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Or maybe balance when you\u2019re having late nights. Much of the Fringe\u2019s kinships forged and greatest performances occur at night. As sleep\u2019s so integral to waking well and delivering a show AND you’ll have little room to replenish otherwise, you need to watch when you go for a late night. Perhaps save for the days off and\/or if you have to be out, plan accordingly for waking.<\/p>\n
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When\/who do you flyer when your potential audience is barely up? I thought about rounding up the morning Costa coffee crew for some breakbeats with their breakfast brews\u2026 Promo treads a thin line between inviting and invasive, and in the morning flyering can feel more invasive as everyone is still in their waking state. Instead, I\u2019m fluctuating between flyering straight after my performance and later in the day for the following morning.<\/p>\n
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Photography by Madeleine Rose<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wake at 7:30\/8am to deliver for 10:15am. No biggie, certainly not the earliest people get up to the most challenging things. I\u2019ve tried locking into 8 hours of sleep and failed. I\u2019m good on 7 hours, which means I can do a fair amount of evening stuff. Have tried a 20-minute nap post-performance. Coffee\u2019s good. The key thing is to listen to the body when it needs rest. If the post-show decompression needs longer, then I reduce what else I do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I adhere to poet and musician Roger Robinson\u2019s crucial advice: \u2018your performance begins the moment you step out the door and make your way to the space\u2019. I\u2019ve been adhering to this from as soon as I wake up, in order to avoid not getting out of bed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The drumming in How to Keep Time<\/a> is heavily improvised. I usually need a day of talking to people and interaction to warm into trusting myself to improvise \u2013 without this, I now must rely on thorough warm-ups with rudiments and trusting my ability to be playful. That means I knock around in my imagination and play with ideas as I walk, forming a kind of inner dialogue. I talk to myself in nonsense and follow my mouth muscles. This seems to warm up the glitches in me and encourages them at this time of day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We all have those bad mornings when we seem to have got out of the wrong side of the bed and everything feels wrong. Performing in front of a paying audience is the last thing you want to do, at any point in the day. The morning performer has to fast-track this feeling, which calls for a deeper immersion and trust in the work you\u2019re delivering.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to worry about your audience at any time in the Fringe. For the morning performer, the worries are: \u2018How many will come at that time of day?\u2019; \u2018Will they be receptive to the weird idea I\u2019m performing at 10:15?\u2019 And yes, there are morning yawns and missed laughs, but mostly, this slot really primes an audience. They\u2019ve decided to be here at this time, to see you, so their attention can be exceptionally sharp and not eroded by anything else they\u2019ve seen that day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I guess the ultimate bonus of this slot is that I\u2019m done by 11:30am. I finish my get-out, meet a bunch of beautiful theatre-goers if they stop by, and then the day is mine. Sure, there\u2019s flyering to do, but I can meet up with anyone else, see a whole host of shows and see the sights of Edinburgh. Photography by Madeleine Rose<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No one is on before me, so there is a refined sense of calm as I haul my drum kit on stage, line check and lock in to the room. It\u2019s a grace space that\u2019s rare and perfect for zoning into performance mode.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s a beauty to ending someone\u2019s day of performance with a show. There\u2019s something else about being that first promise of the day ahead. How To Keep Time<\/a> was the very first show of Summerhall’s Festival this year. It was an honour to begin people\u2019s experiences of this wild, exciting festival. And as they carry what they first see in the day to their next shows, I too can carry this into each and every performance and feel renewed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3. Put a ‘rest schedule’ in place<\/h2>\n
4. Adopt a performance mindset<\/h2>\n
5. Develop your own warm-up routine<\/h2>\n
6. Trust in the work<\/h2>\n
7. Trust in your audience<\/h2>\n
8. Relish the slot<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n9. Enjoy a calmer get-in<\/h2>\n
10. Remember you are starting someone\u2019s day at the Fringe<\/h2>\n