Edinburgh Drama and Performing Arts School
Performing Arts Schools in Edinburgh
Drama Schools in Edinburgh, Elgin and Kincardine or the Mearns Forres, Kinross, Fife, Forfar, Haddington, Inverness, Lanark, Linlithgow, Peebles, Perth, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Stirling, Wigtown.
The Performing Arts discipines include singing, dancing and drama. There are many different styles of drama, dance and singing and these can be learnt through a variety of different drama schools delivering Performing Arts in Edinburgh Scotland.
Whether it is a part time, full time, professional, non professional or a complete beginners course or class we are here to help you find the perfect class.
- Stagecoach Theatre Arts Edinburgh Pentlands.
- Stagecoach Theatre Arts Edinburgh North
- The Drama Studio
- Stagecoach Theatre Arts Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is the name given to a collection of many arts and culture festivals that take place in Edinburgh, generally during the summer months. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest component, as well as the world’s largest arts festival and it runs alongside the ‘official’ Edinburgh Festival during August. Other festivals include the Military Tattoo, the Jazz and Blues festival, the Book and Science festivals and many more.
Origins and history
The first Edinburgh International Festival was held in 1947, at the end of August and was formed to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’. It was designed to enrich the cultural life of Britain, Scotland and Europe, with several cities considered as the venue before Edinburgh was chosen. Since 1999 the festival has been centred on The Hub, which is located near to Edinburgh castle and is in itself a remarkable piece of architecture. For three weeks this building hosts a wide range of international music, opera, theatre and dance, with supporting activities, such as drama classes for kids and adults, workshops, dance classes and various cultural talks and debates.
The fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was also established in 1947, when eight uninvited theatre companies turned up to perform at the first official festival. All except one did perform in Edinburgh and the following year the name Fringe was given to the performances going on at the edges of the official event. The fringe festival has no selection committee, so any performance is welcome to participate, with many experimental works that would not generally be accepted elsewhere being allowed to perform. Comedy has recently become the largest genre at the fringe festival, overtaking theatre in 2008.The festival is a great place to sample new acts, as taster shows allow the audience to watch a small part of a show before committing to buying a ticket. There are hundreds of venues involved in staging the festival. In the 1970’s the concept of sharing a venue started to be popular amongst groups such as drama school students in order to cut the costs of rent. Venues now come in all kinds of guises to suit the huge range of acts that can be seen; past venues have included churches, taxis and a public toilet.
Some credentials
Many famous names were first seen at the Edinburgh Fringe, especially comedians; the Monty Python team performed here as students, as did Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie. The concept of the fringe festival has been copied the world over. Some criticism has been levelled at the festival due to the fact that anyone can perform, which raises questions about quality, but it is generally considered to be a sharing new ideas and trying out innovative approaches that would not be possible with any other kind of model. Although the Fringe allows performances from anyone, there is still a registration process and fee, which has sometime led to a ‘fringe on the fringe’ with open air performances in non-fringe venues; feedback from an audience is experience that cannot be found in drama classes.
The Fringe caters for everyone from the biggest names in showbiz to emerging performers and covers all sorts of art forms such as theatre, comedy, children’s shows, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, all genres of music, exhibitions, street performers and events.
Want to find out what is happening at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival dowload the fringe programme here.