Underbelly and the Edinburgh Fringe

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 :)