  We have a CGO Panel discussion tomorrow exploring, through Q&A, how to survive and maximise the last week, and how to live and grow the dream after Edfringe.  Come along 11.30am to Fringe Central.

The subjects being tackled by serious creative from the UK and internationally are wonderfully diverse, and the important thing is to find the right audience to see the show and get the right word of mouth spreading.  If you are doing a piece exploring Mourning as Florence Minder is at Institut Francais www.florenceminder.com, you want a very different audience to Sophie Rose and Eleanor Massie of Shatter Resistant www.fragilerules.wordpress.com who wish to connect with promoters and venues who are interested in new British devised theatre companies and the work which comes when two artists explore the fragility and resistence of friendship (the company name reflects the artists first meeting at age 8 in class, their logo is a shatter resistant plastic ruler). But the audience which goes to Florence’s show might also wish to explore Jonathan Prager’s work Damaged, from New York www.theseriouscomic.com who is looking what damage a family can bequeath to us.  His songs have been created in the hope that he, and the piece, can help give voice to under-spoken feelings.  Or returning to france and the Institut Francais you may wish to explore philosophie, economie et societe of Adam Smith – Le Grand Tour created with a professor of economics from Borseaux.  Where might this show play. Is there a promoter from across Europe with a science festival, or a festival of ideas.  These are the people Helen Schwalim of www.adamsmithlegrandtour.com is hoping to gather in the final week.

Now I haven’t seen any of these shows. But I have met their creators and I have heard their passion. If you get the chance check them out, see what you think, see their show, see if you can help, and do let me know what you think.  My role with the CGO Surgery is to make connections – so let’s see what happens.

My final meeting was with Smooth Faced Gentlemen to explore the way in which they could bring Titus Andronicus and their previous all female Romeo and Juliet to a London audience, and a regional drama audience. We were exploring the development of this new professional company www.smoothfacedgentlemen.com who work closely with the established producing team of Three’s Company.  Titus runs to the end of the festival at Bedlam. If you run a venue, or you are a female creative with a passion for Shakespeare, or you are representing a regional rep or presenting theatre – take 65 minutes out of your day and give them a hand.

Fascinating also to explore the producing and creative theatre in Vancouver with Brad Keller (producer) and Aria Demaris (actress, writer, co-creator of Eve: A Balancing Act just closing at the festival) as they look at Edinburgh 2014 plus exploring an Edinburgh veteran’s new musical David Massingham planning a London season with Piromania (opening March 12th 2014 – venue to be announced).

Thank you to all of you for your creativity.  See you around.

Chris