First Past the Post

Welcome to our new blog!

We'll be using this as a place to post updates and let you know everything that's going on with the PBH Spoken Word Section as it happens.  At some point soon this will be integrated with our new website (patience, patience).

In the meantime, you can also "Like" us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PBHSpokenWord and "follow" us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pbhspokenword.

What's this all about?  Well, PBH's Free Fringe provides venues free to performers and shows free to enter for the public. PBH's Free Fringe continues to be the only not-for-profit, performer led space on the Edinburgh Fringe. Everyone in PBH's Free Fringe pulls together to provide equipment and volunteer their time and skills for administration and organisation - with no hidden costs to the performer.  This year you can see comedy, theatre, spoken word, cabaret shows and intellectual discussion shows at venues around Edinburgh. You can expect to see both up-and-coming performers and established and household names. Every show is quality controlled to ensure they meet the high standards expected by a Fringe audience.  You can find out more about the Free Fringe and its founder, Peter Buckley Hill, on http://www.freefringe.org.uk/

PBH has a remarkable and pioneering approach to Spoken Word shows, having its own Spoken Word section before the official Edinburgh Fringe caught on.  This year, following on from last year's bumper crop of award-winning shows, great audience numbers, and the (small but significant) victory of getting our own section in the Big Fat Official EdFringe Brochure, we'll be building on the strong communal spirit of the spoken word community to build an even more awesome experience for visitors, with a whopping 60+ shows over our four main venues (plus a few scattered among the music, cabaret, and comedy venues for good measure).

The long-term holder (and inceptor) of the position of Free Fringe Spoken Word Director, Richard Tyrone Jones, is off on a well-earned sabbatical with his Big Heart.  Taking over the reins for 2013 is Fay Roberts, aka "The Welsh Whisperer", bringing her love for poetry, spoken word and spreadsheets to the mammoth task of making this rapidly-growing corner of the Fringe tick over like a well-oiled poetry machine.  Look out for a forthcoming post on RTJ, Fay, her tireless team for 2013, and the history of spoken word on the Fringe.

This year we'll be bringing you poetry in the form of solo shows, collaborative ventures, workshops, cabaret, open mic, slams, competitions, and big-name showcases, along with some cross-genre shows, theatrical spectaculars, traditional storytelling, and the plain unclassifiable - everything from children's stories to a cappella true-life monologues, through hip-hop-inflected poetry-jazz fusions, to late-night guides to the world of kink (seriously...).

For details of all this and more, stay tuned to the blog.  You'll be ever so glad you did!

See you soon,

The PBH Spoken Word Team.

P.S. We're still looking for people who want to bring one-off shows and short runs of poetry and storytelling (and anything else that comes under the Spoken Word banner) to the Fringe as we have a few leftover slots available in a variety of venues.  Contact us on pbhsw@allographic.co.uk