I’ve managed to get a job working at Underbelly in Edinburgh as tech crew during the Edinburgh Fringe – a month of thousands of performing arts shows at hundreds of venues.

I’ve not actually got my own venue, I’m working as a cover technician, so I get to hop around the different venues at Underbelly Cowgate and run those for a day or two at a time while others are off on holiday or otherwise. On the up-side it lets me see so many more shows. On the downside, I’ve no idea what’s needed for these shows – most have pretty decent notes so I have an idea, but not all! Some shows need opped too, and a couple of times I’ve been the only tech op for a show which I’ve never seen or heard about before. Usually though, if a show doesn’t have their own op, it’s usually a really straight-forward show to run (less than 10 cues, including audience in, bows, and audience out states).

So here’s a list of all the shows I’ve seen, set up for, or generally helped with:

• Belly Laugh
  • Sad Faces
  • One Hour Plays
  • Punch
  • Leads & Stern
  • Durham Revue
  • Tiffany Stevenson
  • Flames over New Jersey
• Big Belly
  • Real Man’s Guide to Sainthood
  • Captain Ko
  • Tenderpits
  • Guide to Second Date Sex
• Iron Belly
  • Razing Eddie
  • You Obviously Know What I’m Talking About
  • Chapel Street
  • Strong Arm
  • Beast
  • Truth
  • The Great Puppet Horn
  • The Lonely One
  • Tom Cottle
• Delhi Belly
  • Graters: Julian Ignores his Friend
  • Letters to the Man
  • Jessie Cave’s Bookworm
  • Dog-Eared Collective
  • Mark Grist: Rogue Teacher
• White Belly
  • Spring Awakening
  • Almost Nothing to do with Frogs
  • Bad Bread
  • Oxford Revue
  • Mark Nelson
  • Doc Faustus
• Belly Button
  • Glory Dazed
  • Doctor Brown
• Belly Dancer
  • Discover Ben Target!
• (Top floor)
  • Boom Boom Club

Bolded are the ones I’ve actually seen. Italicised are the ones I’ve opped.

It’s hard to believe it’s nearly over – it’s been amazing, and there’s only one day of shows left, then the strike (take-down / de-rig / etc). I’m definitely going to try to go back next year if I can, it’s definitely been worth it! I’ve met so many cool people, talented actors / directors / technicians, and the team I’ve been working with have been nothing short of amazing :)