Go behind the scenes of the Edinburgh Festivals with arts correspondent Jane Bradley and a team from Queen Margaret University! They've been interviewing the stars, offering unique insights into the creative processes and personal stories that fuel these world-renowned cultural events.
Discover the passion, dedication, and inspiration driving the performers and artists who make the Edinburgh Festivals so special. This project sheds light on what it takes to succeed on such a prominent international stage, from overcoming challenges to embracing artistic expression.
#EdinburghFestivals #ArtsAndCulture #JaneBradley #QueenMargaretUniversity
Discover the passion, dedication, and inspiration driving the performers and artists who make the Edinburgh Festivals so special. This project sheds light on what it takes to succeed on such a prominent international stage, from overcoming challenges to embracing artistic expression.
#EdinburghFestivals #ArtsAndCulture #JaneBradley #QueenMargaretUniversity
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the second edition of The Scotsman at the Edinburgh Festivals.
00:10I'm Jane Bradley, Arts and Culture Correspondent at The Scotsman.
00:13And today I'm just going to be giving you a taste of the different performers and events that are happening in Edinburgh this week.
00:19First up, we're going up to Inverleith, away from the main hub of the festivals,
00:23where local theatre company Leith Theatre is putting on Calendar Girls.
00:26I'm here at Inverleith St. Surf's with community drama group Leith Theatre, who are putting on Calendar Girls.
00:32And I have all the Calendar Girls here in front of me. Hello everybody.
00:35Hello.
00:36So can you tell me a little bit about what it's been like putting on this play?
00:40Who wants to go first?
00:42No, it's been absolutely amazing. The teamwork is just fantastic. I feel like you all live with these girls now.
00:51We've seen through a lot together, I think.
00:54There will be some challenging elements to putting on this particular play. Can you talk a little bit about that?
00:59Awesome.
01:00Let's just say we've seen a lot of each other over the course of the rehearsals and will do over the course of two weeks.
01:07It is challenging to do this authentically, but with modesty and with a great deal of speed.
01:19It's been fantastic because working with this group of women is just brilliant.
01:25I think what's come out to me is the vulnerability that we've felt, having to get naked together, it kind of ties in with the vulnerability of the women in the play.
01:38Because every one of them is vulnerable in some way, but what brings them together is this WI group and the Calendar.
01:44So I kind of feel it's almost quite personal. You're kind of having to live it. And I think that helps to add to the characters.
01:50Fantastic. And have you all taken part in plays before with Leigh Theatre?
01:55Yep. All of you, apart from one?
02:01No, this is my first real play and first time with Leigh Theatre.
02:05And it's been fun, exciting and, yeah, marvellous. I've been really enjoying it.
02:12And thanks to all these ladies and everybody else that you don't see behind the scenes.
02:16Yeah, it's been really, really lovely.
02:18Hi, my name's Phil. I'm the director for Leigh Theatre's production of Calendar Girls on until the 16th of August.
02:26It's been so much fun doing this show. Lots of laughter, lots of emotions.
02:30It's a real story. It's a true story that we're bringing to life.
02:33And we're also being supported by St. Columbus Hospice, so we're raising money for a really important charity.
02:38So please come along, buy tickets.
02:40I also had a really interesting chat with Cara Sandys, who has been coming to the festival for 40 years.
02:47I think she's missed one year during Covid.
02:49And I got her impressions of how the festival has changed over the years and how she's finding it this year.
02:55I'm here in the Pleasants Courtyard this morning with Cara Sandys, who has been to 39 editions of The Fringe,
03:01doing everything from box office manager to reviewer to comedy awards judge and many other things in between,
03:09and is now here as an audience member.
03:11So I just thought I'd catch up with her and find out how The Fringe has changed in the last four decades.
03:16Hi, Cara.
03:17Hi, Jay.
03:18So tell me a little bit about what you've done during The Fringe.
03:21Well, I started off, when I came first, it was in 1983, and I just came as an audience member.
03:29And then I got a job working in the box office at the George Square Theatre, and then with the National Youth Music Theatre.
03:36And then after that, I became the box office manager and the accountant.
03:41And then I was a judge for the comedy awards in 2011.
03:45And I sort of felt that I'd reached my peak there.
03:48There wasn't much more that I could do.
03:50It was all sort of downhill from then on.
03:52And then I thought, well, the only thing I haven't actually done is a show.
03:56So in 2018, I did a show on the free festival, and it was kind of about the story of my 37 or 38 years, whatever it was, of coming to the festival.
04:11And how much has it changed over the time you've been coming up?
04:14I mean, obviously, in the 80s, it was a very different kind of event.
04:17Well, it wasn't.
04:18It wasn't.
04:19I mean, the venues, it's all so similar.
04:21It's a bit like getting into a time machine coming back here.
04:24I kept diaries, so I've got the note of every show that I've seen.
04:28How many shows do you think you've seen over 39 years?
04:31Here's the smallest book in the world.
04:33So I actually did a little tally.
04:35So starting in 1993, I went through my diaries, and I tallied it all up.
04:39I got up to 1,100 shows.
04:43Wow.
04:44I remember seeing Alan Davies, and there was about seven people in the audience, you know, and what happened to him.
04:50Yeah.
04:51So you've watched all these comedians come up from the sort of beginning of their careers.
04:53Yeah.
04:54And what are your plans for this year's festival?
04:56Well, I'm going to see Gary Starr tonight from Australia.
04:59So do you know about him?
05:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:02Oh, right.
05:03Yeah.
05:04I've seen the show already.
05:05And it is off the scale of polarity.
05:07And do you think you'll come back again?
05:09This is not your last friend?
05:10Well, I don't know.
05:11You know, I've had a break, and now I go back into it again.
05:15As an older person, and just having to kind of accept my, I don't know, like limitations, and just maybe not try and go for breaking records all the time, which is what I've always tried to do.
05:26You know, because you work out this itinerary of where the shows were.
05:29One of the little tricks was that you'd get up in the morning and you'd go and get newspapers because they'd give away free tickets to shows.
05:35And so you're like, oh, my God, I've got to get to assembly rooms and get these free tickets here.
05:39And then I've got to go over to the Gilded Balloon and get more tickets over there.
05:42And then I've got to get to the Traverse.
05:43And you'd work out this little route to run around the city picking up all these free tickets from papers.
05:48I don't think they do that anymore.
05:50Everything's changed, I suppose, with the digital, the app.
05:54It has.
05:55If I had more time this year, I probably would have stayed longer.
05:58But I think what you have to do is you've got to be quite organised.
06:01You've got to get your accommodation sorted out in advance, you know, get that booked, get your transport booked, and then, you know, just come up and you're all ready to go.
06:11I just hope the weather's going to be fine like it is at the moment. So, yeah.
06:16Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for sharing all your memories of The Fringe with us.
06:19It's been really, really interesting. So thanks so much.
06:21Thanks so much.
06:22We are The Faustus Project, and we are on Underbelly Cowgate, Belly Laugh 905.
06:27Every night we have a guest actor who's never met us, never rehearsed with us, and they do not know what is going to happen.
06:33They step into the role of Dr. Faustus and sell their soul as an actor to us, and we proceed to theatrically torture them,
06:39letting out their worst nightmare. We're going to make them do all sorts of things that they never thought they'd have to do live on stage,
06:45and they're not prepared to do it. So come and see it, 905, Belly Laugh Underbelly.
06:49Woo!
06:50I was lucky enough this week to speak to Jordan Allen Dutton, who is the co-writer of Musical Nerds on a flying visit to Edinburgh from the US.
06:56We chatted about the musical, which has a really interesting history and is being revived for the first time in nearly ten years at the Edinburgh Fringe.
07:04Hi, Jordan.
07:05What's up, Fringe?
07:07So, Jordan's show is a musical called Nerds, which was written about, what, 15 years ago now?
07:12Yeah, it's been going for a long time.
07:14Yeah, but one of the first productions, it was meant to go to Broadway after an initial run.
07:18Yeah.
07:19So can you tell me a little bit about what happened back then?
07:21Jeez, man, that is like, we're the Star Wars saga of musicals, right?
07:26So this was like, we were Princess Leia, we got trapped by Jabba the Hutt, we escaped, we're in a gold bikini, we're back.
07:33It's all about the Force, the Jedi, the Nerds is the greatest story of the underdog.
07:38So we survived, you know, classic theatre calamity story.
07:42But we're back.
07:43So for those who are not maybe familiar with the Star Wars theme, basically what happened was you had a funder, you had a producer who was going to produce this really large-scale show on Broadway.
07:52It was going to be this huge hit, and then two weeks before you were due to perform, the funding did not materialize.
07:59Yes.
08:00Well, a good amount of the funding was there because the show is amazing.
08:03And the show always has had lots of interest, and Paul, this latest producer, is just a nice example of someone who believes in it.
08:11Because it changes audiences, it really brings them in.
08:15So even in those rehearsal processes in New York, the buzz was starting around the show.
08:20And, you know, it's just, it's like, I guess, as I always say now, like, I do a background check on anybody I go out to lunch with, just to make sure I'm not getting involved with it.
08:31There's a lot of shady people in the theatre.
08:33Yeah.
08:34Yeah.
08:35Well, that's always good to know.
08:36So you've managed to bring the show to The Fringe.
08:37Yeah.
08:38This is only the second time you've ever had a show at The Fringe.
08:40Yes.
08:41And you weren't here the first time, so this is your first Fringe experience.
08:43Yes.
08:44My first, my first, Eric and my first musical here was a rapping version of Shakespeare.
08:50And it played in 2002 in The Fringe, and it was a pretty big success.
08:54It won an award for best acting back then.
08:58And this show actually about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs features some rapping.
09:03So I'm going to do a little rapping right now.
09:05Great.
09:06So, yeah.
09:07So I'm just going to say, like, it's the Scotsman.
09:09I got the hotsman for the Scotsman.
09:11My girl Jane right here, let me show you what we gots, man.
09:14Here we go.
09:15So this is Bill Gates releasing Windows in 1995.
09:20I come from Harvard.
09:21There's no test in me.
09:23One six double donut on the SAT.
09:25Paul Allen, yo, he's my right hand guy.
09:28My cruise IQ never ends like pie.
09:31I'm a gangster crook.
09:32Apple tree got shook.
09:33Entered the gates, broke a window, and I stole their look.
09:35On my way out the door, I said, remember my name.
09:38Bill Gates, bitch, pimp of the software game.
09:41So this is an over the top.
09:43That's amazing.
09:44Camping show.
09:45Do not come in expecting a history lesson.
09:48This is a fun show about technology.
09:50It's supposed to be fun.
09:51It's what all of us love about computers, and it's good for all ages.
09:56People are going to love the show, and we've been getting standing ovations already so far.
10:01I'm just grateful to be here.
10:03I love the Fringe.
10:04It's just such a vibe.
10:06Fantastic.
10:07And you are not going to be performing in it yourself.
10:09I'm not.
10:10I wish.
10:11You could.
10:12You could step in if you needed an understudy clinic.
10:14Yeah.
10:15Eric's even better.
10:16Eric, my co-writer, Eric Weider is the best rapper in his late 40s.
10:21And it is on every night, every day at Underbelly Cow Barn.
10:25Every day at the Cow Barn, Underbelly.
10:28Please come see it, nerds.
10:30The cast is incredible.
10:33Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tellery, Elise, Dan, Buckley, Kane, Oliver, Perry.
10:41These are incredible actors.
10:43And we've been rehearsing, and it's, like I said, it's going to be a fun experience for
10:48anybody who wants to come, anybody who likes technology.
10:50But even if you don't like technology and just like nerd humor, this is a show for you.
10:56And a great revival for a show that, you know, at one point it looked like was not going to
11:00be seen again.
11:01You know, it looked like it was going to be.
11:02Yeah.
11:03I mean, listen, you know, good things survive, hopefully.
11:06I think that ultimately theater is about relating to an audience.
11:10And I think this show just keeps coming back.
11:13And I think that's kind of the story of nerds in general, right, which is nerds are people
11:17who are passionate about things, who care about things that other people, maybe other
11:20people don't understand, right?
11:22And theater nerds are among the biggest nerds in the world, right?
11:25As we can see on the streets of Edinburgh, it's loaded with theater nerds, right?
11:30So a show about underdogs, a show about technology and how the people who created the world that
11:36we live in today ultimately just started out as, you know, kind of slept on, picked on people
11:44who cared about weird stuff.
11:47So it makes sense to me in a kind of faithful way that our show has had so many different
11:51opportunities and false starts along the way.
11:54Because, you know, computers have false starts, shows about nerds have false starts.
11:59Great.
12:00Thank you so much for joining us today, Jordan.
12:01Yes.
12:02Really good to meet you.
12:03Awesome.
12:04I had a great time meeting Jordan and hearing his rap.
12:07But next up, we've got another rapper, info rapper Chris Turner, who's had some very exciting
12:12news while here at the print.
12:13Tune in and hear what he's got to say.
12:16Today I'm here at Underbelly with Chris Turner, who is, has a show called Spontaneous, which
12:22is, it's quite difficult to explain, isn't it?
12:24But it's an audience interaction show with freestyle rap, which is all completely improvised.
12:29But we're not really here to talk about your show specifically today, are we Chris?
12:32No, we're not.
12:33I mean, as much as I want to, because I've just been going all about it.
12:36It sounds fascinating.
12:37But you've just had quite an exciting piece of news.
12:39Yes.
12:40So I am competing in this season of America's Got Talent, which is a show that I assume people
12:45have heard of.
12:46Yeah.
12:47It's quite big.
12:48We have our own version here.
12:49And yes.
12:50Yeah.
12:51That was my main fear when I went on it.
12:52They'd be like, why not Britain's Got Talent?
12:54But yeah, I am American now.
12:56I've got my American citizenship.
12:58I entered the competition and I did my audition in front of Simon Cowell and Scary Spice, Mel
13:05B and Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel and Terry Crews.
13:08Don't forget Terry Crews, the absolute beefcake powerhouse.
13:12I got four yeses, which was great, but that doesn't necessarily mean you actually get through
13:17because they say yes to more acts than they can fit in the live quarterfinals.
13:21And when you got here to Edinburgh, when you got here to Fringe, you had no idea this was going to happen?
13:25Yeah.
13:26They called me.
13:27I was walking along Salisbury Crags.
13:30It's very picturesque actually.
13:32It was kind of a good moment.
13:33They're like, you're through to the live quarterfinals.
13:35I was like, I can't hear you.
13:36I want some crags.
13:38I was the first freestyle rapper to even appear on the show in 20 years.
13:43They've never had a freestyle rapper.
13:45And they were like, are you sure you want to do that?
13:48Are you sure you don't want to do something written or scripted?
13:51I'm like, no, I'll make it up.
13:52They were like, oh, this could end terribly.
13:55And that would make for great television.
13:57Edinburgh considered this training, you know, 25 shows.
14:00I do six or seven raps a show.
14:02And the raps are all based on ideas that you get from the audience.
14:05It's an improvisation sort of.
14:07Yeah.
14:08They always change the show.
14:09I mean, there's so many different ways you can do freestyles.
14:12You can, you know, the classic is, you know, oh, grab some things out of your bag.
14:15So I'll rap about those, whatever you're going to get.
14:17The other day, someone ripped off his prosthetic limb.
14:20Ripped off is probably the wrong word.
14:22He removed.
14:23I don't think he was like, ah!
14:24What will this mean for your career?
14:26I mean, you're obviously, you're based in America now, but you are from the UK originally.
14:29Yeah.
14:30Yeah, from Manchester.
14:31I live in New York now.
14:32I've been there for nine years.
14:34Obviously, Simon Cowell is, anyone who's grown up in the UK, you know Simon Cowell.
14:39You know that he's like this Roman emperor who can just make or break a career depending on whether he likes the act or not.
14:45One of the reasons when people say, why did you go to America?
14:48Like, why not stay in the UK?
14:50I love performing in the UK.
14:51I love performing in the UK.
14:52Like, touring is incredible here.
14:54But it is much smaller.
14:57A night out to watch the comedy in America is just more of a common thing than here.
15:02Right, yeah.
15:03You know, here you might go and see your favorite touring comedian in an arena.
15:07And over there, just going to your town's comedy club is a bit more common, I think.
15:12If you're watching me here in Edinburgh, that is never happening again.
15:16Even if you give the same suggestion twice.
15:18Yeah.
15:19I'm never going to rap about it the same way because that's cheating.
15:22That's brilliant.
15:23So, immediately after your Fringe show, you're flying to where?
15:25Where's it being filmed?
15:26In Los Angeles.
15:27Los Angeles.
15:28Yeah.
15:29Fantastic.
15:30In a 3,000 seat auditorium.
15:32And are you nervous?
15:33Nerves are good though.
15:35Nerves are adrenaline.
15:36And like, without the nerves, you can't perform.
15:38Without the nerves, you can't do the freestyling.
15:41If you're not nervous, the brain isn't pumping full of adrenaline.
15:44And finally, do you hope, do you think you could get all the way?
15:49Do you think you can win?
15:51In America, you have to say, I know I can win this.
15:56And that's what Americans, we value that confidence.
16:00I think the only factor that decides whether it's going to really like pop off or not is just like, in that moment, how do I do?
16:08Like, how comfortable am I?
16:10How nervous am I?
16:11How much can I nail it?
16:13Yeah, so I think in my British mode and in my American mode, I think I can win it.
16:16There's not a better training ground to go into a performance.
16:19Like, people leave here and then go and shoot a live at the Apollo or go and do a tour.
16:23Like, yeah, you've got up to speed.
16:25You're like already at a, you know, a running start.
16:28So.
16:29That's great.
16:30Well, thank you so much.
16:31And good luck with it all.
16:33Thank you very much.
16:34Yeah.
16:35And, you know, I can't say tune in and vote for me because it's on at 2am in the morning.
16:40I don't think they accept calls from the United Kingdom.
16:43Which now makes me go, I can't win because.
16:46Oh, yeah.
16:47Get your VPNs ready.
16:48That's what I definitely can't legally say that.
16:51Tune in legally.
16:52Watch responsibly.
16:53Yeah.
16:54Come see Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice at Nicholson Square.
16:58At 1pm today and 9pm tomorrow.
17:00Our version is celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen.
17:04It is a contemporary spinoff, including all adaptations of Clive and Prejudice.
17:10In this package put together by Quinn Lorimer of Queen Margaret University.
17:14We take a look at musicals Stick Together, which is a musical about school friends who get trapped in a locker room because of a zombie invasion.
17:21Hello, my name's Gabby and I have written the musical Stick Together.
17:27And I'm also playing the piano during it.
17:29And I'm co-directing.
17:30They will not stop.
17:31They will not stop.
17:32They will not stop.
17:33They will not stop.
17:34Fight till the end.
17:37So Stick Together is basically about three girls that get trapped in a locker room overnight due to a zombie invasion.
17:42Totally normal.
17:43And basically one of the, it's totally normalized in rural Persia that this happens.
17:48But one of the girls is a new transfer from America and she does not know about these zombie invasions.
17:53So they have to explain it to her.
17:54And they basically go through the trials and tribulations of girlhood throughout the night.
17:58I would actually say the music came first or some, three songs came first.
18:05And I really connect with music.
18:07I think it's such a powerful tool.
18:09And I wrote these songs and I was like, I want to write a story that goes with these songs.
18:14And so I built upon them and then came the rest of the songs.
18:17So yeah, it was a mix of both.
18:19But I do think music was a major lead in the show coming together.
18:24I think one, musical theatre in itself has no boundaries.
18:39Like you can literally go crazy with it.
18:41No topic is off the table with musical theatre.
18:45And I just was like, how can I make this story a little bit out there and more interesting,
18:50rather than just being locked in a locker room because the door is jammed or something.
18:54I wanted to add in like a bit more of a strange twist to keep the audience involved.
19:00So Stick Together will be on from the 18th to the 23rd at the Space on the Mile in Space 3.
19:06We're on at 9.35pm every evening.
19:08We can't wait to see you there.
19:11I will find you.
19:15I will find you.
19:21What?
19:22My name is Connor Malbuff.
19:26Malbuff means bad beef from French to English.
19:28I do a one hour comedy special every single night at Assembly Rooms.
19:32It's called Sorry, A Canadian's Apology for America.
19:35I've worked with everyone from Jon Stewart to John Mulaney to Nicky Glazer.
19:39And if you want to laugh at the debauchery of the states right now through a Canadian length,
19:43I've lived there eight years.
19:44God knows we need a laugh.
19:46Cheers.
19:48Quinn's also been down to meet the Sorries, a traditional Scottish folk duo,
19:52who are here for the 16th year at the Fringe.
19:55I'm Douglas Kaye from The Sorries.
19:58And I'm Marty Phillip, also from The Sorries, clearly.
20:01And our show is The Sorries, and we play a selection of Scottish folk songs,
20:07basically from the past 300, 400 years, with a little bit of chat and banter thrown in.
20:15A wee bit of comedy, hopefully. Deliberate, hopefully.
20:26We have been doing this for about 19 years, 18, 19 years.
20:30Yeah, this is our 16th year at The Fringe.
20:32Yeah, so we started at The Fringe in 2009,
20:36and I've been there every year by the Covid year.
20:39So we're brought up listening to a lot of Scottish folk music.
20:42And the Corries were such a big thing, such a big act,
20:49that we kind of obviously had heard them doing a lot of stuff.
20:52But it was more their ethos that we took,
20:54because they had a bit of fun with it.
20:57You know, delivered the songs kind of truthfully and passionately,
21:00but they didn't take themselves too seriously.
21:03And it's more that ethos that we have.
21:05And I think it's actually, I would go further with this sort of thing about how we heard them.
21:10They were kind of intrinsic to my childhood and sort of early teens.
21:15Whenever there's like, you know, Christmas time,
21:18Hogmanay, whatever else,
21:19the Corrie's records would be broken out.
21:21People would be listening to them and singing along all the time.
21:24We are in the Thistle Theatre in Greenside at Riddle's Court.
21:37So up the top of the Royal Mile and down the little lane to the left.
21:42And we are on at 10 past 4 every day from Monday the 11th until Saturday the 23rd.
21:50But we're having a day off on the...
21:52Sunday.
21:53Sunday the 17th.
21:54This is the 17th, yeah.
21:55Yeah, same time.
21:56So that's us.
21:58And it's about 50 minutes long.
22:00Sure.
22:01So a nice pre-dinner.
22:03Sing along.
22:04Or post-drinking.
22:06Post-afternoon drinking sing along.
22:08You meet a lot of really interesting performers,
22:13even in the venue and outside it as well.
22:15Yeah.
22:16They all have a story and some of them are radically different.
22:20But everyone seems to try and muddle along, by and large.
22:23And I think I was brought up in Edinburgh so, for me, the fringe from when I was about 12 or 13 was such a big thing.
22:31That being able to be part of it, you know, having sat through shows and seeing people and being amazed by it,
22:39to be a little part of that is very, it's very gratifying.
22:45And, if I sing I mean British I mean British, I mean British I agree that I did.
22:57Read it out loud and Chuuken but Sparaugen, England.
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