Blog: Haste Theatre Conquers Rome Fringe Festival

St Mary’s Postgraduate Drama students update us on their international tour with Oyster Boy, which has just been performed with their Theatre Company, Haste Theatre, at Rome Fringe Festival. Well it was an amazing week in Rome and it’s safe to say our little Oyster Boy is beginning to walk safely on his own two feet now, leaving us lots of time to enjoy the performances and the amazing opportunities this summer is giving us. We have met so many lovely people who supported us over the week, from the stage managers to the olive sellers on the path to our stage (who on the final night administered some brilliant first aid to Elly whose running across the Roman cobbles left her with a heavily bleeding toe about 20 minutes before the show went up…), as well as lovely reviewers, performers and other industry professionals. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from the Italian audience, and managed to completely sell out with extra seats having to be found. Our first experience performing in a foreign country definitely had its stressful sides, not least the language barrier for four of us, but we are pleased to say that we are finding our feet during performances and whatever stresses (bloody toes, last minute stage changes, lights blowing and sound problems) we had faced, when performing we have managed to come together and play the show with even more fun and confidence than before. We hope to return to Rome Fringe again soon as a week certainly wasn’t long enough to immerse ourselves in all the city and festival had to offer! However, we are now sitting in sunny San Diego preparing for our performances at the Fringe next week. This theatre company life really isn’t so bad huh? We met with the festival producer, Kevin, yesterday who made us feel so welcome and at home here, and are looking forward to meeting the rest of the artists and press at the festival mixers this week. We are also putting in some time in the rehearsal room to try out some more developments to a show which has already developed so much since opening night, and which we are really starting to feel comfortable and looking forward to sharing with the beautiful people in the US of A. HOWDY PARTNERS!!!