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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Writing for Fringe Report
We appreciate our writers, and so do our readers. Here are some guidelines which we hope you may find useful in writing for Fringe Report. They are cut to the point so you can use them as a checklist. This can make them sound blunt or commanding. This is not the intention, and please imagine the word 'please' while reading.
All arrangements to review should be made through Fringe Report. If a show or event approaches you directly to review for Fringe Report, please refer them to us. We will normally arrange your press ticket for you. We request a single press comp (free ticket) and prefer you to attend shows by yourself. In exceptional circumstances where we have arranged with you to book your own press ticket, please only ask for a single ticket, and please do not accept an offer of more eg a pair of tickets. If it's not convenient for you to go by yourself, we ask you or your friend to pay for any tickets other than your own.
Reviewing for Fringe Report is in two parts (a) facts (b) review. Facts are the reporting part of what we do. They are facts about (i) the show (ii) the human beings involved. You need to have and use a notebook and keep your notes.
You need to list facts as follows, and lay them out in your review as below. Facts needed, all exactly spelt and with all accents correct:
In more detail:
It must be the exact title, as the show uses it, including odd upper or lower case or punctuation, such as this (real) show title:
Back in Town Again: - 'Waltzing Out of Town;
If in doubt, particularly if it's eg all in lower case, or sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not, check with company what is their intended exact version. We are recording fact definitively - we need to get it right.
Editor does this, but writer is welcome to suggest. Verdict is a slight misnoma - it can also be a summary, eg 'sketch comedy'. Verdict maximum is always 5 words. If using it as a literal verdict, the words must come, or very very nearly come, from the review - ie the reader must be able to find the sentiment expressed preferably in the same words in the review. It is best not to be clever, but just straightforward, especially suggest avoid puns.
Need to list town/city, name of venue, dates of run including year, start time, finish time (or duration) (times in 24 hour clock). Only the main start and finish dates of the run, and the main time of starting. No need to add matinees or days it's not on, or different times. So if a show is on in Manchester 6-9, 12-30 Oct 2015 (year is abbreviated here to last two digits so 2015 becomes 15), not Sundays or Tuesdays, 3.15 Mondays, 8.30 other days, and lasts an hour and a half, the entry reads:
Manchester - Royal Exchange - 6-30 Oct 15 - 20:30 (1:30)
Must be the exact, precise spelling of the actor's name as she or he uses is ie Sara is not Sarah, Chris is not Christine. This is extremely important for peope to be able to search them. If in doubt ask the actor. And capitalisation - eliza below not Eliza if she uses lower case. All accents are important, rare ones are on this page: www.fringereport.com/symbols.php which can be copied and pasted. Order of cast credits is alphabetical order of the actor's surname (not starring order, or order of appearance). Each entry has actor's first and second name, space, dash, space, name of her character, full stop, two spaces, next entry:
Cast Credits: (alpha order): (space)(space) Sara Abingdon (space) - (space) Sir Thomas More / Titania. (space)(space) Chris Birmingham - Ghost of Brad Pitt. Holly Cambridge - Moll Flanders. eliza Doncaster - Bar staff. Andrew Exeter - Dame Shirley Porter. Nell Farringdon - Euripides. Emma Garsington - Ghost of Queen Catherine. Tracy Hull - Sylvia Plath. Fiona Iceland - Juliet.
At the very least these must include: writer, director, technical operator. It is important to list the technical operator as they are very seldom credited. List all credits that are available or that you can find - including the cleaner if available - everyone involved in making what you see. Order is less exact than cast, roughly: writer first, director, designers (ie all the creative lot first); then technical people like assistant stage managers, carpenters, prs; finally the producer, name of producing company, and a website if there is one but just from www. onwards eg www.company.com. Separate entries exactly as above, but job title comes before name, so: for each entry: job title, space, dash, space, person's first and second name, full stop, two spaces, next entry.
Company Credits: (space)(space) Writer (space) - (space) Adele Jutland. (space)(space) Director - Adanma Maryland. Lighting Designer - Leroy Oswestry. Sound Designer - Lea Pelopones. Technical Operator - Kim Newcastle. Producer - Gill London. Company - Karakoram Theatre of Dance.
Comedy credits for stand-ups will be simply 'Performer - Tally Warwick'. Check for a standup who is writer, director, technical operator, producer, company. They may all be the one person, but may all be separate, and there may be other credits such as costume. Sketch comedy - list the actors as normal, and any particular parts they play if just one or two each. eg 'Steve Yorkshire - Clown 1 / Yorrick / Pilot'. If too many roles, just list the cast and add eg '(each cast member plays several roles)' Film credits must be given as fully possible - this is not possible off the screen normally, but there may be a hand-out from the producer if seen at a screening, or an emailable file. If the film credits are on www.imdb.com no credits need be given, just paste the web address of the exact imdb page next to the heading 'credits' in your review.
(c) (write your name) (year):
(c) Adeela Quebec 2010
reviewed (state the day of the week, date, month, year) / (Name of venue):
reviewed Tuesday, 30 January 2012 / King's Head
END
John Park / editor Fringe Report / 12 November 07
Reviewing needs a notebook and notes. It is easier to sit towards the back so you can see the complete bodies of all the performers and the full extent of the stage area. Keep your notes, you may need to discuss with your editor.
Take notes during the performance. Sitting towards the back or in the back row helps this to be discreet, so that the performers and audience aren't distracted. Best avoid sitting near the front taking notes, it is distracting for the performers.
Take notes as you think best. It's useful to note what characters are wearing, head to foot, as this helps the memory and adds verbal colour to the review. It's useful to note how lighting is used (all in lay terms), and sound, and how well or badly costumes fit in the show. These are material for commenting on the work of the relevant crew, who can then be cited by name (eg 'costume design, by Pippa Rutland, is exact for the mood of the play'). In general directors control how people move around the stage, how much of the stage they use, where and how close they stand, and how fast and slow the play is, leading to comments such as 'Zena Sunderland's direction is taut in the first act, but she lets the pace struggle as the play climaxes, reducing the impact of the finale'). Writers do what is left, the words, so if the words clunk, make a note of examples and a resulting comment could be 'writer Vicky Teeside's dialogue feels real, but it's so laden with cliché ('I'm yours till hell freezes', and not ironically) that tension is lost'.
We are only reviewing:
So:
Banned nouns: I, me, we, you, the audience.
Full human names only - no surnames or first names by themselves.
Banned adjectives: hilarious, hysterical, beautiful.
400 to 500 words Your review must be a minimum of 400 words edited. Submit at least 500 words. (You'll see some reviews shorter than this on Fringe Report, don't use them as examples of length.)
If you have a close connection with a production, either with the a member of the cast or crew or the people organising the show, let your editor know. Fringe theatre and many of the arts draw on a finite pool of people, so you may often find yourself reviewing people you know. It's important our reviews both are impartial and look impartial. Let your editor know if you feel it might seem you have an interest in the production and she or he can assist. For example, she or he may decide that it's better for another reviewer to cover the show, or for you to review it with a note at the end of the review, or to go ahead as normal. Key is, if you see a possible conflict of interest, let your editor know.
In the 'facts' section, there's a reference to stating the date of review. That's all we're reviewing. They say 'theatre only happens once'. Tonight's audience may hate it, tomorrow's may love it. As well as reviewing tonight's unique event, we're also being generic, a contradiction. How it works is to do the analysis on tonight, but exclude how the audience reacts, and probably exclude something that is obviously unique to tonight (power cut). Like anything else, there's a feel to how all this is done, best characterised by thinking of giving a fair and balanced view that should guide anyone seeing it during the run. Being specific to tonight in analysis, and stating a date, allows the actors to feel better ('oh, 8 October was a terrible night') if you are hard on the show and, if it's early in the run, to allow potential viewers to make allowances. If late in the run, they can judge accordingly.
We do not need to be experts, they are on and behind the stage. If you are an actor, comedian, writer, director, you must forget your special knowledge. You must not view the audience as if you were looking at them from the stage. They are irrelevant to the review.
Don't use I, we, you, because they are characters who have to be explained. 'It didn't move me' needs knowledge of you to be understandable, and it intrudes you into the space between the reader and the production. If you remove yourself from the piece, you will remove most tendencies to arrogance, conceit, being clever. 'We are invited to feel sympathy' becomes 'the play invites sympathy'. We are always trying to move to objective format, in which we are invisible. Strong opinions must not start 'I feel strongly that' - you are imposing your view and the reader will bridle. Delete 'I', give the reader breathing space and go for a device like 'the end may divide opinion. some may feel it is complete rubbish. Others may see it as persuasive, moving, packed with sincerity, rather than mawkish, badly-written, limp.' You make your point, but invite the reader to it rather than barking an order.
A comedian may spend ages chatting with the audience before commencing her/his act. Is it valid to mention this? No. Unless it is so much of the act that that is pretty much the entire performance. Cut to when she/he starts formally performing and look simply at 'is she/he funny? If so/not - why? How?'
Take care to separate people from character. 'Steve Uttoxeter is fat and ugly as Julian' is personally unpleasant for the human being playing Julian - that could be adjusted to 'Steve Uttoxeter skilfully delivers Julian as a lazy, unendearing, unattractive slob', or selecting whichever characteristics don't reflect on the actor's unchangeable face and body. It's fine to criticise bad performances, but take care to separate a bad performance from the human being's self, of which we know nothing.
We don't know the performers, at least we don't know them from what they are doing on stage. Always assume they are telling lies, they are allowed to. So of a stand-up comedian 'Ike Allendine was held under water by her mother till she nearly drowned as a child' becomes 'Ike Allendine says she was...' There is a crucial separation between the performer's stage persona and their real self. It's the first we're writing about, we know nothing of the second.
Only ever use a real person's first and second names together: Pam Buckingham, not 'Pam', or 'Buckingham'. We don't know her, we are not her mate, and we are not looking down on her. Putting both names together meets her on an equal basis. Ignore how other writers in eg newspapers do this, we are reviewing in our way, not theirs.
It is a good idea to learn how to write without using adjectives (which alter the impact of nouns) and adverbs (which do the same with verbs). 'She hit him' is strong as a sentence. 'She hit him hard' (hard is working as an adverb here) is ok, but 'She flattened him' or a better verb you can think of, does it without extra words. English is excellent for its vast number of very specific nouns and verbs - it's best to hone down to them. 'Beautiful' is fine in conversation when you can see and hear the other person's intonation. On the page it is useless, it conveys nothing. To write that a woman is beautiful conveys nothing. To say she has a gentle smile, or other attributes of what you consider to make up her beauty, begins to bring her alive to your reader. Well worn comedy adjectives like hilarious and hysterical are so clapped-out that they convey nothing. 'Very funny' is simpler.
Five senses. Are sight, taste, touch, smell, sound. And there's the sixth sense. If you can include each of these, or at least some, in your review, it will come more alive to the reader.
Objective. You are aiming to put the reader in your seat and share your fair thoughts. So, you may describe what happens, plot, kind of jokes, some lines of dialogue. You may start by the kind of facts you might tell a friend: 'It's a drama in 3 acts: 60 minutes, 40 minutes, 20 minutes, with intervals. There's a cast of ten: 6 women, 4 men'. This already gives the beginning of a picture.
Performances. If you analyse one person's performance, and they all have equal parts, you may wish to write about the same number of words for each person. Be fair about each performance, which includes saying that a performance is bad, in strong terms if necessary, and why.
Cut the words just & really. In conversation, and chatty writing for people who know each other or will do such as this one, English can be quite ragged. For reviews, which are formal pieces of writing, you should cut stuff you don't need. 'Just', 'next', 'really' can pretty much always be cut from written work. They are useful in conversation when looking at someone's face, as sound-fillers to expose tone of voice. Cut them from your reviews, and any other excess words.
No screamers. Never use exclamation marks in a review. They will always be removed. They are great in emails, texts and letters, but kiss of death in formal writing.
Tense. You must use the same tense all the way through and we all mess this up easily. The easiest way is to write everything in the present tense. 'Anna Colchester's direction drags from the start. Bea Dalston's Juliet breaks into the room as Simon Ealing's Titus puts on a woman's dress. After You Caesar flags towards the end, a shame, as everything up till then seems full of surprises'. Or put everything in the past tense. 'Rupert Florence's lighting design washed the flagstones in mauves and browns evoking a mood of intense depression. Robbie Gloucester's Adam slunk from behind the tree carrying a dead serpent'.
Sentences. Make them direct. She loved him. He cut the cable. The set is made from lace. Don't make them long. If they have to be, use commas to break them up at the points one might stop for breath, and if you need to keep going but want to change pace - use a dash.
Hanging clauses. 'Having come into the room and looked all round for something to do before he noticed, Sam Hillingdon slipped into a cupboard. Sam felt she looked pretty and said so.' It's easy to mess up hanging clauses introducing sentences. Here, it's not clear if Sam is the person looking pretty, if Sam is a man or woman, and if there are 2 or 3 people being referred to. Cutting this around to direct language helps clarify: 'Sam Hillingdon came into the room, looked all round for something to do, and slipped into a cupboard before he noticed. She felt she looked pretty, and said so.'
No splits. There are strong arguments either side, but Fringe Report doesn't use split infinitives. No to boldly going on FR. So please don't drop words betweeen 'to' and the verb. 'If you're going to run away rapidly' not 'If you're going to rapidly run away'.
50 percent plot. How much of the plot/comedy act to disclose? Best use judgment - somewhere between 40% and 60% is a good guide. You need to tell enough to explain what is happening. You may not want to give away twists after that - it depends on the show. For well-known stuff, eg Shakespeare it is fine to give away all.
'Inverted commas'. Always only use 'single inverted commas'. The exception is the quote within quote. 'OK, I admit I was amazed when he said "We're through baby. We're through for fucking ever", and it hurt me.' This also includes some examples of how quotes are punctuated and capitalised. That is a complicated area and please don't get concerned about it. How to puctuate written speech is handled in some pocket grammar guides, but not all, so check before buying one. Note that US practice is to use double quotes, same with UK newspapers. We are using the format used in UK novels.
UK English. FR is written in UK English, located in London. It would sound RP if spoken, though not too brazenly. There are several reasons for this, but the central one is to provide a common centre for all our readers round the world, so they know what they're translating from, and which standardised spelling to use. This includes spellings such as licence (noun), license (verb), ise not ize eg standardise not standardize, colour not color, theatre not theater. And UK English date format, which is: Monday, 24 September 2020 - not Monday, September 24, 2020: In UK English, the date comes before the month.
Two spaces. Please always, always, always, put two spaces between sentences. So when you type a full stop always hit the space bar twice. This means like this. (space)(space) Between every sentence. (space)(space) This is different from UK newspapers (one space) and US practice (one space). Again, we are using the UK manuscript standard. This is very important as it takes up a lot of editing time to correct. The two-space method makes pages look lighter to read.
Beginning. Write your first paragraph when you finish the review. Otherwise you'll never start, and it will be better anyhow when you know what you've said.
Ending. Don't worry about ending with a flourish. Say what you have to say and stop.
END
John Park / editor Fringe Report / 12 November 07
If you haven't reviewed art before it may seem intimidating but it isn't. Key is to de-mistify the process, and get on with it.
Use the 'Writing For Fringe Report' notes for dates of run etc, artist credits and general layout of review. The notes here are about tackling the specific subject matter of art exhibitions.
Take a notebook and biro, and a sheet of A4 paper.
When you go in the gallery explain you're reviewing and ask for a complete list of works and sizes print-out - if they have one. If they can also email it to you, you can include it in the credits, but no worries if not. You don't need prices.
(a) Count the number of rooms the exhibition is in.
(b) Count the number of works on display.
Your first paragraph can then read: 'Through My Eyes is an exhibition of 70 paintings by Edward Hopper spread over 3 large rooms'
(c) Estimate the sizes or look on the list of works if available. Sizes of paintings are usually given breath x height, in cm. So, 50 x 70 usually means 50cm wide by 70cm high. (Or you can tell from the list and the painting if it's the other way round - but suggest you use this way round yourself, and always stick to the same system so you can remember after). If no list, use your A4 sheet as an approximate measure. It is 30cm long (21 wide × 29.7 long). Just hold it in the air in front of the painting and see how many lengths of A4 the painting width and height are. If you fold the sheet it in half, that's 15cm. If you want to indicate sizes are approximate, say 'c' (it means circa, about in Latin). If the work is vast, pace it out. A long stride is 1 metre (1m). If you have a list of sizes, use that.
So you can add to the first paragraph: 'They range in size from minute, almost hand-sized studies (c 4cm x 7cm) to room-dominating monsters (c 15m x 5m).
(d) Media. Artists use many materials, from eg water colour to Andy Worhol's 'piss in oil' (described in the Hayward Gallery London's notes as 'mixed media'). The materials are often called media, and are usually noted next to the work, or in the list of works, and note the exact words used, eg, 'charcoal on hand-made sepia paper'. Have a look at a few. If no notes, you could ask.
So you can add: 'The works are in a range of media: charcoal on hand-made sepia paper, gouache on leather, egg tempera on oven-baked board.'
(e) Sculpture and other 3-dimensional works - there's a third dimension, so eg state 'size c 2m x 1m x 3m high'.
You've already done a couple of paragraphs just from looking at what's actually there in physical terms, and told the reader what they'd see - it's several rooms with lots of massive sculptures or paintings, or it's one tiny room with only five small sketches. In other words, just what you'd tell a friend, in common-sense terms. And you've added detail of the kind of materials used, without using your own knowledge at all.
Now for your observation. The best thing is to pick an odd number of pieces - 3, or 5 say. Odd numbers seem to look best in print for this, but aren't magical. Make sure there's at least one from each room. Either pick pieces you like, or be completely random. But pick a fixed small number.
Go to each of these 5 (say) pieces and state (i) exactly what you see (ii) exactly what your personal emotional reaction is. That's it.
A useful help in description is to mention one or all of the 6 senses: hearing, sight, taste, touch, smell, and the 6th sense.
Use a paragraph for each work you pick. So, one of the (say) five works you pick could say:
'Memories Of A Fallen Rose (50cm x 30cm, oil on canvas) packs a solid emotional charge. It looks as if paint has been thrown hard at the canvas, and scratch into a frezy with a hard sharp object like a knitting needle. There's almost the sound of a scream, evoking a shivery reaction. Colours are bright, blood reds. The style is harshly realistic, and the rose seems to bleed, crushed, on a winter pavement.'
Don't pay any attention to what's written in the exhibition notes or catalogue. That's what the gallery or artist wants to get across in words and is irrelevant. Their only valid statement is the actual work of art. Don't write putting the artist in a group (pre-Raphaelites, Modernists) or historical context. Millions on the internet and in text-books have already done that. What you can uniquely do is to say simply what you, uniquely, on this day, see. Write that.
And 4 others the same. There is no need for an overview or concluding paragraph. Then 'END'
END
John Park / editor Fringe Report / 4 July 08
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