It’s here, the fourth Librarian’s newsletter, sorry it’s a day or so late – we’ve been very busy! The most exciting news this week is, of course, our Norwich Preview Show. It was the first time that an outside audience came to see what we’ve created, and they thought… well, we’ll get to that later.

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“Woah, slow down hotshot. You can’t count numbers that fast – that’s just dangerous…” snapped Tabatha Trout.

It was a tough week, probably the hardest so far. The cast and crew have been working tirelessly on this project for the past three weeks, but it’s really only the start. We’ve packed up and heaved all of our set, puppets and mountain of books onto the coach and we start our run at theSPACE on Northbridge in the next few days.

It’s been a week full of tweaking with the script, ironing out any issues and making sure costume changes run smoothly. If you haven’t already seen, there are now pictures of every character in costume uploaded to both @MinotaurFringe and Facebook. Costume designer Ciara Morris has done a great job with sourcing all of the different cloaks, shawls and shirts that make the Library look suitably dank and depressing.

Stage Manager Ed has also been working hard this week to find all of the different props that the cast improvised into the script during the past two weeks. He was given a list of around 30 different props, ranging from tailored books, toy story stickers and cigars to a beating heart. We also thought of a really great way to get people to remember our show while we’re out of the Edinburgh’s Royal Mile advertising the show: personalised librarian’s stamps. We all think they’re going to go down a treat.

Now to talk about the biggest (and best) thing about this week… the Norwich Preview Show. We spent a full day in the studio rigging lights, setting up the stage and programming all the tech cues. Once that was done, the actors came into the space and ran through every scene with all props, costume and make-up. We’re pleased to say that the show was very well received, and a few reviews might be popping up over the next couple of days.

You might also be pleased to hear that the whole show was filmed by the wonderful UEA:TV, so sometime in the future you’ll be able to purchase a DVD of the show – not only that, it will be the full, extended show (nearly an hour and a half) as opposed to the shorter, abridged version we’ll be showing at Edinburgh.

Like I mentioned before, we’re all currently on the coach to Edinburgh, and we’re ready for a painful 16 hour journey on Megabus into London and back up into Edinburgh. The cast and crew have packed up their costumes, grabbed a couple of books and will soon be settling down for a night of overnight travel as we wave goodbye to Norwich and move into the chaos that will be the Edinburgh Fringe 2013.

Once we’re there, of course, that’s where the hard work really starts. We’ll need to have a tech run, so we can see the size of the space and the lighting system that they use. Director Lewis Garvey is doubling as a technical officer for the duration of the run so he’s eager to learn the controls before our first run in front of paying audience on the 2nd August. In other great news, we’ve presold just shy of 100 tickets for the show, so if you’re still waiting to buy your tickets, you might be the one to push us up and over that 100 ticket milestone.

We’ve still got to finalise the sleeping arrangements and figure out how we’re going to feed ourselves but they’re just small details now. We have a show, and we’re performing at the fringe – there’s no turning back now! That said, it’s been great fun so far… and we couldn’t have done it without you!

Until next week then, when we will have performed the first couple of shows. It’s going to be a manic week!

Wish us luck!

#edfringe2013 #librarians