Tom Atkins On A Day of Celebrations

Well it’s been a day of celebration so far with David Benson collecting a Fringe First from The Scotsman newspaper this morning over at Assembly on George Street. Just after that, we heard that his show Lockerbie: Unfinished Business has also been shortlisted for an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. We hear about that next Thursday, so fingers crossed! But all-in-all, the day is going well.

There were some great shows winning Fringe Firsts this morning and one particularly interesting one was Bound at Zoo Southside which I hope to be catching tomorrow. It’s fantastic to see some great new work premiering at the Festival and launching the careers of many at the same time.

We’ve also had some success in the Musical Theatre Matters Awards with Reel To Real and Hamlet! The Musical receiving a nomination for Best Musical Production. Barbershopera: Apocalypse No! also received an astounding three nominations for Best New Musical, Best Book and Best Lyrics. The winners of those are also announced next week.

Anyway, it’s easy to get caught up with Awards. I’ll leave it there! On the other shows, we’re still making sure that audience levels are healthy across the board, and working hard to keep everyone going on this final stretch. It actually starts to get a bit more normal in the office at this point in the Festival so we can get out and see some shows in the evenings and weekends. If you have any suggestions, do leave comments for us.

More anon.