Hello and welcome to the third weekly Psychosocial Newsletter. Quite a lot has happened this week, and we can’t wait to let you all know about it! From printing to props, scripting to stickers – we’re running full sprint towards the Fringe 2014. If you’ve missed any of the previous Newsletters, you can navigate to them using the links below:

< WEEK 2 | WEEK 4 >

Wisdom - “Friendship is a boat that never sinks.”

Publicity is one of the most important elements of a show. The show could be incredible, but unless people know about it, it won’t be a success. Without the money that has been donated to The Psychosocial Gathering, we wouldn’t be able to print the fliers and the posters that we desperately need. A few days ago, we ordered 10,000 fliers and 50 A3 Posters – and you can be sure we’ll get through them in no time while we’re in Edinburgh!

Speaking of fliers, we’ve been heading up a new type of flier for the Fringe this year. The University of East Anglia is very proud of the fact that Drama has been voted 1st for Student Satisfaction (National Student Survey 2013) and 2nd in the 2015 Guardian University Guide with a score of 99.4/100. In light of that, we’ve created a new UEA flier that lists any Fringe Show that is affiliated with the University this year. It’s a great chance to cross-publicise, like we should always have been doing! By supporting each other, we gain more exposure and will hopefully become recognised for the hard work we do. So, if you’re in Edinburgh at any point during the Fringe, please keep an eye out for:

Right, back to The Psychosocial Gathering!

With just over a week to go until our Norwich Preview (you can find the Facebook event:here) we’ve been cracking down on script work. The cast are coming up with some amazing ideas, which we’re weaving into the script to create our final piece. You can see a quick video of some of our rehearsals on Youtube.

Keep an eye on our Twitter Page @MinotaurTheatre too… we’ll be releasing some Character Photos so we can start introducing the inhabitants of The Psychosocial Gathering world. Here’s a quick example of The Narrator (as well as our first sponsor suggested prop, a clean toilet brush, by Sue Masters):

Following on from what we talked about last week, we’ve finished painting the frames that will hang around the stage. We’ve also painted a single flat that covers up the back entrance. We’ve added an Extras Page on the website, which gives you some sneaky behind the scenes facts and pictures. On top of that, we’ve officially booked the van that will take all of our set up to Edinburgh this year.

The Production Team got together this week to discuss all of the lighting and sound required by the venue. It might not be very exciting, but it’s vital in creating an atmosphere for the piece. We also talked about the possibility of singing in the performance, drawing on the continuing talents of the cast. It would bring that extra element to that piece that we can be really proud of.

Another reason to sing during the performance is so that we can use it, again, for publicity reasons. If you’ve ever been to Edinburgh during the Fringe, you’ll have heard about The (Royal) Mile. It’s the performance hub of the Fringe, where casts and crews have a chance to flier and promote their shows. In order to make our show stand out this year, we’ll be giving out Psychosocial Gathering Invites in the form of name stickers. These detail our show dates and times, and personally invite you to watch the show. If you ever bump into us on the mile, you’ll probably get a sticker all of your own!

That’s it for another week! We’ve got another week of rehearsals and then we perform for the Preview Show. The next Newsletter will focus on the rehearsals and how everything is coming together. It’s an exciting time! We’ll see you then!

The Cast and Crew of The Psychosocial Gathering

#edfringe2014 #psychosocialgathering