Feature: A month at the Edinburgh Fringe
A lowly drama student seeks summer job in a theatre related profession. In the hope that she will get spotted and whisked away to work as a successful A) actress B) director C) producer. Same drama student finds a job working in a box office for a small venue in the biggest arts festival in the world; yes, you’ve guessed it, The Edinburgh Fringe!
So I may not have found an agent to secure me dream job A, B or C and it may not have been the most glamorous job in the world but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have spent August in a more enjoyable way. I saw more theatre in a day at the fringe than I would in my average week and I learnt more about what NOT to do when making a play than I possibly could after a year of lectures. I guess some things just can’t be taught. This however is not to say that I only saw rubbish. Far from it. I saw many truly amazing and inspiring plays. Some of the more interesting productions looked at: word use, and what happens when this is limited to using just 140 words a day (Twitters ’character count’ brought beyond a smartphone screen); a young Mexican woman’s struggle as a result of capitalist trade agreement NAFTA between the US, Canada and Mexico (proving extremely pertinent with the upcoming and closer to home TTIP); suicide rates amongst men and last but not least, an immersive and interactive sequel to Macbeth where all audience members wore and heard the play through headphones whilst watching the action unfold around them…
After a shaky start in box office, including warning customers of the “50 ‘cent’ surcharge if you use the card machine sir” and attempting to correct the mistake by laughing it away with a good humoured: “oh no wait, we’re in England now, not Ireland”. This was met with stony stares from the Scots. Things improved however as I got my ‘mojo working’ and I was soon issuing tickets like a pro, answering phone calls and pointing out the toilets with an expert hand to doddery old folks and frazzled mum’s. I even got confident enough to sign off an email to the Fringe central box office with an enthusiastic “love and cuddles”, making transactions after that nearly impossible to do with a straight face.
I fell in love with Edinburgh as a city, with its windy ‘Diagon Alley’ esque roads, quirky café’s (a cat café where you could go and enjoy your coffee with a furry friend) and numerous pubs, one even sold the infamous ‘Butter Beer’ well known from Harry Potter. Needless to say it was a job that didn’t feel like a job and I can thank my amazing venue TheSpaceUK for the fantastic support and fellow crazy colleagues. I shall be back, either as a bad ass boxo girl once again or maybe even with a show of my own…here’s to hoping!
