27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Fleabag producer will run pop-up Fringe venue at art college
Moody, who has announced the new venue as part of a campaign to 'reimagine a more sustainable, accessible, artist-first Fringe, will be hosting an event on 'how to produce a Fringe hit.'
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She has also launched a new "Shedload of Future Fund" which will offer £5000 bursaries to help artists in the early stages of their careers meet the costs of appearing at the Fringe for the first time.
Artists and performers will be reviving past Fringe shows and showcasing their latest work at the 100-seater Shedinburgh venue, which will embrace theatre, music, comedy, performance art and talks.
Francesca Moody producer the original stage versions of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Image: Rich Lakos)
Already confirmed are Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, creators of the hit musical Six, the comics Marjolein Robertson, Ivo Graham, Mark Watson, Jayde Adams, Deborah Frances White and Ben Target, actress and singer Maimuna Memon, playwrights Kieran Hurley and Tim Crouch, and writer James Rowland.
Fringe favourites Flo and Joan, Gary McNair, Sophie Duker, James Ley and Chris Thorpe will be giving a sneak preview of new shows.
A new pop-up Fringe venue will be launched at Edinburgh College of Art this August. (Image: MIHAELA BODLOVIC)
Shedinburgh will be created in and around the art school's Wee Red Bar, which has been playing host to live music, club nights and shows since the 1980s.
Her collaboration with the art college, which is part of Edinburgh University, has been unveiled after the campus played host to the Edinburgh International Book Festival for three years before it relocated last year to the nearby Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Marjolein Robertson will be appearing at new Fringe venue Shedinburgh in August. (Image: Duncan McGlynn)
Moody will be joining forces with long-time Fringe promoters and producers Gilded Balloon to run Shedinburgh this August.
Moody said: 'We're absolutely thrilled to be making this first programme announcement for Shedinburgh.
Edinburgh College of Art will be playing host to a new pop-up Fringe venue in August. (Image: MIHAELA BODLOVIC)
'We will have hugely diverse range of original work from an incredible roster of artists from the emerging to the emerged. We're delighted that Shedinburgh means that these much-beloved shows, artists and makers of the future can perform at the Fringe this year.
'It's likely I'll be permanently sat in Shedinburgh for the duration of August and I'm thrilled we've been able to set up our home in the Edinburgh College of Art at the heart of the Fringe.'
Frances-White, host of The Guilty Feminist podcast, made her Fringe debut in 2006. said: 'The Edinburgh Fringe is where I truly began my life as a comedian & where I've grown up and forged my most meaningful artistic relationships.
'I'm grateful I had the opportunity to make work there at a time when an ordinary person who was prepared to sleep in a bunk bed could afford to go - so it couldn't be more exciting to have been gifted a whole shed to play in this year.
'I can't wait to see who else will have the chance to get messy in the shed.'
Watson said: "The Fringe has been a huge part of my career – I've not missed one since 2000.
"But it's getting harder and harder for emerging artists to survive out there, or even take the risk of going in the first place.
"There needs to be a fresh approach to the way the festival works for performers, and that's what Shedinburgh is offering.'
