32 Winter 2005 Early Music America

ARTEK

By Gwendolyn Toth

in EdinTHE NEW YORK-BASED

ENSEMBLE CHASES

RAINBOWS AT THE FRINGE

FESTIVAL IN EDINBURGH –

A WILD, CRAZY PLACE TO BE!

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Early Music America Winter 2005 33

THAT’S YOUR PERFORMING STAGE rightthere,” the efficient young woman

with the clipboard said, pointing to a 3'x 6' platform. We all stared. To our leftwas a high school chorus singing musicfrom West Side Story. To the right, a col-orfully dressed troupe, obviously fromsomewhere in the Third World. Behindus, a juggler was throwing swords in theair, accompanied by shouts and screamsfrom the large crowd that had gatheredaround him. Off to the other side, agroup of pseudo-Medieval prosti-tutes/beggars/monks were shriekingloudly about the current state of worldaffairs. Hundreds of people were walk-ing by every minute on the Royal Milethat leads from the Palace of HolyroodHouse to Edinburgh Castle.

“No sound system?” I inquired,thinking, I’m gonna kill my producer.

“No. This is your High Street pro-motional space. Right now is your twen-ty-minute slot. Use it or lose it.” Sheturned away.

The singers looked at me question-ingly. “Here?” one said, skeptically.

“Um, do you think we could do ateeny bit of staging?” I said hopefully.

I received incredulous looks inreturn. “OK, never mind, let’s just doit!” I said, trying to keep a cheerful atti-tude. “Before it rains, in any case.”

The singers and musicians jostledeach other as they tried to fit on, infront of, and beside the tiny stage. My

kids were prepared with mountains offlyers and strict instructions to targetmiddle-aged tourists who a) like classicalmusic and b) were likely to actually takesomething handed to them. “Should wetune?” asked someone forlornly.

No one in the crowd seemed to takeany notice of us whatsoever. Finally,Lucas Harris settled his dark glasses onhis nose, plopped down on the edge ofthe stage, and began to croon in hisbest country-western bray. “Amor!Miserella!” Tourists looked over. Finally!

“What is that thing?” they said, mov-ing up to see the theorbo up close.

Sensing the interest of the crowdbeginning to focus on us, I said, “Let’sgo! Chiome d’oro. Hit it!” The recordersshrilled, the lutes plucked, the singersdid their best.

Just then, a powerful poundingsound, drowning out everything in atwo-block radius, filled the air. Yes, thecolorful troupe next to us was theAfrican drumming company....

Where else but at an EdinburghFringe Festival?

ARTEK took the leap this past Augustand produced its theater show “I’llNever See the Stars Again” at theFringe. Our stage director, Martin Platt,suggested the venture; he had producedshows at the Fringe in the past with sig-nificant success, leading to touringopportunities worldwide for many ofthem. Preparations for the trip began

burgh

RAINBOW PHOTO: GAYLE JEFFERY

Above left: A rainbow over EdinburghCastle provides a backdrop as (left toright) Paul Shipper, Philip Anderson, andMichael Brown serenade passers-by andLucas Harris demonstrates his theorbo.

The cast of “I’ll Never See the Stars Again,” the production ARTEK took to theEdinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

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long in advance. I went to Edinburgh inAugust 2004, and production managerGayle Jeffery went in March and June2005. We rented St. Cuthbert’s Church,a landmark building in the parklandbelow Edinburgh Castle, located on thecorner of busy Princes Street andLothian Road and surrounded by one ofEdinburgh’s notorious graveyards. Wehired a U.K. producer, Richard Jordan,to help us negotiate the often confusingFringe requirements and the substantialpromotion needed to sell tickets in afestival of 1,700 different shows.

In the months prior to August, wemet frequently with Richard, organizinginsurance, travel, housing, and publicity.We worked with an excellent New Yorkdesigner, Megan Sprenger, who translat-ed our ideas into beautiful promotionalbrochures and posters, black companyhoodies with our show logo, and giantvinyl banners for display on PrincesStreet. Housing turned out to be one ofour biggest expenses; we rented localthree-bedroom apartments at astronom-ical prices (even for New York City)within walking distance of the theater.Well, almost walking distance – theScottish “five-minute walk” seems to be actually about 25 minutes.

Richard came up with the inspiredidea of offering an additional series oflate-night concerts called “GraveyardMusic” to increase our potential ticketincome. On his instruction, we went outto Woodlawn Cemetery and took pho-tos of my 13-year-old daughter, lookingghostly in a gothic white outfit. Littledid we realize how much this imagewould appeal to the theater-goingpublic.

By the time we left for Scotland, ourcompany of 14 performers (JessicaTranzillo, soprano; Phyllis Clark, sopra-no; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-sopra-no; Philip Anderson, tenor; MichaelBrown, tenor; Paul Shipper, bass; GrantHerreid, lute; Christa Patton, harp; DanSwenberg, theorbo; Lucas Harris, theor-bo; Robert Mealy, violin; Brian Clark,violin; Dongsok Shin, harpsichord; andmyself) had swelled to over 20 with the

34 Winter 2005 Early Music America

David Boe organ, organ literature, history and design, ensembles

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Lisa Goode Crawford harpsichord, continuo, harpsichord literature, ensembles

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Kathie Lynn baroque flute

Marilyn McDonaldbaroque violin, ensembles

Catharina Meints viola da gamba, baroque cello, ensembles

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ARTEK in Edinburgh

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Early Music America Winter 2005 35

addition of Gayle Jeffery, who was alsoour stage manager/lighting designer/chief problem-solver; Neal Plotkin,board member and box office manager;my two teen daughters, head usher andhead concessionaire; various spousesand partners as ushers and ticket-takers;Barbara Hollinshead’s teen sons, page-turners, and stop-pullers extraordinaire;and my seven-year-old son, companymascot.

Flying inOur first challenge came at Newark

Airport. Those who travel with largeinstruments are accustomed to delaysand hassles with airlines, but this occa-sion was truly exceptional. Christa’sBaroque harp, in its wooden travel case,was both overweight and oversize. Afterthree hours at the ticket counter,Continental finally allowed her to board,charging a reasonable $270 overweightbaggage fee (down from the $1,500 theyinitially proposed). Nevertheless, theyinsisted there was a good chance thatEdinburgh Airport would immediatelysend the harp back to the U.S. becauseof regulations that simply did not allowoversize baggage in the U.K. Webreathed a big sigh of relief when wesaw the harp in Edinburgh at last – onthe revolving baggage claim conveyorbelt, no less.

Friendly customs agents asked whatshow we were producing, clearly used tothe wild array of theatrical items beingbrought in for the Fringe. (Was it themountain of luggage and instruments,the carry-on vintage suitcases, or maybethe 1940s hats the men were wearing

that clued them in?) We gave out ourfirst comp tickets – and happily, theagents did come to our show, along withvarious cab drivers, bartenders, theMailboxes Etc. xerox man, and manyother working people from Edinburghwho helped us out. It was fun to talk tothem after performances and hear theircomments. Many had never heardMonteverdi before, but just as manywere surprisingly knowledgeable aboutclassical music in general, and singingand early music in particular.

Most of us arrived on a Wednesday,facing the Herculean task of turning achurch into a theater, with two showsup and running, by the followingMonday. We discovered that Edinburghhas no equivalent to Staples. I’m notquite sure how we ever used to livewithout a Staples every 10 blocks (orOffice Depot or…), but having had ataste of it, I can say, there’s a definitebusiness opportunity in Edinburgh – atleast during Festival time. Getting pro-motional materials during the Fringe is adelicate balance of, on the one hand,how many paper goods/labels/ban-ners/posters/extra ink cartridges youcan carry with you in your baggage (notenough!) – without getting charged VATfor bringing them in – and on the other,finding the items you need once you’rein the U.K. without spending threetimes what they cost in the U.S. Not aneasy task, we found! Every time we hada good review, it was off to scavengeanother packet of labels (hard to findwithout ordering for delivery in a fewdays), while hoping desperately that ourprinter ink would hold out for another50 sheets or so. And then there was thenever-ending task of passing out flyerson the streets.

Gayle and her production team fromthe U.K. company SLK Lighting did afabulous job getting the prosceniumstage and lighting up and running. Theonly problem was an extremely balkycomputer lighting board that constantlylost previously set cues. Every organistwho has dealt with combination actionknows about this pitfall. The last straw

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ARTEK’s late-night concerts were promotedwith a gothic-style image of Gwen Toth’sdaughter, taken in Woodlawn Cemetery.

36 Winter 2005 Early Music America

was when, in one show, the board wentblack during the last scene; Gayle wasfrantically turning lights on individuallyby hand for the remainder of the show.Happily, a new board arrived the verynext day.

Opening night was a huge success.Our Scottish friend, countertenor Ericvon Ibler, helped get the word out, andwe had a good-sized audience for bothof our shows. Eric loves life and hasthe Scottish gift of gab. After the per-formance, he simply could not give usenough compliments. Then, suddenly,he became very serious and said, “Ihave only one negative thing to say. Youshould not be part of the FringeFestival. You should be playing QueensHall as part of the InternationalFestival!” Our “Graveyard Music” showwas a surprise hit for us. People oftenarrived asking if the concerts were out-doors in the famous graveyard. (No!)We had lots of younger people, teensand college-age types, attending. Itseems the ghostly, gothic picture did itsjob. My daughter wasn’t quite sure sheenjoyed seeing her face all overEdinburgh, though!

Enjoying EdinburghAs the saying goes, no rest for the

weary (or the wicked!). The very nextday was that first, wild Royal Mile pro-motion. Then, once our shows wererunning, we had a little time to enjoythe tourist sights and take in some ofthe other events. My daughters found astreet show with a chain-saw juggler tobe the most entertaining act of theentire festival. Grant saw a great pro-duction of Lorca’s Amor de DonPerlimplin con Belisa en su Jardin, and excel-lent physical theater by Company F/Z.

Jessica and Barbara woke up to asunny, glorious day and decided to go toInchcolm Island’s ruined abbey. Withthe barest of instructions about how tofind it, they managed to get to the sta-tion about five minutes before the cor-rect train, find their way from the traindepot in Dalmeny to the ferry after a

few wrong turns and some very helpfulguidance from a 12-year-old boy on abike, arrive at the ferry with minutes tospare before sailing, enjoy bird-watchingand sights on the island, and arrive backat the train station just in time to seethe train back to Edinburgh approach-ing. Barbara says the day was perfect –from the unusually sunny weather to themultitude of exactly-timed (and totallyunplanned!) transportation connectionsto the gorgeous scenery.

Another adventure was climbingArthur’s Seat, a large hill jutting up justoutside of downtown Edinburgh. Onceyou get to the top, the historic Sheep

Heid Inn pub is just on the other side –a reward for all that effort! Walking,everywhere, was a major part ofEdinburgh. Those cobblestone streetsget hard on the feet after a while. Grant,Christa, Lucas, and Paul rented a car fora trip to Stirling Castle on our (one) dayoff, and on the way home – in the rain,of course – had a flat tire. They man-aged to recuperate with tea and potatoscones.

Happily, the customs agents did come to our show, along

with various cab drivers,bartenders, the Mailboxes Etc.

xerox man, and many otherworking people from Edinburgh

who helped us out.

ARTEK in Edinburgh

Stage director Martin Platt and ARTEK directorGwen Toth confer at the Edinburgh Festival.

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Early Music America Winter 2005 37

The weather was typical Edinburghweather: it was cool (downright cold, I’dsay!), and it rained most days. Severalsopranos managed to arrive for oneshow completely drenched by an unex-pected downpour. We wore our compa-ny black hoodies day in and day out.None of our friends in sweltering NewYork City felt a bit sorry for us, I’mafraid.

We will all remember the gin-and-tonic parties after shows. We taste-testedseveral brands and tried the English wayof garnishing the drink with cucumber.It helped make up for the fast-food andsandwich meals we consumed whenthere was no time to find a sit-downrestaurant between shows.

My most embarrassing experiencehappened one night early on when I wastrying to lock up an apartment I had justvisited to retrieve some extra keys.Although I got in without trouble, Icouldn’t lock the door again to save mylife. Another American from anothershow, staying in an apartment upstairs,came by and gave me some assistance.After ten minutes, we figured out theproblem (lift the handle when you lock –how unusual!), and he went on his way.An hour later, after arriving back at myown apartment, I realized I was carryingnot only my own assorted bags andpurse but also a mystery bag. The manhad handed me his groceries while heworked on the lock, and I had walkedoff with them. Fortunately, he had givenme his card. I had to call him andexplain sheepishly that his missing gro-ceries were in my refrigerator. He had agood laugh over it.

We’re back in the U.S. again – andthinking about returning to the Fringenext year and opening our venue toother American early music ensembles,too. All in all, it was a great musicalexperience in a fabulous city. BarbaraHollinshead puts it perfectly: “I woulddefinitely go to the Edinburgh Fringeagain. St. Cuthbert’s is a swell place tosing, we had very appreciative audiences,and it is great to be in a cool climateinstead of Washington, D.C., inAugust!”A specialist on historical keyboard instruments,the author is founder and director of the ARTEK

ensemble in New York City.