CHOOSING A SHOW>>

The Edinburgh Fringe has a strong reputation for new works – it’s a place where theatre companies stage new plays or radical reinterpretations of existing works, and comedians try out new material. The Fringe is certainly at its most exciting when performers are innovating and ThreeWeeks always encourages performers to do something a little bit different when they come to Edinburgh.

That said, a big proportion of the Edinburgh Festival audience is made up of tourists who tend to pick safer bets when choosing which shows to see – and because of this established plays always do well at the box office. So if your reason for coming to the Festival is simply to enjoy the experience – to have some fun – then you might want to pick a more well known piece because this is likely to help with ticket sales.

If you do go with a new play you should try to have a script pretty much in place by early January – depending on your past record as a theatre company some venues will take plays not yet written, but the more complete a script is the better.

If you go with an established play make sure you can get the 'rights' from the relevant publisher (check Amazon if you need to know who publishes a play, and then contact their London office to find out who controls UK performance rights). If you’re an amateur company the chances are you will get the rights for a set fee per performance without much hassle. If you’re a professional company you may need to negotiate a little, and if a production has just gone on a UK tour you might be refused rights completely.

If you are choosing an established play for ticket sales alone you might want to consider the selling points of certain plays (is the subject content controversial, is there any anniversary coming up for the play, is it particularly relevant to Scotland?). The Scottish schools go back in mid-August so if you pick a play on the local curriculum you might get ticket sales that way towards the end of your run.

Remember if you choose a popular play yours might not be the only production at the Festival. Some years there have been up to five different productions of the same play. This isn’t necessarily a problem in terms of ticket sales, but it is something worth considering.