First Night Lights, and some Nitty Gritty.

Arrived in edinburgh around midday yesterday and had my first preview last night. Probably a mistake, TBH. I was so tired by the end of the day from waking up early pre-train-trip to pack and de-childproof the Airbnb (don’t want to give these jerks anything to complain about, after all) that I handed Laser Fraser off at 7pm just so I could go spend an hour in the dressing room before the show to stare into the middle distance. (My show starts at 8.30).

The middle distance staring seemed to do the trick more or less, as apart from a few tech fiddles and glitches (which don’t make or break this p low tech show), I felt pretty much like I’ve got the rhythm of the thing. Need to tinker a bit with what I like to think of as emotional tone* and relational positioning** so the arc works more satisfyingly, but hoping that will come as I chill a bit.

* this is a show that has a bit of criticism of the industry/all industry in it. It’s important to control the pace at which I let myself (my Persona On Stage) bring forward my reactions to the emotional impact of the accumulation of various stories (which have all happened in the past and been reacted to, but which I’m telling to a fresh audience reacting in the moment). So, for example, if an anecdote is one that made me angry or sad, I can’t start the story with anger or sadness. It has to rise naturally as a part of the shape of the story. Otherwise, the subtle effect on the audience is to take some realism away; like in a fight scene seeing someone reel away from a slap before the impact.

** I know the show, but in performing it, have to be *with* the audience, and *in* the narrative rather than lecturing to them from a position off in the distance, above the show.

The Underbelly at Bristo square have a lovely venue (it has a dressing room! With little tables for all the acts with your name written in your quadrant so you can make a mess! There’s air conditioning!) and the audience were incredibly nice. Including the lady who gave me this hand made “medal”.

This is a picture of me looking tired, but satisfied. The nervousness of anticipating the start of this run can now be replaced with the ups and downs of trying to perfect a tricky show that I love doing.

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P.S. let me know if the behind the curtain stuff about the performance and tinkering in the show is fun for you or if it’s one of those things that’s better to stay in my head.

If you do like it, there’s the writers meetings and you’re welcome to come along to them, or if you’d like to drill into some of your work with this level of upsetting specificity, you can always set up a one-on-one consultation. The links are all here.

P.P.S. I’ll try to do regular updates while in edinburgh, so brace your inboxes for an Alice Fraser Month.

P.P.P.S. If you like any of my stuff, do feel free to share it around. The About Page (which until yesterday I thought was the landing page for my Patreon, but turns out I was wrong and have been hiding all my things from you all) has all the links to my specials and free stuff.