Hi there faithful Fringers! Ren here again with a little update with what's been going on in the topsy turvey world of The Whitstable Fringe. 

Well to start I'd like to say thank you to everyone who came along to our most recent Adventures in Performance evening over in St Mary's hall. It was an intimate gig to say the least so kudos to those who braved the cold, wet and windy weather for the sake of a great evening!

First up we had Bill and Chris performing their stripped down version of Gloria Gaynor's club favourite "I Will Survive",  featuring Bill on Ukulele and Chris on Sax. A strange mix indeed! I think they managed to pull it of though!

They were swiftly followed by the super-glam Tuttie Fruities who treated us to a glitter filled burlesque. Great stuff ladies!

After the loverley ladies, Fringe favourite Phil Moss poetically described some insidious tiny spiders intent on taking over followed by a cautionary health and safety ode. Very witty Mr. Moss!

Leading lady from our Bluebeard show Natasha Lanceley continued was next to take the stage delivering an accomplished performance of a monologue from "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead".

This brought us to the final act of the first half. The amazing Ukulele Eric took the stage to perform his unique take on some modern and classic pop tunes and also introduced the world to his new friend Al Terego. Hope to see him again soon!

We resumed the show after a short interval with Bill and Chris running through their own version of a unique uke and stylophone rendition of "Telstar"! Good job guys.

The Tuttie Fruities then returned to the stage to give us their take on the classic Morcambe and Wise kitchen sketch managing to juggle their eggs professionally without leaving a mess behind. If you know what I mean?

We then met the weird, wonderful and slightly creepy Pierre Pierre whom it is actually rather difficult to describe! Think a mad mime artist crossed with a frustrated singer songwriter and you'd be in the general ball park (but still, not really). I think he left his ball behind...

After this we had more from the wonderful Natasha Lanceley. This time she treated us to her musical talents performing her take on an Ed Sheeran number and then one from her own pen. A real talent this one!
I then picked up my guitar and ran through a few songs of my own. Bill helped me out with a bit of atmospheric uke picking in the background for a coupe of tunes so thanks to him for that. I'm always a bit nervous when trying out new stuff but somehow manage to really enjoy myself at the same time.

So then we came to the final act of the evening! Da Gypskazz Collective. Another new act for the Fringe and they were very well received! They started their set with a cracking rendition of the Pink Panther theme tune and continued their set with Matt Monroe's 'From Russia With Love' and 'Those were the Days' which was lifted to the rafters by our small but magnificent, and loud, audience singing and clapping along with considerable vigour! Sublime guitar work and saxophone solos also featured aplenty and were just what the Doctor ordered to finish  the evening off with!

So that was Adventures in Performamce Mk. VI. We've got loads of great acts for you at our next show with compere duties being performed by the brilliant Missy Maybe, music from the up and coming 1800 hours Nd comedy from A Party For Two and the amazing Juliet Meyers! We'll also have a few Fringe Favourites and more acts are still to be announced.

Tickets can be found here:  

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/259107

Until next time!

Thanks,

Ren.

Thanks.

Well hello there faithful fringe-ites! A belated happy new year to you all and a massive thank you from me personally to everyone who made my 2013 such an amazing year. I don't normally go in for New Years resolutions but if I'm going to resolve to do anything this year, it has to be making The Whitstable Fringe
bigger and better! Not possible I hear you cry! Oh, you are too kind...

More to come on that note in a little while but before I talk about plans for the year to come I wanted to add a bit more about just how grateful we all are at the fringe for everyone who has helped us get our organisation off the ground. We really wouldn't have got anywhere without your help. This goes especially to all the amazing acts who have performed at any of our shows including Lucy Fennell-Knowles, Missy Maybe, David Jones, Philip Moss, El Baldinho, Liam Brennan, Chris Lawrence, The Glowing Embers, Inez Munsch, Andrea Hernandez, The Tuttie Fruities, Ukulele Eric, Melzebra, Silvia Bellucci, Rosalind Palmer, Daniel Harvey, Play it by Ear, The Lindley Players and everyone else who hasn't been mentioned but we are no less grateful for their help!

Our Co-founder Chris Guy also had this to say regarding our Bluebeard cast and crew:

Where  to start? So many people to thank for helping launch Bluebeard. Cast, band, burlesquers, technical and front of house came together so brilliantly and everyone pulled together. Thanks go to Nichola Rivers whose direction turned a pile of paper into a work of theatre, I never really get how people do that! In fact it was partly due to her encouragement that the pile of paper got finished at all.

Also a big shout out to Ren whose tireless juggling with tables, chairs, websites, phones and laptops, lights and
mountains of electrical connections meant that we had an environment to run the show. Oh yes, and "Bluebeard" was his idea, I was stuck on traditional pantos and might well have rewritten puss in boots for the millionth time.  
 
Bill was our muse, chipping in with well timed suggestions for everything from the poster to emergency lyric rewrites and snippets of dialogue. He also put in time and muscle on shifting stuff and setting up/breaking down, manning the bar and background planning including the website, posters, flyers, program and loads more.  

I was trying to work out if that was a ton of chairs we moved, certainly must have been the equivalent weight to a small car. 
 
And the cast! What a wonderful team you all turned into. Again, under the leadership of Nichola whose direction really defined the show, but also everyone just got on and played their parts... which is why we had a show. Natasha, Paul, Silvia, Andrea, John and Mick (and Nichola again) I'm proud to have worked on
this with you, you were all brilliant.
 
And our burlesque crew Janet, Leah and Lyndsey with help also from Belinda, all helped to add a touch of
morbid, faded glamour to Bluebeard. Ladies, that was the creepiest burlesque ever! You stamped our show with your images and shaped the publicity and showed the way forward on dealing with the story.
 
The band too were magnificent: Simon, Cyril, Stephen and Maurice all put their thinking caps on and decoded my hurriedly written score into beautiful music, even when I'd written the wrong numbers at the top!

Props were mostly provided by Nichola and Jon, big thanks, but everyone chipped in and helped with costume,
props, makeup and equipment (including PA from Andrea and microphones from Stephen)

Front of house included Bill, Fran, Ben, Mel and others whose names have just temporarily flown out of the window. Get in touch with me if I've missed you off the list so that I can name-check you again.

The Umbrella team were great too, big thanks to everyone involved from their end. I'm looking forward to new developments in the pipeline at St Mary's hall. 
 
There is so much to say thanks for, and I will go on saying thanks for the next couple of months in case I forget anything else. To everyone who took photos, posted online or helped in any way. To everyone who put out flyers or news feed, everyone who spread word of mouth. It's all help and I'm grateful for it. 
 
And a big shout to Tizi at Deco5 for the rehearsal space.
 
Hopefully I'll see a load of you at the next fringe night on the 25th of Jan, but stay in touch anyway... Bluebeard is still out there!
 
At Deco5
afterwards Ren leant over and said to me "what we need is a project, something bigger... maybe over a weekend or three days in the summer, over a load of different venues" and yes I think he meant BIGGER. Come along to the Thursday evening meetings and help shape it.

I'm glad everyone had fun with the show, it was a load of hard work but in the end we created something new and unique.

So that really just leaves me to thank everyone and anyone else who has helped us in anyway!

Chris.

Festival and shows

Right! So that leads me onto our plans for the coming year.  Firstly we'll be continuing our monthly variety fringe shows showcasing fantastic up and coming local talent with a few seasoned performers trying new material out for your enjoyment. Dates for these shows will be on the upcoming events page as soon as I have more
details but the next couple will take place on the 25th January and 22nd February at St Mary's hall. Tickets as ever will be available through
 
www.wegottickets.com.

We will also be bringing you a few theme nights this year so keep a eye on the website for info on those. The first will be a Cotton Club swing night in April so get practicing your Lindy Hops!

Our  final announcement is the biggest of all! Clear you diaries for the last weekend of June (27th 28th and 29th) because our first Fringe festival will be taking place! We're going to be bringing you all sorts of great stuff including poetry, comedy, music and writing workshops, Fringe preview shows, showcase variety evenings and plenty for the kids too!

So keep those peepers peeled for more news but as ever please do get in touch if you'd like to get involved in any way!

Thanks again and Happy new year!

Ren.