Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Well, for a few days this week I’m in Scotland at the biggest theatre festival in the world, scoping out whether it’s worth bringing Nemesis here next year. The point of doing that would be to generate interest in a UK tour, an EU tour, a West End production, or perhaps all three. I met yesterday with someone who is interested in talking about a co-production (she lives in Scotland) and she is going to connect me with the key venues. This festival is enormous–well over a thousand shows performed–so being in the right venue is key to getting press and producer attention. Out of everything going on, supposedly there are only three or four venues that are really worth being in. So, that’s why I’m here, to meet those folks, see if there’s any interest, and then lay the groundwork for discussion this winter when the planning for next year’s festival begins in earnest.

Also, coming up in September, I’m headed to a booking conference in Indianapolis to see about a small regional tour in 2011-12.

A nutty thing happened on the way to Scotland. On the airplane from Austin to Newark, there was this guy in a purple polo shirt who early in the flight, as soon as the seatbelt light was turned off, got out of his seat in the bulkhead and started pacing the aisle. It was creepy and funny all at the same time. He’d walk the entire length and back until the cart started coming through. Then, each time he paced, his path got foreshortened until he was cornered at one end, then the cart would move to allow him to pass, and he’d get foreshortened the other way. He was clearly nervous about flying, but he also had his flip-phone in his hands, which he was wringing the whole time, and part of me (and, it turned out, some other folks too) was wondering if there was something more than met the eye–like maybe he was agitated because the phone was the switch for something unthinkable.

Then we hit turbulance.

The guy started getting more and more agitated and was muttering to himself. Someone coming from the bathroom behind him grabbed him from behind around both arms and then the flight attendants were on it. Several men jumped up and he was brought to his seat. At this point the seatbelt sign had come on. The guy said audibly enough for me to hear him (I was in row 30 and he in the front of coach) “oh no” and grabbed his chest. The flight attendants opened the emergency medical overhead bin which was right over my seat and grabbed the defibrillator. Five or six people were holding the guy down in the front of the plane, trying to get him into his seat, which they eventually did. The captain then came on the intercom to say there was a “situation on board” (his exact words) and that we would be performing an emergency landing in Indianapolis. The plane descended more quickly than any flight I’ve ever been on and within minutes we were on the ground, the cops came on board, and the guy was escorted out.

A woman brought her kids back to the bathroom and one of them had his hands over his ears. When someone asked if he was okay, the mother said that he was just trying to block out what the guy up front was saying. That guy was now off the plane and who the hell knows what he was saying, but it couldn’t have been good.

Whoa.

Turned out the guy had a psychotic episode. He wasn’t a terrorist or anything, just someone who needed to be on meds. But when the people tried to put him in his seat, he thought they were trying to kill him and really started freaking out. When I heard that, I just felt bad for the guy and wondered if the cops would at least hook him up with whatever medication he needed to be on.

I still made my connection and the rest of the trip was uneventful. Now I’m here in Edinburgh seeing a ton of plays and hopefully making the connections that will bring the show to international audiences. But I now have fodder for my next project.