Touring on a budget

I imagine a lot of drama teachers have fond memories of the Edinburgh Fringe, perhaps having performed there during student days. It's an amazing experience, and one which I've been keen to offer our sixth-form students where I teach, at Magdalen College School in Oxford. We've taken at least one production up to Edinburgh every year for over a decade; usually new works which we've either written ourselves or commissioned from emerging playwrights.

For a few reasons, however, I started looking at alternative tour destinations. On top of rising train fares, accommodation in Edinburgh in August is absurdly expensive. We use student halls, but the affordable ones tend to be miles out of town, so bus or train tickets mount up. What with rehearsing, travelling and performing, our Fringe trip also takes up almost a fortnight of the summer holiday, which is a significant commitment for both students and staff. So I decided to try something new, putting together a bespoke tour which would be logistically and financially more viable, while still giving the students a chance to perform a high quality piece of theatre to new audiences.