Blog

We or I?
Posted by Beccy Smith on 15/5/2012
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nggalai under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

My work for Total Theatre has sporadically placed me in contexts where critical opinions on a production are collectively scrutinised. In these conversations, very often a consensus is reached: shared languages do exist for the analysis of how ideas are executed through a production, the quality of that production, or the quality of a performer’s work.

more + comment »»

Carnival!
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 08/3/2012
LUME Teatro - Terra Lume Trueque Carnival launch

Ola do Brasil!

If you were wondering why your editor had gone a bit quiet these past few weeks, it is because she's been in Brazil on an extended research trip. Is still there, in fact, spending quality time with LUME Teatro and other Brazilian companies!

So being in Brazil in February/March means being in Brazil for carnival (you know, Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday  the big blow-out before Lent). This was my second year in a row in Brazil at carnival time, so thought a few words on the subject wouldn't go amiss!

more + comment »»

Kings and Fools
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 08/1/2012
Toron Blue Tendre Suie at London International Mime Festival 2012

Epiphany! So the Three Kings have come and gone, the Christmas trees have been taken down, and the Twelfth Night revellers have sobered up. The world is no longer turned upside down – everything’s back in its rightful place. It’s back to work, then...

more + comment »»

White Night Beach Party Animals
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 16/11/2011
Liz Aggiss and Joe Murray Beach Party Animal – short film

So, that was autumn then. Halloween, Bonfire Night and – if you live in Brighton – White Night, in which the city’s venues, clubs, art galleries, and museums open their doors all night to mark the end of British Summer Time and the turning of the year. The event is produced by Donna Close, who cut her teeth on the Streets of Brighton festival, so she knows a thing or two about programming outdoor performance and work for public spaces.

more + comment »»

Autumn Days
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 01/11/2011
Flavio Rabelo Take-Away BR-116 photo Ludovic des Cognets

Hallowe’en already? It seems just the other day that I was reporting from the Edinburgh Fringe. Somehow we’ve crept into Autumn with me hardly noticing – perhaps because summer in Scotland felt so like autumn, but then in a reversal of the usual order we had summer in September and October this year!

more + comment »»

Big Daddy Meets His Match
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 27/8/2011
Curious the moment I saw you...

It was a chance remark from a friend that started me thinking. We were discussing the dilemma for contemporary 'liberal' parents in choosing whether to send children to private school or to throw them to the sharks of state education in the inner London boroughs, and this somehow moved on to a discussion about the number of people in positions of power in theatre who have been educated in the public school system.

more + comment »»

Shortlisted!

Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 22/8/2011
As the flames rose we danced to the sirens, the sirens

So, where was I? Ah yes, autumn in Edinburgh – although these past few days it’s been almost like summer. There are cricket whites on the Meadows, and hippies blowing giant bubbles – but there’s also a rustling in the trees, and the odd leaf or two falling just as a warning. On the edge of the Meadows is a café with a board outside announcing: ‘Sun? Rain? Hail? Ice Cream!’ Can’t argue with that.

more + comment »»

Endgame
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 17/8/2011

That’s me. Not in the photo, although perhaps I have morphed into a giant triangle, illusion or rewind button during the Edinburgh festival, and not actually noticed. But in the Scots sense of ‘that’s me done’, ‘I’m out of here’.

A brief tally: 19 reviews, five blog entries, over 40 trains, three two-hour meetings and one lasting a good five hours, one birthday, one babysitting session, zero romance, eight low-calorie energy drinks… how much information do you want?

more + comment »»

Immerse Yourself
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 16/8/2011

Leaving Edinburgh mid-fest is always a weird one. It doesn’t seem right somehow, and hard to imagine that it all carries on without you. But it does! It does! Just take a look at the reviews section and you’ll see what a busy bunch of bees the TT reviewers have been, swarming all over Edinburgh.

more + comment »»

Nowhere to run
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 14/8/2011

Sometimes the Edinburgh festival gets a bit suffocating. Whether it’s artistic differences, Fringe fatigue, illness or something worse, there’s no point suffering in silence. So here are some possible escape routes from the festival bubble.

more + comment »»

Culture clash
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 12/8/2011
No Credit with Czech company Cirk La Putyka

As the international festival opens, I've been pondering cultural differences.

Edinburgh International Festival caused a little controversy by accepting money from the Chinese government this year. 'Festival under fire for China's key cash role' is the headline in The Scotsman today. It reports that human rights organisations have criticised the organisers in the wake of China's crackdown on dissidents such as Ai Weiwei.

more + comment »»

If it's Tuesday it must be Edinburgh...
Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 11/8/2011
Dance Marathon, Traverse Theatre

So where was I? Ah yes, Stockton! Well, I left there Saturday, heading for the station with a friendly taxi driver who called me ‘pet’, caught a train to Darlington and learnt all about the footie from the Middlesborough supporters, just about made the connection at Darlington, arrived at Edinburgh Station 9pm and got transported through the rain-soaked city by a friendly taxi driver who called me ‘pal’. Picked up keys, found my flat, set off into the night in search of new venue Summerhall for the midnight-to-dawn show Hotel Medea.

more + comment »»

Round Table
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 10/8/2011

I’ve been told to keep it general and a bit mysterious when it comes to describing the work behind the Total Theatre Awards. Discussions at the assessing meetings, at which we share our thoughts on productions, are confidential. However, it also seems worth giving a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes.

Each year, a team of assessors sifts through hundreds of shows that have been nominated. Over the first fortnight of the Fringe, one, two or more people will see the piece at different times, depending on the initial feedback.

more + comment »»

Be careful what you wish for…
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 08/8/2011
Blind Summit, The Table

One of the stalwarts of the Edinburgh reviewing ritual is the ‘wish list’. Here, the eager reviewer is invited to name shows that they would especially like to see.  (Of course, this doesn’t mean that tickets are available.)

more + comment »»

The Seven Year Itch
Posted by Charlotte Smith on 07/8/2011

So this is the seventh year in a row that I'm heading up for a no-expenses-paid, energy-sapping, imagination-tickling Edinburgh festival. Or will it be just a bit like the other years?

I began working the fringe while a reporter on a local newspaper. To be brief, two years reviewing for ThreeWeeks, one festival with the Edinburgh Evening News and three years assessing for the Total Theatre Awards and writing for Total Theatre Magazine. (Let’s skip doing the music for a children’s play called Tales from the Trash Can in 1992.)

more + comment »»

Stockton, Stockton!

Posted by Dorothy Max Prior on 07/8/2011
Red Herring, That's The Way To Do It | Photo: Pau Ross

‘If Stockton can’t come to Las Vegas, Las Vegas can come to Stockton!’ So says Johnny, star of Johnny’s Stuntshow, who’s revving up the Friday night crowd here in Market Square – the epicentre of the Stockton International Riverside Festival. Well, more than that: the epicentre of Stockton – apparently there’s been a market on this site since the 14th century.

more + comment »»


Subscribe to Total Theatre Magazine