By Festival Highlights
Tweet

Fringe 'DOs and DON'Ts' from Stage Manager Damian Robertson

One of the first results if you Google my name is last year's Whatsonstage.com blog, hurriedly written the night before the deadline: a testament that you should not leave work to the last minute (a lesson I really should have learned at school).

So why am I now sitting in bed at 02:30, tapping out this year's effort, and making exactly the same mistake again? Put simply, Edinburgh is busy. Really busy. There's thousands of options for what you could be doing at one time, dozens of things you should been doing, and often a handful of things you must do at that very instant or else. I was so busy I forgot to eat properly, and promptly fell ill. I drank a couple of litres of orange juice, was told that "That's not how five-a-day works", but felt better anyway.

I was so busy it took a few days to message my flatmates and check my home has not been burnt down in the London riots. So busy that I have currently seen only one show other than my own. So busy I'm trying to remember how to run, in order to get from one venue to another in time. So busy I showed up to a lunch party yesterday and had to leave before food was served. I'm surrounded by hordes of people I like and respect, but my usual conversation is: "Hey, good to see you, but I've got to go."

Ultimately, I can't complain. I brought it all upon myself, agreeing to tech five shows a day (cockily asserting that I've done four in the past, and wanted to push myself). And I genuinely believe there are many other people here who have it much harder than me: the venue techs with late night comedy shows going on until 5am, the actors and comedians with multiple shows where they have to give 100% throughout, whereas I can drift onto autopilot between cues, and the street teams and flyerers, for whom bad weather isn't so much an inconvenience as a nightmare.

Anyway, before I send this off so I can look at it online with regret six months later, here are a few key DOs and DON'Ts for the festival:

- by Festival Highlights

Any opinions expressed above do not represent the view of Whatsonstage.com nor any of its staff or contributors beyond the bylined author.

Related Content

Other Posts By Festival Highlights
	Assistant Producer Mill Goble Sums Up Festival Highlights' Fringe - 1st Sep 2011 blog
	Company Manager Iain Dodds on Accommodation, Welfare, and Curry - 30th Aug 2011 blog
	Press Assistant Deborah Smith Gives a Local's Viewpoint - 29th Aug 2011 blog
	Chat Masala's Guest Booker Andrew Rogers Winds Down - 28th Aug 2011 blog
	Lights, Camera, Walkies' Zoe Gardner Reflects On Her 2011 Fringe Experiences - 26th Aug 2011 blog
	Press Rep Kate Gambrell On Her Fifth Year With Festival Highlights - 24th Aug 2011 blog
	Showstopper's Sean McCann Celebrates 300 Shows - 23rd Aug 2011 blog
	Phil Mulryne of The Fitzrovia Radio Hour is Running Out of Time - 22nd Aug 2011 blog
	Production Manager Paul Bull Wears Different Hats - 18th Aug 2011 blog
	Associate Producer Kat Portman Escapes Edinburgh For A Few Days - 15th Aug 2011 blog
	More...