hi all, new to this site a couple of weeks , i am staging my own play at the camden fringe festival in august , first time for everything, haha.
i feel racked with doubt , all actors that were intrested once they had read it made a million excuses not to do it , my favourite is still , i am 30% committed to doing something in edinburgh!!!
any advice out there ?

Do you mean you're short of actors? If so you could look for volunteers at your local amateur dramatic society, or drama courses at your local colleges or universities. The biggest problem will probably be the expense. Unless oyu are lanning to pay them, not many of them will be able to afford to pay their own way so you may need to spread your net wide.



- NaomiM

<Added>

oops, typos: planning

Thanks naomi, i have a four night run , and have 100 per night per actor , but i find them hard work to be honest , i think i am going to go down the road of being a bit more aloof as the trying to be every bodys friend isnt working out , maybe its just me but i feel they are always looking over my shoulder for the next person , am i too sensitive , hahaha, maybe i shouls have been an actor!

If you WW mail me your actors requirements I can ask around as I know a lot of resting actors who would be keen. Re Edinburgh it is a very costly venture and unless you're already adverstised in the fringe brochure you need to be by I think mid April. If you're not in the brochure you are guaranteed to lose a small fortune and play to empty houses. I've done Edinburgh about 15 times and it can be wonderful but don't expect to make money. Good luck.

Julie

hi julie , no i am staging play at camden fringe festival in london , its THE actors who are waiting for edinburgh , im meeting some more resting actors over the next few days will be in touch if nothing works out , thank you for kind advice

cheers vinny

Vinny - there will be actors free in august, and the ones who are will be pleased to be in a paid show, not in profit share. But it may be too early for them to commit to a project where they are only paid for performance not for rehearsals. If they get a tour, a tv part or a good part in edinburgh, all of which could be casting in the next few months, they might have to pull out, and you wouldn't want that. So they're not necessarily being unfriendly by being non-committal.

Also - do you have a professional director on board? Have you workshopped the script so it's as good as it can possibly be? Are you open to actors making alterations and suggestions? If, as you say, they are keen until they read it, maybe they're concerned about how stageable it is. An experienced actor can tell at a glance whether something will work on stage. If I were you, I'd take the play to some professional workshops and rehearsed readings, get feedback from fellow writers and actors and apply what they say, then look for your performers nearer the time. If you spend the next few months improving the script, and you are paying a performance fee, you'll find those actors who aren't in Edinburgh in August will be much more enthusiastic.

Good luck.