So You Want To Do A Solo Show?

Gareth Armstrong

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781848420847
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788507110
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

A unique guide to every aspect of putting on your own solo show: choosing the subject, raising the finance, booking the venue - and performing it!More and more actors – faced with ever longer periods of unemployment – are turning to the solo show as a way of keeping active, keeping visible, and keeping the wolf from the door! This book is essential reading for anyone contemplating such a move, and comprehensively covers every aspect of putting on your own one-person show.Being a veteran of the solo-show circuit, as a writer, performer and director, Gareth Armstrong is the ideal guide. He takes you step by step through each stage of the process: Choosing the right material – or devising your ownRaising the financeFinding the venuesHiring a bookings manager and other personnelArranging publicityWinning an audienceThere is a special section on that mecca for solo shows, the Edinburgh Fringe, and an extensive appendix covering funding bodies, venues, festivals and more. Throughout the book, Armstrong illustrates his points with case studies of actual solo shows by performers such as Miriam Margolyes, Linda Marlowe and Guy Masterson.'So You Want To Do A Solo Show? is a thorough, meticulous, hands-on, "how-to-do" manual, covering everything from the germination of an idea right through to the costing of the flyers. It is, I think, the most valuable read for any performer who has ever thought "If only I could have some control over the way my career is going"' Maureen Lipman, from her Foreword

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Foreword by Maureen Lipman
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One
• What’s Your Motivation?
• What’s Your Inspiration?
• What’s Your Show?
• Finally, the First Word
• Part Two
• Getting Your Act Together
• Money
• People
• Timing
• Rehearsals
• First Night
• Next Steps
• Publicity
• Booking Agencies
• The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• Life After Edinburgh
• Touring
• Budgeting
• Rural Touring
• International Touring
• Postscript
• Appendices
• Copyright