Arbery seek AD & SM for EdFringe 2018

Nov 17 2017 | By Thom Dibdin More

Assistant director and stage manager wanted for Fringe

Edinburgh-based Arbery Productions has put out an open call to fill the assistant director and stage manager posts on its two EdFringe 2018 productions.

The company is reviving its two-act production of Martin Foreman’s new adaptation of Volpone and staging his new one-act drama, Casanova Dreaming. Both productions will run through the whole festival and there is a guaranteed minimal payment for cast and creatives.

Auditions for the cast will be held in March, but the company is looking to get the production team in place as soon as possible, preferably in December. For both the AD and the SM positions, Arbery is happy to look at those willing to take on one or both of the productions.

The company says: “We are a small Edinburgh-based group of unpaid actors and crew who are passionately interested and involved in theatre.

“With a track record of critically successful productions, we welcome applications from any individual, but the very low pay on offer suggests that these posts are best suited to those setting out on a career in the theatre who have another source of income.”

Cast and crew on Casanova Dreaming will each receive a guaranteed £125 for the whole period of the production and for Volpone a guaranteed £175. This will include rehearsals and run, plus a share of any profits – details to be confirmed during interviews. Travel and other expenses will not be repaid.

rollicking satire

Martin Foreman’s adaptation of Ben Jonson’s rollicking satire Volpone maintains all the elements of Jonson’s plot while shortening the script to two hours and updating the language and setting to the nineteenth century.

The greatest change comes in transforming two leading characters into women. One is Corbaccia, the old lady who disinherits her son to get Volpone’s riches. The other is Volpone’s servant, Mosca, whose quick thinking saves herself and her master from potential discovery and offers them even greater rewards.

The show was first presented in a one-week run at EdFringe 2017. The production is being enhanced and reprised for a three-week run in the early evening in Paradise Sanctuary (Venue 152) on George IV Bridge featuring Alastair Lawless as Volpone and Vanashree Thapliyal as Mosca

In Casanova Dreaming, the 18-year old Giacomo Casanova is asleep in bed with his first true love when he is visited by an old man who shows him his future – but is what he sees a promise or a warning?

Foreman reveals the life of the famous libertine – a life more complex and varied than legend relates, he says – and continues his exploration of themes of love, loss and death that focus on the city of Venice.

This production will run in the early afternoon in the intimate theatre of theSpace on Niddry Street (Venue 9), where Arbery Productions staged J B Priestley’s The Rose and Crown in 2016.

Both productions will run from Saturday 4 to Saturday 25 August, 2018.

Full details of the requirements for the roles are on the Arbery website. Anyone wishing to put their name forward for either role should email: info@arberyproductions.co.uk with a brief theatrical bio.