New collective for Edin Companies at EdFringe
Theatre groups invited to join marketing campaign #HomeTurf
Edinburgh’s professional theatre companies staging shows at this year’s fringe are being invited to join a new collective, under the banner of Home Turf.
Carol Hayes and Amy Gilmartin at the launch of TheatreUncut last year. Photo © Philip Roberts
Started by Amy Gilmartin of Urban Fox Theatre with Carol Hayes founder of the CulturePie website, Home Turf aims to unite Edinburgh-based companies whose work is listed in the Theatre section of the Edinburgh Fringe Guide.
According to the open invitation going to interested groups: “The idea is to group together and share resources to produce an A5 booklet featuring each company’s production, alongside a dedicated website, Facebook page and twitter campaign (#HomeTurf).
“A launch night in the run up to the Fringe will also give each group the opportunity to perform a short preview of their production to potential audiences and journalists.”
The costs of the campaign will be met by a subscription from participating groups and sponsorship for the booklet by local businesses.
“We know the Fringe can be expensive, and marketing, printing, flyering and distributing is expensive and time consuming. So, our intention is that no production pays more than £100 for inclusion in the collective. And we would work as a team, not in competition, supporting work made in our city.”
Gilmartin told Æ that the collective is targeted at professional and emerging professional companies of any standing. At the moment she is looking for groups to sign up to the idea, with a deadline of April 30 for getting involved. A full public launch will be held in June.
She said: “Last year Urban Fox was asked at the end of the Fringe when we were going home. We are home. I believe Edinburgh companies should stand proud among the thousands of performances, give visitors and locals a chance to find the work made in our city. I wanted to create a collective of Edinburgh based theatre companies, so we could support each other using cross promotion, share resources, not be in competition and instead be a united front.”
For further details and to apply to join Home Turf contact Amy Gilmartin: amygilmartin@hotmail.co.uk (@AJGilmartin on Twitter).
ENDS
