The Festival Cafe - day six
Post categories: Edinburgh Festivals
| 11:18 UK time, Tuesday, 23 August 2011
It's week two of the Festival Cafe, and here are the runners' blogs from 22 August...
Andy Mallon
Week two has begun, and begun with a bang! Today we were joined by the fabulous who is bringing her one-woman show "Midnight Your Time" to Assembly George Square. We were also given a glimpse into the life of and in the form of an extract performed by the cast of "." And to top it off we were joined by the cast of "" and world class mezzo soprano both of whom performed for the appreciative Festival Café audience.
Today I had the pleasure of looking after Andrea Baker and her fabulous accompanist Richard Lewis. Andrea is such a unique talent with a voice that is so versatile, one minute she treated us to a few bars of opera and the next it was soul - worth a listen via the iplayer if you missed the show! I wasn't required to fetch Andrea a hot water bottle for her fingers (last week we were entertained by guitarist who needs a hot water bottle to warm up her fingers before performing!), however I did need to photocopy some music for Richard. After running around the streets of Edinburgh for about fifteen minutes I finally managed to locate an internet café which had a photocopying machine, just in time for the sound check.
Andrea performed three songs for us including "Stampin' Ties" which featured some great stamping provided by the fantastic Potterrow audience! We were also treated to some insightful pieces of advice by the fantastic Diana Quick who advised the youthful cast of "I Hope My Heart Goes First" to "be themselves" and to use their own experiences and perform what they know - sounds like good advice to me!
Tomorrow's show is another busy one. (What else would you expect from the Festival Café!) On the show we've got actor , Sally Hughes star of "," Richard Shelton who is currently playing another musical legend Frank Sinatra (in play ) and virtuoso Sarod player . So join us at Potterrow tomorrow (if you've got a ticket, a couple of tickets available on the door too...) or listen to Radio Scotland from 1315!
Joanne Smithers
"That was pure dyno"
I believe that means good in today's current youth vernacular and was the succinct critique of today's show by Megan's sister.
(Do the kids still use aceic? Is that how you spell it? Can you even misspell a made up word?)
It's a sad day when you're out of the loop with the word on the street. It's an even sadder day when you start questioning your own achievements after spending time with the young stars of I Hope My Heart Goes First. We were joined by Fern Calderwood and Megan Reid, two very accomplished performers and their comparatively ancient directors Tashi Gore and Jess Thorpe. (Only joking, they are very youthful looking thirty year olds)
Fern and Megan at 19 are at the upper age limit of the production company Junction 25, the other performers are all back at school. At an age when I spent my days in a fug, metaphorically and literally, watching endless episodes of 'Friends' and ferociously underachieving, these youngsters have been producing a hit show of Edinburgh 2011.
I was asking Megan how they have been coping with the amazing reviews they have been receiving, she told me it was hard because she had been working in Uganda all summer for a charity then had to come back straight into this production. Really! I look back on myself with shame. But I digress; this blog is not about me and my youthful failings. However if you would like more information on those I am sure my mother is available to fill you in.
To say I Hope My Heart Goes First has been receiving good reviews would be an understatement to say the least. It's not hard to see why; the short extract the girls performed brought tears to audience members and crew alike. They are playing one more show on the 24th at 2030 at St George's West. Go see!
(I keep typing I Hope Your Heart Goes First - is that a Freudian slip? Poor husband'o'mine)
As ever if you missed today's show you can catch up on the Radio Scotland website. Go on, you know you want to.
Lalita Augustine
Today was by far for me the best show yet. There was such a positive vibe backstage and the team have all settled into their roles and our tasks are now beginning to become second nature.
We had an interesting array of guests today. We had Diana Quick, star of the landmark television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. She is performing in a one woman show at this year's Fringe entitled "Midnight Your Time." The play is about a mother who speaks once a week via webcam to her activist daughter, Helen, who lives in Palestine. The thing is, Helen never replies, due to a falling out between the pair.
We also had Sarah Thom and Sarah Toogood who are performing in a two hander called Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain. The play is based on the infamous relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and features an already dead Crawford coming back to fetch the ailing Davis up to heaven or hell. Davis is not going to go though without a fight.
The play draws heavily from the only film the two co-starred in "" back in 1962 and the two ladies turned up at Potterrow in full Baby Jane film garb, complete with wheelchair and Davis' onset chair. What a laugh it was seeing these two bring the famous pair back to life!
I had a rare chance to actually sit in the audience today and watch the whole show, while I took the photos of course, (got a bit snap happy and took almost 200 photos!)
Clare English had an interesting chat with the Sarahs and about how the theatre company that is presenting their Fringe play - Foursight Theatre - may cease to exist in its current form from May 2012. Diana Quick joined in the conversation about how much of a blow the Arts in the UK has suffered. It was a good platform to raise this issue and I really hope that the company may be able to sort something out.
Music was provided by Fern Calderwood and Megan Reid from "I Hope My Heart Goes First" with a heartrending acoustic and spoken word rendition of Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat". We were then all moved by the soulful opera workings from world class mezzo soprano Andrea Baker who performed "Summertime" and "Get Here" as well as discussing her Fringe show "Sing Sistah Sing", A celebration of the African American female voice. She moved the whole venue with her powerful opera/soul hybrid of a voice.
Join us tomorrow for more fun and frolics at the Festival Café!
Annabel Cooper
What better way to start the week than walking to work with the sounds of the Festival Café's 'best of' show on my iPhone this morning (still available to listen for the next five days and although my input has been minimal (I'm still not allowed to be left alone after the disappearing tray-bakes incident on my first day), I couldn't help but feel rather proud of the week of fantastically varied, entertaining and thought provoking shows the Festival Café team produced last week, and even more excited about what lay ahead in this.
Today's show was not to be a disappointment and if I wasn't an aspiring cake-tester, the presence of three generations of female thespian greatness would have inspired me to take to the stage. Only in the green room of the Festival Café can you see the iconic Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (not the real ones but still...), the supremely talented Diana Quick and the fresh-faced talents of the cast and directors of 'I Hope my Heart Goes First'. The latter's rousing performance brought tears to the eyes of some audience members and by the look of the flyer exchanges that were going on after the show, also seriously impressed the great Diana Quick. Maybe with Diana's influence we'll see our home grown talent on the West End soon...
As if three generations of acting talent was not enough, Andrea Baker, a woman of stupendous talent and achievement in the field of Opera, also gave us a special snippet of her celebration of the African American female voice 'Sing Sistah Sing'. And I'm almost certain that on the first bar of her beautiful rendition of Billie Holiday's Summer Time, the sun started to peak between the clouds. Thank you Andrea!
On the subject of cosmic influences, I feel it's time to mention a very strange coincidence that has been occurring every day down at Festival Café HQ. Each day, we are allocated coloured wristbands to denote our own and the guests' backstage credentials. The colour changes every day (to avoid anyone overstaying their welcome!) yet each and every day, our senior producer (Amanda) somehow co-ordinates her outfit to match. After a full week and a day, I can no longer pass off these unexplainable sartorial alignments as coincidence, so in the spirit of scientific endeavour we shall conduct an experiment, which goes a little something like this...
.
Annabel: 'Excuse me boss (Amanda doesn't let us call her by her first name)? What colour will the wristbands be tomorrow?'
Amanda: 'Hmmm...orange. Now get back to work!'
Tune in tomorrow to find out if Amanda was right...
And finally, about those green room tray-bakes, I must say in my defence they were dangerously good. I don't know what came over me...one minute they were all there, the next...
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