This book shares eleven years experience of producing shows at the Fringe for the price of two cafe lattes and a muffin, without the social awkwardness of having to sit with the author in a coffee shop. This guide is aimed at performers interested in producing their first shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. Highlighting the author's personal experiences of half-full houses, flat mates gone bad, hostel horror stories, campsite calamities, and general comedy cock-ups. Although the author's background is in producing and performing stand-up comedy, the principles of venue hire, promotion and publicity are the same for shows of other genres, such as sketch comedy, cabaret and theatre shows, as are the problems of managing large groups of performers. The section on how to write shows details the author's approach to writing his shows as opposed to being a general how to write comedy guide. Press quotes about the book so far: wonderfully illuminating and extremely funny - Festival Previews

Synopsis: "Alice in Black and White" brings a true American legend to her rightful place in history. The play tells the story of the first female photo-journalist, Alice Austen, from the late 1800s until a year before her death in 1952. During a time when social conventions for women demanded marriage and child rearing, Alice pursued her passion for photography, found love with life partner Gertrude Tate, and struggled mightily through the Great Depression as her family lost everything. Interwoven with Alice's story is the search of publisher Oliver Jensen for Alice and her photographs in 1951. Cast Size: 5 Females, 2-3 Males (with doubling) WINNER - StageWrite Women’s Theatre Initiative, Great Plains Theatre Conference “an extraordinary testimony to Alice Austen’s work, her lifestyle and her legacy.” —Broadway World “sentimental without being mushy, lovely without being contrived, funny at times, heartbreaking at others.” —Theatre Louisville

Fringe First and Total Theatre Award- winning Breach (Tank, The Beanfield) restage the 1612 trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Based on surviving court transcripts, this new play dramatises the seven-month trial that gripped Renaissance Rome, and asks how much has changed in the last four centuries. Blending myth, history and contemporary commentary, this is the story of how a woman took revenge through her art to become one of the most successful painters of her generation.

'Ah! The Fringe! I can't think of a more delightful way of putting my liver, bank account, relationship, complexion, and mental stability under the greatest strain they've ever known!' Mel Giedroyc It is the world's largest arts festival, attracting everyone from student first-timers to Hollywood stars. Thrilling, inspiring and bewildering in equal measure, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can make you a star or break your bank. So what is the secret of making it work for you? The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide draws on the experiences of the festival's leading figures - their disasters as well as their triumphs - to take you step by step through the process of making your show a success in the Scottish capital. From choosing a venue to keeping on top of the budget, from sorting out accommodation to securing the best press coverage, from generating word of mouth to making the most of a hit, this unique practical guide for performers, directors and producers helps you get your show the audience it deserves. Among those sharing their expert advice are playwright Simon Stephens, comedian Phil Nichol, actor Siobhan Redmond, producer Guy Masterson, Tiger Lillies front manMartyn Jacques, theatre critic Lyn Gardner, Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award director Nica Burns, as well as the directors of all the major Fringe venues, top press officers, international promoters and insiders from the Fringe Society itself. The foreword is written by playwright Mark Ravenhill.

In this hilarious and heartfelt memoir, Haley McGee sets out to calculate—with mathematical precision—the exact cost of love, and whether all of her former relationships were worth it. Haley McGee is in debt. The solution? A yard sale of gifts from her ex-boyfriends. But when it comes to pricing, she gets stuck. Surely the ways we invest in our romantic relationships should be reflected in the price. But how? Is the mixtape from your first love worth more than the vintage typewriter from a philanderer? Does sitting on an X-Acto knife wedged between seats on a bus to see the boyfriend you lost your virginity to increase or decrease the value of the necklace he gave you? Should you be compensated for the miserable times or do they render an item worthless? Haley decides to gamble on a larger payout. She interviews her exes and enlists the help of a mathematician to create a formula—with eighty-six variables—for the cost of love. As she's searching for answers, the one that got away reappears with a new proposition. Female desire, heartbreak and the chance for integrity in the aftermath of both are held up in this whipsmart, original and daringly candid memoir. As Haley McGee interrogates her romantic triumphs and failures with unflinching detail and hilarity, her exquisite prose elevates this all too human conundrum: Is love worth it?

Stand-up: it's the ultimate solo art form. Yet, behind the scenes, you will increasingly find the shadowy figure of a director. For comics themselves and for those who support them, this is the first book to give the director's perspective on creating and performing stand-up comedy. Drawing on his own experience of directing stand-up alongside speaking to comedians and their directors, Chris Head produces a revealing perspective on the creative process, comic persona, writing stand-up, structuring material and delivering a performance. Directors interviewed include Logan Murray, John Gordillo and Simon McBurney, who between them have directed Eddie Izzard, Michael McIntyre, Milton Jones, Lenny Henry and French & Saunders. With a foreword by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz and contributions from many other interviewees including Oliver Double (author of Getting the Joke), this is the only book that goes all the way from one-liners to theatre via comedy club sets and full-length shows. Perfect for stand-ups from newbies to pros, students of comedy, academics studying and teaching stand-up and for directors themselves, A Director's Guide to the Art of Stand-up offers hundreds of inspiring practical insights and shows how creating the comedian's highly personal, individual act can be a deeply collaborative process.

A selection of the world’s most incredible things according to award-winning writer, comedian, artist and podcaster Rob Auton