Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2017
Last year, largely through a mixture of bad timing and disorganisation, I managed to completely miss my chance to be involved in the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival so this year I made the effort and I'm busy because of it.
I have my own play Margaret getting its first airing at the Kings Arms Theatre, Salford from 24-26 July which I've mentioned before and you can read about here.
I'm currently in the process of inviting producers and programmers to come along to see it so I can take it out and about to other theatres after July.
As well as my own play I'm producing a script in hand, development performance of Just Turf by Tom Hogan which will be performed at The Met in Bury on the evening of 19th July and Touchstones, Rochdale on the afternoon of 21st July. Both these performances are the next step in the journey to a full production and a rural tour in 2018 so we're asking the audience for feedback and to let us know what they really think of the play and its characters.
One of the themes of Just Turf is isolation, both physical and social, and the play explores, through comedy, how relationships and dynamics in families change as we get older.
Just Turf is a poignant, original and dark exploration of one woman’s personal fantasy to dance with Michael Flately and smother him in her prize winning creamy mashed potato. She spends her days longing for someone to help her fervently whisk her crop into silky white mash to the secret beat of her favourite traditional music.
Last, but by no means least, I was thrilled to be asked to help judge the Write for the Stage Prize for New Writing at the GM Fringe Festival. This involves going along to a number of performances throughout July and focusing on the narrative, characters, structure, language and themes then reporting back and thrashing out between the judges who deserves the accolade for 2017.
I saw my first performance on Friday which was called Appily Ever After by Frenetic Fox productions and I loved it! It's left Manchester now but there are a few more performances in Exeter, London and Southampton before the end of the month.
So as you can see, I'm busy this year. Bring it on I say - and get yourself down to see some of the Fringe Festival performances if you can, most are under a tenner and they run through till the end of July.
