With the holidays coming up and all, we know what’s on your mind: how is Gryphon doing?? We’re doing great! Thanks for asking. Kekoa is expanding the minds of his students in Ohio; Nick and Christina worked together on another big festival last month; Jax has been opening show after show in California. The rest [...]
G1 and G2 have been reduced to their conference room selves, folks, and we’ve loaded the hire kit out back to Northern Light. The posters and flyers are all down off the walls, the office has been packed up, and tomorrow morning we’ll heave the last of the gear into the van and Tabi will [...]
Last day of the festival…wow. We had three performances today, one of them sold out–nice way to end these amazing three (and a bit) weeks. We began the teardown tonight, after sadly saying goodbye to our last three companies, and at the time of this writing G2 has officially ceased to be. Some days ago, [...]
We’ve got four performances left to go here at Gryphon for the 2011 Fringe, and last night we dragged as many of our companies as we could out to celebrate the wrap. Emily and Jax delivered a small speech, standing up on the banquette in the bar–here it is. Gryphon by Numbers After 2 years [...]
How the time flies… Sad news to report today: both Christina and Kekoa have left the nest. Christina’s back in Cheltenham, already working on the next festival there, and Kekoa is winging his way back to the States as we type, preparing to start the academic year. Gutted. We send them love from afar! Our [...]
Ah, a Festival Sunday. You know what that means: tech for the new companies! We were very sad to say goodbye to last week’s companies yesterday, but meeting the new companies makes it easier. We’re happily welcoming Naked in a Fishbowl, Mercury Theatre, and Prot0-Type Theater today. So far it’s all been smooth and we [...]
Okay, we admit it: we’re rubbish about posting these now. It’s been ages. However! We uploaded the photos from the press launch this past Friday night to the Gryphon Facebook page–you can have a look here if you haven’t seen them already. Gryphon staff and performers clean up rather nicely! We’ve had to say goodbye [...]
Alright, alright, we give up–there’s no catching up, we’re just moving on to day 12. Which is a Sunday! Which means it’s a tech day! A loooooong tech day. Jax and Nick were in for a 7am tech with Red Riding Hood, and there’s no end in sight. That’s alright though, because it’s exciting to [...]
The press launch was last night, y’all. We…had a really good time. So, um, here’s what we meant to post last night. ******* We’re completely preoccupied with party planning. Not completely, we mean–the shows have been going off very nicely today–but people! It’s press launch party night! The very awesome Point staff have been [...]
It sure is Fringey out there! Even in the rain, the Royal Mile is bustling with street performers and festivalgoers. Love the atmosphere. What have we learned today? That party planning is more complicated than it seems at first. That a grilled haloumi wrap is a beautiful thing on a cold rainy day. That revenge [...]
We’ve had an unfortunate incident of violence here at Gryphon Venues today. Our puppet friend Gryph got into a bit of a tussle with Shaun. While there’s some question about who’s ultimately to blame, the fact that Shaun is actually Gryph’s creator allows for some concern about an Oedipal complex in the poor little lion-bird’s [...]
Reviews are starting to roll in–check the front page for those. Stars for [Del], The Dick and the Rose, and Uglies Do Edinburgh, very happy! We’re settling into a routine with how our front-of-house and box office procedures work. This being our first year, we’re experimenting to find the way to do things that works [...]
So many people in the venue today! Seven shows running, one of them sold out (hello Hitler the Musical!), and yet another tech. Things are bustling, in short, and we love it. This is the part of Fringe that is truly amazing: chaos in the lobby, with queues lining up for two shows at once, [...]
Sundays are tech days at Gryphon, and so we had just one show today–The Dick and the Rose–but we’ve teched five more: Othello?, Hitler!, Wonder Bread, The Unforgettable Tale of an Insignificant Circumstance, and [DEL]. (Apparently one of our themes this year is shows with punctuation in the titles.) We’re at the start of a [...]
The birthday in question last night was Nick Lloyd’s: he’s 22 years old today. We’re actually not going to detail last night’s adventures, but rest assured that he’s been spoiled rotten, no matter how much he objected to it. Listen, people, your faithful author here isn’t serious very often, but seriously–it’s a privilege and a [...]
Three shows today, four reviewers, long queues, poker chips galore. Hitler arrived. We got a new printer and Jew Jistu ensued. Some venues are better suited for a trapeze than others. Gryphon 1 has AMAZING sound. I mean AMAZING. And Kekoa won the meat platter. All in all a very successful day. P.S. Sorry this [...]
We’re open! The glorious moment of the day, aside from our first show (!!!!!) and Nick’s defeat of a wee technical problem (he’s Jax’s hero) was the departure from the venue of three teams of flyerers heading for the Mile. The Uglies sisters, complete with green and pink wigs, some of the Migrations Cirque folks [...]
Behold: a new title! Friends, it is a new day at Gryphon. Literally. It’s two in the morning. But that’s hardly the point. The point is (all puns intended) that we had our first tech rehearsal today, and we’ve got our venue signs up, and there are show posters everywhere, we’re looking quite Fringey, and [...]
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the last Build Diary entry. But wait! Don’t cry. Tomorrow begins the Festival Diary, because tomorrow brings our first rehearsal. Know what that means? Yep: G1 is complete. It’s beautiful. And we’re not showing you photos yet because our staff is finally complete, with the arrival of Lucy this morning, [...]
A series of love letters. Dear Tixato, Thank you for making a beautiful and easy to use box office system–and for free! Your support has been lightning-fast at every turn, especially considering you’re on another continent, and it’s all in place and working perfectly, and waiting for us to open! Dear Northern Light, LED PARcans, [...]
Activities today: Bashing metal things with hammers Lifting enormous heavy metal things over our heads Dancing to test out the stability of the scaffolding Dancing to stretch out the marley Dancing because we had Lady Gaga on to keep our energy up (if not our dignity) Dancing because we got a comfortable new office setup [...]
It’s interesting the way an idea becomes reality. We can make file upon file and plan upon plan, but it’s the pinched fingers and bruised knees that begin to make a plan for a theatre into a theatre. It’s beautiful, at the same time as it’s dirty and tiring. We began G1 today and despite [...]
Bringing together British and American theatre technicians results in a lot of debate over vocabulary. We mentioned the other day that Americans seem to have more types of tape than the British. Gaffa tape to a Brit is duct tape to an American; what’s gaff tape to an American seems to be virtually unheard of [...]
Phenomenal progress today–Gryphon 2 is very nearly a completed theatre! Cannot express enough how wonderfully exciting that is. Nick finished off scaffing; Ash and Shaun handled the cable runs for the lighting; Kekoa hung the blacks; Jax installed and focused lighting and helped Kekoa arrange seating. Meantime, Tabi wrestled the box office system into submission [...]
Things we have learned today: The standard chair seat is .5m or 18″ wide, but the Point, being a bit luxurious, has wider ones. If you drive a van to the country twice, it takes rather a lot of diesel. But it’s worth it. In related news, the M876 doesn’t lead to Archterarder. Or, as [...]
