Lucy Danser Vs The Internet
When Whatsonstage.com gave me the brief of writing three to four blogs per week during Edinburgh I leapt at the chance. I thought “Yeah, no problem!”. Of course I was busy, but that’s the great thing about writing: If you really want to do it you can cobble together the time to write and somewhere to perch while doing so. That’s exactly how it went pre-Edinburgh and, in fact, also during the first few days here. But the minute the Fringe took off… wham! While I am just just on target, there has definitely been a sudden slowing down in the pace with which I uploaded blogs to this loverly website.
Get up/Get dressed,
Go flyering,
Go to actor’s house and do his make up,
Go flyering,
Go to theatre and set up for show,
Do show get out,
Eat something,
Go flyering/postering,
Do chat show/promotional show,
Attend a workshop,
Do prop shopping,
Go to a meeting,
Print stars/quotes and staple onto flyers,
Wash & iron costume,
See a show!?!?!?,
Eat?,
Go to bed
As you’ll see from the above, there is very little time to sit down and write. Actually, there is very little time to sit down at all. Today, for example, I opted to work the door on my show rather than operate the cues, and thus could sit and scrawl a blog. Sometimes I write whilst taking a food break, waiting to meet someone or as I’m getting into bed. It’s not so much the getting the words into my head, or even down on paper, that’s proving the big problem here. Rather it’s transferring them from my page to your webpage. Edinburgh doesn’t really lend itself to carrying your laptop around with you. You walk vast distances on cobbled ground very fast, you’re constantly putting your belongings down in one bit of your theatre space and dashing to find them again minutes later, you’re surrounded by dodgy weather, pushing crowds, drunk people with alcohol and arts companies that may or may not use food, liquids, slime etc. in their shows and marketing. Basically, a computer is a heavy, expensive and risky liability and, as someone who briefly lost both my only jumper and an entire bag of make up today alone, I’m frankly not willing to take that risk. We arrived to Edinburgh to discover a dearth of internet signal in our flat and the majority of local wi-fi places are not open when we’ve finished our day’s schedule. So I -previously having considered myself fairly au fait with the technological world- am stuck without any viable way to share my festival frolics.
Clearly there’s a solution. You are, for better or worse, reading a successful upload. I can tell you’re practically salivating with anticipation for me to tell you how on earth I managed this feat. I shall tell you.
Two words. FRINGE. CENTRAL. Fringe Central. The hub of activity for all, but mostly independent, Fringe participants. All you have to do is show your lanyard pass, swan past reception and then you can do anything you want! Within reason. In the USB, internet, printing sense. For a meagre £2 you can have a computer all to yourself! It’s a whole new Edinburgh world for me. So that’s it Ladies & Gentlemen. Panic ended, mystery solved. This blog is brought to you courtesy of Fringe Central. And I bid you goodnight.
