EDINBURGH 2017: A Day At The Fringe- Natalie Allison

Natalie Allison, producer of SKIN blogs for BWW to give us an insight into a typical day for her at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Every day at the festival starts with a to do list on a blank page. Or so I like to believe.

How many tickets you sell, how well you feel the show is performed, which industry or press will come along, how truthful you are being to yourself, how many connections you are making, how much you are growing alongside your collaborators, how much money you've spent and how you will sustain your career is an evolving thought process that can change with each ticket sold.

The key word is 'How' for many of the seasoned strategists, doubters, first timers and worried family members. At more vulnerable moments, it can be the most intimidating and isolating word to hear before your first coffee of the day. For a producer, you are generally expected to know the answer to most of them before your first coffee of the day - and your last drink at night!

During the festival, whatever role you play as a fringe 'artist', everyone gets a chance to step into the role of a producer. The daily physical tasks of: selling your show to audiences, selecting carbs, rehearsing, resting, crisis management, stapling, annihilating carbs, reading contracts, doing interviews, reviewing budgets, crying, searching endlessly for convenient plug sockets and hugging carbs are all important in the lead up to the house lights dimming and hush spreading throughout the theatre.

It's a quiet, present and fertile moment, in which we all make ourselves vulnerable to the artists that sow us with new thoughts, ideas, emotions and maybe, some answers which we adopt as our own. It's a moment that powerfully silences the cursed 'How' and presents a more productive word: 'Why'.

Working on SKIN by 201 Dance Company, we follow the intimate journey of gender transition, and join 6 of the UK's most incredible street dancers as they showcase the power of sticking to your unique 'why' and facing the world on those grounds with sheer resilience and heart.

I follow the audience's highs and lows as they come to understand that our own answer to 'Why?' is intrinsic to valuing our identities in whatever physical form they come in. It is central to all iconic stories. We must all feel empowered to explore and share our findings. Even if the results are inconclusive: this is the very nature of human existence.

As a producer on SKIN at Pleasance Courtyard, I give a standing ovation to the company alongside all 300-audience members each night as we all celebrate this message together. Thanks to this extraordinarily talented cast, we collectively know both how and why we will move forward, helping each other and thanking the artists of the fringe for persevering every day. For anyone that comes to see a show after a day at work: it's a universal board meeting like no other, and not quite a service you can sum up with that pesky to do list. We must meet each other in the theatre for that one.

Show: SKIN by 201 Dance Company

Venue: Pleasance Beyond at Pleasance Courtyard

Time: 8pm

Photo credit: Christopher Nash

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