Can a tightly curated festival of well-established acts really claim to be ‘fringe’, asks Naomi Elster.
From the time I realized how much I wanted to write a script and see it come to life, the mysterious world of theatre was as daunting as it was enticing. I had no contacts, no experience, no clue. But in 2013 I wrote Scabs, which was based on events in 1913, and I knew I’d be a fool to let the easy marketing hook of the centenary year go by. I wasn’t optimistic about anyone taking a chance on an unknown female writer; if I wanted anything to happen I was going to have to make it happen myself.
The deadline for Dublin Fringe Festival (DFF) was fast approaching when my idea had barely settled. I naïvely went through the application process anyway, not until later learning that many of Dublin’s creative community feels that for DFF to call itself “fringe” is false advertising when it’s tightly curated, and when so many of its acts are well-established. The application process was challenging, to say the least. Maybe I narrowly missed out, maybe I never had a chance. What I do know is that the extensive application forced me to think about things I wouldn’t have otherwise, like budgets, and set, and target audiences, which left me in a much better position to put on my show when another opportunity came along—the successful but unfortunately short-lived open access 10 Days in Dublin festival... Keep reading on HowlRound
From the time I realized how much I wanted to write a script and see it come to life, the mysterious world of theatre was as daunting as it was enticing. I had no contacts, no experience, no clue. But in 2013 I wrote Scabs, which was based on events in 1913, and I knew I’d be a fool to let the easy marketing hook of the centenary year go by. I wasn’t optimistic about anyone taking a chance on an unknown female writer; if I wanted anything to happen I was going to have to make it happen myself.
The deadline for Dublin Fringe Festival (DFF) was fast approaching when my idea had barely settled. I naïvely went through the application process anyway, not until later learning that many of Dublin’s creative community feels that for DFF to call itself “fringe” is false advertising when it’s tightly curated, and when so many of its acts are well-established. The application process was challenging, to say the least. Maybe I narrowly missed out, maybe I never had a chance. What I do know is that the extensive application forced me to think about things I wouldn’t have otherwise, like budgets, and set, and target audiences, which left me in a much better position to put on my show when another opportunity came along—the successful but unfortunately short-lived open access 10 Days in Dublin festival... Keep reading on HowlRound