2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe comes to an end

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to support our show "BANNED the Musical" at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We had a fabulous time! There are so many talented performers at the Fringe and the Greenside Venues staff was amazing. This was our second straight year at the Fringe and both of our performance runs went great. Music theatre is ephemeral by nature and the people involved always feel the impact when a performance run comes to an end.

BANNED cast bow at 2024 Edinburgh Fringe

Saying goodbye to Scotland is always tough, but “a rolling stone collects no moss.” In Greek mythology, autumn appears as Demeter deals with the sadness of her daughter’s return to Hades. The world tends to slow down and hibernate as a result. The creative spirit is like an automotive engine and the driver and their passengers are rewarded with the ride. While all shows come to an end, it’s always best to remember that it only reveals the beginning of a new one, just as Demeter’s joy turns to the flowers of spring with Persephone’s return from the underworld. Thank you again, until next time Edinburgh. 🎭😀

Greenside announces BANNED 4 Star Scotsman review

THE SCOTSMAN - 4 STARS
August 6th, 2024

Denise’s husband has started wearing women’s clothes. Ana has surprised herself by falling for male-identifying gender guru Carl. Above all, Theo wants to capture their eight-strong gender identity group’s lives and loves in a brand new musical, to be staged at a prestigious international festival (sound familiar?).

There’s no denying the sheer ambition of April Alsup’s big, bold musical, in terms of its web of intertwining storylines, its eclectic and diverse characters, and the sensitive issues of gender and sexuality it attempts to address. There’s no denying, either, the sheer panache and energy with which it’s pulled off by its eager, energetic, ten-piece Denver-based company – no fewer than nine actor/singers, plus Alsup delivering an impassioned keyboard part.

Alsup’s songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos. Eli Harvey is a troubled and vulnerable Ana, with a voice as honest and open as their character, while Tracy Denver makes a petulant Denise, at first horrified at her husband’s new apparel interests though later easing reluctantly towards acceptance. Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.

Despite the stage-filling collection of disparate characters – nicely choreographed by Heather Westenskow – there’s nonetheless a convincing overall story arc, as well as fulfilling individual plotlines for several of them (even if others inevitably feel a little underwritten). Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more. It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.

By David Kettle
Read the complete review

BANNED the Musical opens 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival at Greenside press launch

Here's several pictures of the BANNED cast at the Greenside press launch on George Street. There were twenty acts in the showcase and we were given the honor of opening the 2024 Festival this year. Wow, what a great space and the tech team is so good, Thanks Greenside! 🎭

BANNED cast opening the 2024 Fringe Festival

BANNED cast opening the 2024 Fringe Festival

BANNED preview tickets now available at Vintage Theatre website

BANNED the Musical - Edinburgh Preview
Thursday July 25 - Sunday July 28th
Vintage Theatre: TICKETS AVAILABLE

$15 General Admission Tickets

BANNED is a modern-day musical that follows a group of gender misfits through the events leading up to their debut at a local performing arts festival. The polarizing discourse around gender today goes beyond opinions and has real consequences in society. The characters in BANNED go online to live out their dreams and escape the harsh realities of the world. We witness the juxtaposition of their psyche online and offline, we experience their inner struggles with intimacy, authenticity and acceptance. If the root cause of inequality is marginalization, the remedy is inclusion.

BANNED program flipbook Riddles Court performances

Converting a Microsoft Word document into a PDF and then an interactive flipbook is an eco-friendly way to provide your show's programs to your audience. The process is fairly straight forward and it's a "win-win" for audience goers, producers and most of all our environment. The only downside is it requires the user to have some sort of electronic device connected to the Internet.

Here's our working version of our Edinburgh program this year. When it's complete we'll create a sign with a QR-Code for the audience to access the program and we typically have a small number of the shortened program for individuals who may not have an electronic devices.

Early blocking and choreography rehearsal

We're in the preliminary stages of mounting the BANNED show now. Fortunately, we're at the same venue in Edinburgh as last year and we have all the basic dimensions of the stage and understand the subtle nuances of our theater's footprint. It feels like we're more comfortable locking our moves in this year, but early rehearsals always seem to go through scheduling conflicts.

Here's a short video of the first chorus.

It's important to take videos of your rehearsals so everyone in the troupe can review the progress. Typically, directors start with scene 1 and go from there so it's easy to setup a secure video directory with straight forward filenames. The song "The World Wide Web" is near the beginning of the show and it's all hands on deck. Everyone in the cast has a "mobile phone" and can be seen texting online throughout the song.

BANNED! mobile phone props for Edinburgh Fringe

Making theatre props is always fun and the BANNED show has several interesting challenges. First, all the characters use their cell phones to txt one another and we needed a prop to highlight the activity. The timing on these sorts of things is critical so it was important to give each actor the ability to turn on their phone as well as a theater tech the ability to flip all phones on and all phones off.

Here's a video of the final prototypes working in unison.

Making a realistic phone was pretty easy, we found some relatively thin puck lights that fit nicely between two electrical wall plates at Home Depot. It was like making a puck light sandwich! Using wall mounting machine screws and a nut to fasten them together, we added some foam padding to reduce vibration and stress. Then, it was off to the local arts and craft store (Michaels) for some personal design paper with an adhesive backing to differentiate each phone.

Please see our BANNED! website to purchase tickets and learn more. See you in Edinburgh!