Edinburgh Fringe

I've been lucky enough to work at the Edinburgh Fringe with Assembly Festival for two years now. You can find details on my roles and experiences down below.

Building The Venues

Assembly Rooms and George Street are some of the last venues to be built for Assembly Festival, so for a few days, myself and the rest of the Rooms team helped out other technicians in building their venues. I worked with technicians from The Crate (a replica of the previous year's Powder Room, which was itself a mirror of the Front Room) and the Box (a similar venue to the Front Room) in Assembly George Square Gardens. Following this, Assembly gained access to the Assembly Rooms site, and I assisted technicians and Stage Managers in all internal venues (Music Hall, Ballroom and the Drawing Room) in laying stage deck, assembling truss, rigging lights and speakers and cable managing the necessary power and data lines.

Once the Front Room was made available for technicians, I led the build alongside the other Technical SM, working alongside production lighting and sound technicians to build the venue to spec. This involved configuring lighting and sound desks, building the venue control position along with taking responsibility for the venue for the entirety of the Fringe period. 

Supporting Companies During The Fringe

Once the venue was built, my co-worker and I worked with the incoming shows to technically realise them. This included programming lighting, modifying QLab files to work with the venue sound system and ensuring companies had enough space to store all of their props and furniture.

Over the run, I operated roughly 54 hours of 5 shows including :

• Blood Of The Lamb (B Street Theater Company) - A duologue showcasing bureaucratic chaos following the ruling against Roe vs Wade - Rated 5 Stars by The Telegraph and FESTMag, and "Highly Recommended" by FringeReview

• The Rosenberg/Strange Fruit Project (Twilight Theatre Company) - A  piece on the musical links between Robert Rosenberg and Billie Holliday - Rated 5 Stars by the British Theatre Guide and 4 Stars by One4Review

• Jacob Storms' Tennessee Rising  - A solo show about the early days of Tennessee Williams finding his name - Rated 4 Stars by Theatre Weekly

• Wildcat's Last Waltz (Joshua Welch) - A solo show with musical accompaniment reminiscing on the "Wildcat of Sheffield's" golden years - Rated 4 Stars by Broadway Baby

• Liars & Clowns - A jam session for comedians hosted and produced by Australian/Scottish comic, Kyle Dolan

During technical rehearsals, I also supported other shows in the Front Room by programming lighting and sound, as well as helping their operators get up to speed on the equipment in the venue. These were Breaking The Castle, Alison Skilbeck's Uncommon Ground and My Father's Nose.

Tearing Down Venues

Assembly's George Street site has to be torn down within 2 days due to council restrictions, so immediately following the last show, myself, the other Technical SM and production electricians worked on tearing down the venue as quickly as possible, while still making sure all items were stowed correctly and safely for transport. Within an hour, all of the rigged fixtures and speakers were off the rigging, and within 3 hours, all seating and technical equipment had been moved out of the venue.

Following this, I assisted other Assembly venues in their de-rig, primarily Assembly Rooms, Assembly Hall and the George Square Gardens. The Rooms was handed back on schedule as a result of the work from the entire Rooms crew, with Assembly Hall reaching completion within the following days.

With new challenges and some familiar faces, this Fringe was even more rewarding than the last, and I'm looking forward to next year's festival immensely!

I operated roughly 80 hours of performances of 6 shows including:

• Tom (Met On The Road Theatre Company), an intimate look into the benign signs of male suicide, rated 4 Stars by The Scotsman

• S.O.E. (Clair Obscur Productions), a tale of missing agent Noor Inayat Khan told by former SOE officer Vera Atkins, rated as Highly Recommended (4 Stars) by FringeReview

• Sandcastles (Brite Theater), an Assembly Roxy Theatre Award winner which looked at millennial friendship over time and distance, rated 5 Stars by Three Weeks Edinburgh

• Boorish Trumpson (Claire Parry), an interactive comedy centred around a megalomanic orchestra conductor, rated 5 Stars by the Scottish Sunday Express, and 4 Stars by Voice Mag and Theatre Weekly

• Your Aunt Fanny: Muff Said, a sketch show devised by an all womxn theatre group from Newcastle, rated 4 Stars by Broadway World

• Gash Theatre Needs Some Space, a multimedia show that studies bisexuality through a lens of space and pop culture, rated 5 Stars by FringeBiscuit

The other shows in the Front Room were Earwig, FOOL MUUN KOMMING! [BEBGWUNDERFUL/YESYES/ HI5.4SURE.TRULUV;SPANK SPANK:SOFUN_GRATE_TIMES], Marrow, and Kate Butch: Wuthering Shites. I provided technical support and the tools them and their operators needed to produce their shows to the highest standard.

Tearing Down Venues

After the festival was over, we entered a rapid teardown period. For the street where the Front Room was situated, we had roughly 46 hours to remove all of the equipment and reopen the road. I helped derig the Bijou and Powder Room venues, sorting lighting fixtures and speakers, along with their cables, into the correct cases from our suppliers, before doing the same for the Front Room. Following the Street Get Out being completed, I was part of the team that helped dismantle the Ballroom venue, removing bolts from stage deck, and supervising telehandlers when we needed to move those pieces of deck through a public area. The Assembly Rooms venue was handed back on time as a result of the monumental team effort from techs and crew from the six venues.

Once this was completed, I was reassigned to Assembly Hall to assist with their get out. This involved fixture derigging, re-rolling dancefloor, packing up stage deck and carrying it into the truck for transport, and assisting wherever needed to move large cases as part of a team of crew carrying things down the large stairs at the front of the venue, This venue also got completed before the deadline for handover back to the University of Edinburgh and the Church of Scotland. 

This was my first year at the Fringe, and it's definitely something I want to make a regular fixture of in my year! Thank you to Cat Neufeld and Ben Treby for being excellent Production/Venue Managers, and for the entire Rooms crew for making the whole experience incredible every single day.