University of Bath BUST society is heading to Fringe Festival.
The Bath Fringe Festival has been around since the early 1990’s – though the tradition of Bath being a city celebrating arts, theatre and performance has been around a lot longer. Bath Fringe is a ‘classic’ kind of Fringe, meaning anyone can get involved and put in for an event if they are willing to organise it. This results in everything in the programme being there because someone is really enthusiastic about it!
This year, BUST are beyond excited to announce that they are returning to Bath Fridge! BUST have been a society at the University since 1968 and describe themselves as a ‘family of actors, directors, playwrights, producers and students’. Max Baker is a new member of BUST and encapsulated how excited the society is about Bath Fringe- he said he had been hearing ‘whisperings about Fringe all year’ and described the event as ‘the post-exam lightbulb and we the hopeful moths’.
BUST is performing an amazing three plays at Fringe – 'Chequemate', 'The Red Shoes' and 'A Room with an Interview'- and Max commented he was so impressed with how many different people BUST has managed to include in the plays. First time Assistant Director Dillion Cox explained how BUST Fringe is one massive collaboration, with 36 cast members, 7 crew members, 6 Directors, 3 Producers and ‘one week of fantastic chaos’.
Two of the plays, ‘Chequemate’ and ‘A Room with an Interview’ have actually been written by BUST members. Tamina Ferrett is the brains behind ‘Chequemate’ and described the experience as, ‘one of the most incredible things I have been able to do’. She explains how she initially pitched the idea of ‘Chequemate’ with little expectations- and now finds herself putting on her own show! She described the play as a total ‘passion project’ and explained how important it has been to her to have a hobby outside of studying. She added ‘Fringe is almost like therapy for everyone involved…I can tell how excited all of the cast are as well.’ By putting on her own self- written show, she is also hopeful that she will be able to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. She could not talk more highly about Fringe, saying, ‘from the moment that I pitched the show until now I have had the best time and I am so excited!’
All three of the shows, –‘ Chequemate’, ‘The Red Shoes’ and ‘A Room with an Interview’- are sure to be absolutely amazing so make sure you grab your tickets as soon as possible! Break a leg to everyone performing and good luck to everyone else involved- we can’t wait to watch!