This summer we took Our Teacher’s A Troll and The Hound of The Baskervilles to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The students had to work hard for their audience standing on the Royal Mile speaking to potential audience members every morning under our flag. We had excellent salespeople in the team with many of our shows selling out as well as receiving excellent reviews from audience and reviewers.

“The young cast are masters of revelry… Not a beat missed, not a line fluffed, every laughter line as crisp and straight as the hem on Miss Jean Brodie’s sensible tartan skirt.” ***** Getyourcoatson.com

“London-based ETC’s cast are to be congratulated for telling a familiar tale in a very unfamiliar way – without ever stopping for breath.” Scottish Daily Express

As a group we saw thirty shows including stand up, drama, dance, circus, gig theatre, sketch comedy and musicals in a variety of venues such as university lecture theatres, conference rooms, sports halls, tents and even one in a cave. Some audiences were only a few more than our group and others were over a thousand and often featured some of us as unexpected additions to the show – Finn especially stood out having been ‘evicted’ from a sketch comedy show for being too young before appearing onstage a few minutes later on one of the largest stages in the city.

We stayed in university halls of residence and cooked for each other with the competition for best meal of the week being a very close contest. Students learned how to make curry, fajitas, pasta sauce and cooked breakfast, with Izzy proving to be the queen of guacamole showing us all how to do it best using a variety of recipes.

I must thank Mr Burgess, Miss Dee, Mr Lancaster and Mr Norton-Smith for giving up so much of their summer holidays and being excellent colleagues, as well as the students for being excellent in their performances, enthusiasm and company throughout the trip. Look out for ETC shows at the Fringe in 2024!

Ms Kerstein (Theatre, Calendar and Event Manager)