Video Pitch Transcription
Hi, my name is Harry Murdoch and I am about to finish my third and final year studying a Drama and Theatre degree at York St John University.
This pitch is for a National Lottery Project grant to fund my plans for making my first step into the industry as a theatre maker.
Father’s Day is a semi-autobiographical devised piece which I created as part of my Independent Practice and Research at university. Although I am overall happy with the piece which I presented, in my mind the project is not complete. In the space of this next year I want to develop Father’s Day from a 30 minute long university performance into a 45-60 minute long show to be staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer of 2021.
I am aware that Edinburgh Fringe is a significant commitment of both time and money. However, it is equally a great opportunity to build connections with people in the arts industry, network with other performers and companies and find opportunities to tour my work. I intend to take full advantage of this networking opportunity when I go to Edinburgh in a years’ time.
The reason that I want to take Father’s Day to Edinburgh Fringe is that the festival is a melting pot of different kinds of audiences on a global scale. Although Father’s Day has a lot of material which draws directly from my own life experiences, I believe that its core themes of fatherhood, disability and masculinity have universal resonance and that most of that vast Fringe audience would be able to watch my piece and find something to connect to within it.
With that being said, I believe that there is always room for improvement. With Father’s Day I want to work on how I present my material, finding ways to communicate its intentions more clearly and in a manner which can be more emotionally resonant without the autobiographical context. I also intend to create 15-30 minutes of new material which builds upon the foundation which I’ve already established.
The notion of creating an hour long show may sound like a daunting challenge. The advantage which I have with Father’s Day is that hardest part of that process is already complete. I know the style and shape which the final piece will take. I own most of the costume and props which are required to stage the piece and I’ve formed a reliable cast which understands the piece really well. Also, because Father’s Day is structured as a series of disconnected scenes and bits of material, creating new work and slotting it into the overall structure is a relatively straightforward process.
Overall I feel confident that with a bit more development, Father’s Day is a show which I can take into the world and use to establish myself as a theatre maker and I believe that Edinburgh Fringe is one of the best platforms available for me to achieve this.