A wander through the parks and byways of the city this Easter Sunday reveals the twin themes of rebirth and renewal to be topping the bill. Spring has sprung. I’ve even managed to ‘catch the sun’ – meaning that I have shifted on the tanning spectrum, from White Walker to Wildling.

“Magnolia in bud is a fairer prospect than when in bloom.”

With spring comes the promise of summer, and for Edinbuggers, resident and diaspratic, summer is the Fringe. In this online, plugged-in age of wonders the budding of the Fringe is most manifest in the Kickstarter campaigns launched by hopefuls aiming to bring their shows to the festivals in August.

Not sure what a Kickstarter is? Check out our 6 previous installments here; here; here, here, here and here.

Andromeda Turre: Kiss Me

Spending ten years on the dating scene has been an experience of heart-break and hilarity for Andromeda Turre. She has woven this wealth of tragicomic material into the songs and stories of Kiss Me, the show which will mark the sultry songstress’ Fringe debut.

Her sound has been described as a cross between Sting, Sade and Adele. The show’s launching pad will be at Space Cabaret on the Royal Mile, perhaps with an album and book to follow. Accompanying Turre in August will be a band of four including her drummer brother Orion.

Turre, who is the daughter of jazz musicians, currently stars in Sleep No More in New York, and does background vocals at Saturday Night Live. She has toured 17 countries with her own band, was the last Raelette hired to sing background vocals for Ray Charles, and starred in Woody Allen’s Murder Mystery Blues.

Have a look at the other potential shows we’ve previewed: Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy; Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical; The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project; Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of My Voice; Ian Harvey Stone’s The Devil Without; The Red Oak Theatre Company’s Funny Girl; Luc Valvona’s The Improvised Improv Show; Dogstar Theatre’s Factor 9; Unprescribed by almuni of the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama; Wac Arts’s Journies Beyond; Paperbark Theatre Company’s This Is Where We Live; A Collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales by the bright young things of Kent State Uni’s Transforum Theatre; Jess Thom’s Touretteshero: Backstage In Biscuit Land; Unbound Productions’ Travesti; Berserker Residents’s The Post Show Talk Back.

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

In computer game parlance an “Easter egg” is defined as an unexpected or undocumented feature, included as a bonus. A key benefit of Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website, is its use of promotional videos. These allow promoters to boost their shows by offering potential audiences a preview of their work in progress.

Why not spend this Good Friday checking out this dawn chorus of the Fringe? Don’t forget to see our 5 previous installments here; here; here, here and here.

Touretteshero: Backstage In Biscuit Land

In 2006 Jess Thom – artist, writer and part time superhero – was diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome. The condition compels her to make movements and noises which she can’t control. She is reckoned to say ‘biscuit’ 16,000 times a day. Her unusual neurology gives her a unique perspective on life, which she’s ready to share with the rest of the world.

Backstage in Biscuit Land is Thom’s brand new show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival exploring spontaneity, creativity and disability. We’re promised ticcing, singing, stand-up, story telling and things we never knew would make us laugh. With Kickstarter support Thom will be bringing “the most biscuity theatre ever” to Pleasance Above.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1262474519/touretteshero-backstage-in-biscuit-land?ref=discovery

Travesti

Written and directed by Rebecca Hill, and produced by Bradley Leech of Unbound Productions, Travesti is a verbatim play incorporating music and dance. It takes women’s real stories about unruly body hair, being groped on public transport, and experiences of sexual violence, and puts them in the mouths of an ensemble cast of six male actors.

Unbound are an ambitious company of multitudinous talents. It’s no surprise that they have been offered some prime theatrical real estate, 14:50 in Pleasance’s Jack Dome, a place of honour in the venue’s 30th anniversary programme.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/515214248/travesti-edinburgh-festival-14?ref=discovery

The Post Show Talk Back

This August, the pop-comic aesthetic honed and owned by the Berserker Residents is going to be pitched in a curve ball. Audiences will arrive to discover they are already late. Having just managed to catch the curtain call they will bear witness a surreal take on the time-honoured post show discussion.

Hailing from Philadelphia the Berserker Residents blend physical theatre, puppetry, music, sketch, and prop comedy to create memorable theatrical events.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1618511435/berserker-residents-take-edinburgh-0?ref=discovery

Have a look at the other potential shows we’ve previewed: Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy; Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical; The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project; Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of My Voice; Ian Harvey Stone’s The Devil Without; The Red Oak Theatre Company’s Funny Girl; Luc Valvona’s The Improvised Improv Show; Dogstar Theatre’s Factor 9; Unprescribed by almuni of the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama; Wac Arts’s Journies Beyond; Paperbark Theatre Company’s This Is Where We Live; and A Collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales by the bright young things of Kent State Uni’s Transforum Theatre.

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

In the run up to this year’s Fringe Edinburgh49 is showcasing companies looking to crowdfund their shows using Kickstarter. If you haven’t figured out the format yet, check back through our previous 4 installments here; here; here and here.

Journies Beyond

Drawing on myths and legends from Britain, Japan, Mexico, Greece as well as the Caribbean, and performed by an all-female cast hailing from 5 continents, veteran Fringer Cavell O’Sullivan’s Journies Beyond promises a comic/tragic integration of dance, song, text and physical theatre exploring a variety of differing cultural takes on the afterlife.

If you are looking to spot a star in the making Wac Arts is a sure starting point. From its hub based at the Old Town Hall in London’s Belsize Park, the company has helped launched the careers of, amongst others, 1996 Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies), 2004 Oscar nominee Sophie Okenedo (Hotel Rwanda), world famous jazz musicians Courtney Pine and Julian Joseph and four Mercury and Mobo Award winners including Ms. Dynamite and Zoe Rahman.

This Is Where We Live

Bristol-based Paperbark Theatre Company aim to bring contemporary Australian scripts on the international stage. The company’s founders, Shaelee Rooke and Oliver de Rohan are Australian actors and theatre-makers who met while training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Their aim is to bring Vivienne Walshe’s Griffin Award-winning play, This Is Where We Live, to Edinburgh and New York.

The script follows two outback high-school students, Chris and Chloe. He’s a middle-class, wannabe poet; she’s from the wrong side of the tracks. Together, they discover the possibility of escape from their dead-end small town hell.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/789071376/paperbark-presents-this-is-where-we-live-by-vivien?ref=discovery

A Collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Transforum Theatre is drawn from the students and alumni of the Kent State School of Theatre and Dance, Ohio. Their goal is to provide opportunities for students to pursue their passions and explore their creativity while developing new works of art in theater, dance, poetry, script writing and more.

A Collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales is a collaborative piece of theatre that combines and expands upon a handful of the classic tales. Transforum’s ensemble promise to employ a unique multitude of theatrical muses such as shadow puppetry and magic to speak to the imaginations of all ages.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1028443110/a-collection-of-grimms-fairy-tales?ref=discovery

Have a look at the other potential shows we’ve previewed: Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy; Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical; The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project; Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of My Voice; Ian Harvey Stone’s The Devil Without; The Red Oak Theatre Company’s Funny Girl; Luc Valvona’s The Improvised Improv Show; Dogstar Theatre’s Factor 9; and Unprescribed by almuni of the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

In the run up to this year’s Fringe Edinburgh49 is showcasing companies looking to crowdfund their shows using Kickstarter.

For many companies selling tickets at Edinburgh Fringe is something of a bonus. Their primary aim is to showcase their work to national and international venue managers for the sake of future bookings. They spend their time honing their work, getting it just right.

Edinburgh in August truly is the world’s greatest incubator of live theatre. Listen into my interviews with former undercover policeman James Bannon about his 2013 show Running With The Firm, or read my extended take on our partner site FringeReview to see what I mean.

The Improvised Improv Show

Last year Luc Valvona established a format in which anyone who wants to can perform, whether experienced improv veteran or enthusiastic newcomer. The Improvised Improv Show may or may not have an overall theme, and will be run by a host who will get the performers to play a selection of games or scenes based on audience suggestion.

Billed as the perfect improv networking event, this year The Show will be taking place at 2pm daily from 31 July to 24 August in the Aerie room of the Jeckyl and Hyde on Hanover Street.

Factor 9

In Factor 9 Rab and Bruce are both haemophiliacs, living with life-threatening diseases contracted through the prescription of contaminated blood products. Thousands of others across the world have not survived. Both these men, lovers of the great outdoors, have, with the support of their families and fellow haemophiliacs, battle with the medical and political establishments to give themselves and the many thousands of other victims a voice.

Dogstar Theatre, the team behind The Baroness, will be presenting their take on the tragedy before the Fringe, from 24 – 26 April at the Traverse and (naturally) Edinburgh49 will be reviewing. [Read that ‘Outstanding’ review here.]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1995513326/factor-9-how-could-this-disaster-happen?ref=discovery

Unprescribed

Dana Etgar, Justina Kaminskaite, Sarah Kenney, and Katherine Vince created Unprescribed during their MA in Advanced Theatre Practice at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in 2013. To create Unprescribed, they began by exploring their own experiences of stress, anxiety, and societal expectations. The result is billed as both sinister and funny, sexy and absurd.

Unprescribed premièred at Chelsea Theatre, London, last August. Now they are looking to reach a larger audience. As an emerging theatre company, they are asking for contributions to help launch their show at the Fringe, and to establish themselves professionally.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thesunapparatus/unprescribed-goes-to-the-edinburgh-festival-fringe?ref=discovery

Have a look at the other potential shows we’ve previewed: Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy; Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical; The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project; Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of My Voice; Ian Harvey Stone’s The Devil Without; and The Red Oak Theatre Company’s Funny Girl.

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

In the run up to this year’s Fringe Edinburgh49 is showcasing companies looking to crowdfund their shows using Kickstarter.

So far we’ve looked at: Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy; Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical; The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project and Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of My Voice. It’s clear from the preview videos that each of these shows has bags of potential.

Producing creative work takes time, talent and heart. For everyone who loves this city, nestled at the centre of the theatrical world map, Kickstarter allows us a taste of what’s to come in August as well as the chance to help make dreams happen for the dedicated people behind each show.

Now You Know, the Southport-based company formed of 18-25 year-olds, has already achieved 169% funding from 28 backers for their show I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The second-longest running Off-Broadway musical, with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, will be playing at The Space, North Bridge from 1 – 16 August.

The Devil Without

Did Faust really have a choice? Ian Harvey Stone presents a sequel to the Marlowe classic based on the premise that Faust survived being dragged off to hell and is still among us. But every now and again, on Manifest Night, the Devil gets a chance to snatch him back and Faust must go to ground. In The Devil Without Faust uses the psychic energy of his audience to hide, providing a moment for him to tell his story.

What makes this show so exciting is the team Harvey Stone has assembled. The performance will feature an original score by Daniel Sarstedt, son of Ivor Novello, award winner Peter Sarstedt and member of Danish electronica band Det Sejler I Effekter including a ‘silent score’ using infrasound designed to be felt rather than heard.

If you only click on one of these projects make sure you check out The Devil Without‘s poster by Glenn Fabry (of Marvel, DC and 2000AD fame).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/304951461/the-devil-without-an-immersive-theatre-experience?ref=discovery

Funny Girl

Bristol University based The Red Oak Theatre Company are hoping to bring their latest show to the new Greenside venue in Nicolson Square from 11 – 24 August.

Lucy Harrison, the Fundraising Manager, is so far keeping many of the project’s details under-wraps.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1389661019/red-oak-theatre-company-presents-funny-girl?ref=discovery

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

Note: The Kickstarter videos embedded in this post don’t show up in the email notification sent out to those of you following us through WordPress (but they are on the website, promise).

In the run up to this year’s Fringe Edinburgh49 is showcasing companies looking to crowdfund their shows using Kickstarter. In the last post we looked at Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy and Finn Anderson’s Alba; A Scottish Musical.

Toronto-born author Jason Hall has already achieved 116% funding from 93 backers for his show 21 Things You Should Know About Toronto’s Crack-Smoking Mayor. Hall has promised not to spend any of it on beer, but I’ll be offering to stand him a pint in August to get his take on who would win in a fight between Rob Ford and an Edinburgh tram.

The Anima Project

The Wrong Shoes Theatre Company’s The Anima Project is set in the future, where genetic screening is used determine a person’s place in society. The show uses experiential therapy to cure those with unfavourable genetic personality traits. Those who would otherwise be condemned to death or work-camps.

The Anima Project is an experiential promenade piece of theatre, which features music, dark comedy and horror.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1836863289/bring-the-anima-project-to-edinburgh-fringe?ref=discovery

Black is the Color of My Voice

Shanghi-based Apphia Campbell hopes to bring the life of Mena Bordeaux to Edinburgh. A successful jazz singer Bordeaux is seeking redemption after the untimely death of her father. During a three-day period of isolation without cigarettes, alcohol, or access to the outside world, she reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy destined for a life in the service of the church to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Is the Color of My Voice has had three successful runs, two in Shanghai and one at New York City’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playthespotlight/edinburgh-fringe-debut-of-black-is-the-color-of-my?ref=discovery

Click on the ‘K’ in the top left corner of each video to visit each show’s Kickstarter page.

Edinburgh49 won’t be operating during the festivals (the hint is in the name, 52 weeks of the year minus 3 weeks of the Fringe), but that’s not because we follow the tiresome Edinbugger affectation of being tired by the Fringe.

Every year the greatest show on Earth rolls into town, bringing in its wake the most creative and determined talent imaginable. A popular saying of one of the City’s most famous literary sons rather sums up what the besuited burgher should remember when he’s done with his daily round of toil.

“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”

– Walter Scott –

But what to see? It’s a fair question given the thousands of shows on offer.

One of the most interesting Fringe-related developments of recent years is the rise of Kickstarter. The crowdfunding platform allows independent producers to finance their play about corrupt micro-financing practices in the Adriatic region without ending up like the Merchant of Venice.

Kickstarter’s use of video trailers means that audiences are able to preview as never before, AND can even put their hand in their pocket to support a show which takes their fancy. Click on the ‘K’ in the top left corner of each video to visit each show’s Kickstarter page.

There can be no doubt that Kickstarter works and is already highlighting some fantastic fringe theatre.

A case in point is Something There’s That Missing, Anh Chu’s very personal account of a first-generation Chinese-Canadian, who moves to London to write her first play. The reviewers (especially me) loved it. Click here to find out why.

Belfast Boy

Over the coming weeks we will be helping to highlight some of the shows looking for a Kickstart. We begin with 2 projects.

In Kat Woods’ Belfast Boy Martin flees Belfast for England, where he discovers his sexuality, parties, drugs, love and tragedy.

Woods’ first piece Skintown was placed on the longlist for the Bruntwood Royal Exchange award and successfully premiered at The White Bear Theatre in Kennington. Her second play Dirty Flirty Thirty has had sell out runs in London’s off west end Theatre scene and across Northern Ireland. Belfast Boy is her third piece of writing.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1205301251/belfast-boy-needs-a-cash-injection-for-the-edinbur?ref=discovery

Alba; A Scottish Musical

Writer and producer Finn Anderson bills Alba as an exhilarating, heartwarming story of a young man whose reluctant return to rural Scotland sparks an emotional roller-coaster of adventure and self discovery, triggering him to rekindle his love for his home country.

Anderson’s recent work includes Streets (with Interval Productions), which transferred to the Hackney Empire and was nominated for two Off West End Awards including Best New Musical and a Broadway Word Award for Best New Musical in Fringe or Regional Theatres.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/finnanderson/get-alba-a-scottish-musical-to-the-edinburgh-fring?ref=discovery

Still not sure about Edinburgh’s festivals? Why not follow our partner sites, FringeGuru and FringeReview, on Twitter?