Our editor has recently had to take part in the 'nationwide claim review', with no reasonable adjustments, and with pressured scrutiny, and for what?
Will The DWP Use This Article Against Me Too?
UPDATED:
Here are the 60
#autistic
#neurodiverse
and
#disability
led shows that are on at the
@edfringe
That's 1.78% of 3300+ shows. We feel these shows need to be championed, as well as the artists behind them, this is our mission for
#Edfringe2022
!
Have we missed any?
Reminder to all
#EdFringe
folk, take the pressure off.
You’ll come up, do a show, some people will love it, you’ll have a blast :) job done.
We are gonna review some shows and give out some awards :) lovely x
Just to let shows at the
#EdFringe
know, we are out reviewing, it take us longer to get around to things as our reviewers have access needs and we don't have a 'churn as many out as possible' attitude, but we will be coming to see you and you will be reviewed :)
UPDATE: There are now 100
#Neurodiverse
#Autistic
and/or
#Disabled
led shows on our list. Feel free to save the graphics (DM/Email for a PDF) and tag yourselves (and us) in. We will update again if we find more, or you tell us.
Starting tomorrow, we'll be reviewing!
Here are the 30
#autistic
#neurodiverse
and
#disability
led shows we found in the
@edfringe
2022 guide, that's 0.89% of their 3000+ shows, we feel these (and more if you tell us) shows need to be championed, as well as the artists behind them, so this is our mission for this year
We had an amazing First Neurodiverse Review Awards ceremony. Thank you to all who came and all the winners, guest who presented awards. We filmed it and it'll be up captioned ASAP. For now we are having the evening off!
Announcement: We are hosting AWARDS. 7 brand-new awards for our
#neurodiverse
#autistic
and
#disabled
led community at
#EdFringe2022
. Open now, till midnight on the 20th, get nominating.
See the thread of awards below, all info is on our website here:
Tip for reviewers: If you're a non-disabled critic writing about
#Autistic
#neurodiverse
and/or
#disabled
led shows, please try to avoid the words 'inspirational' and 'brave', I've seen a few already!
Update: The private award's ceremony for The 1st Neurodiverse Review Awards will be held at 3pm on Thursday 25th August, at The Spiegeltent, St. James's Centre. The winners will be announced and also published in
@TheStage
(awards presenters to be announced soon)
Sorry, our usual service has been disrupted. Namely due to our editor having their wallet stolen on Princes St. on the way to review shows. All reviews cancelled, all day spent on the phone to the fraud squad; getting replacement disability rail cards, disabled bus pass etc.
If we were to go by the categories on the edfringe website, there are 16 Disabled-led shows and 11 neurodiversity-led shows - We know that's not the case as last year there were fewer categorised shows and we found/were informed of more than 175! - Do make yourselves known :)
In the interests of transparency and to add to work that others are doing, here is a list we sent to FringeSoc covering the feedback our communities flagged during the fringe.
The First Minister
@NicolaSturgeon
wrote to all the winners of our first Neurodiverse Awards, which is very kind, and I am glad she recognises the importance of Disabled and Neurodiverse led work at The Edinburgh Fringe.
So after two days compiling the list of nd/disabled-led shows at
@edfringe
this year, we have a rough estimate of 175 shows, which is around the same as last year!
Watch this space for the digital brochure which will be out soon :)
For the second part of the fringe - we would like to prioritise nd/disabled led shows that have NO REVIEWS booked in and no PR, it’ll be towards the later part of the fringe :) just get in touch :)
One thing we discovered quickly was we didn't physically have time to see all the shows we wanted. When you factor in that all our reviewers and editor are also disabled at an inaccessible festival - it's a miracle we got to as many as we did.
UPDATE: There are 175
#ActuallyAutistic
#Neurodiverse
and/or
#disabled
led shows at
#EdFringe2022
this is 5.12% of the shows registered.
We've also added stars to shows we've reviewed. Feel free to save the graphic and tag yourselves (and us)
Our nominees for our awards have been published.
Our awards will be on Sunday 18th August at Midday, Just the Tonic Nucleus.
Congrats on all the nominees, we made the decision based on reviews, judges, audience feedback and nd/disabled creatives :)
Venues booking touring companies, please book shows by neurodiverse, autistic and disabled people, rather than shows about us made by non-disabled people!!!
Be cool to have a disability equivalent of the Bechdel Test, where shows are highlighted for disabled characters talking to each other about their experience rather than non disabled characters talking about us.
Review: Earwig ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Dissects and rejects the ableism of ‘trying to fix’ deaf people. What makes it a subtle work of genius, is that it is all wrapped up in a satisfying and authentic 1920’s domestic drama'
We also have to say that not one reviewer from another media outlet spoke to us during our time at Meet The Media, yes it was busy, yes we were new, but they could've certainly picked up a few pointers on writing about disabled led work.
A little reminder for shows at the
@edfringe
wanting a review.
Don't worry about your audience numbers, a good reviewer would not use that as an indicator of how good the show is.
Make sure the review site is geared towards your work, otherwise you set yourself up for a fall.
Our nominees for our awards have been published.
Our awards will be on Sunday 18th August at Midday, Just the Tonic Nucleus.
Congrats on all the nominees, we made the decision based on reviews, judges, audience feedback and nd/disabled creatives :)
Our Awards are back! With a brand new sponsored category. Including: - The
@BOPTheatre
Exceptional Theatre awards (with £500 award and mentoring) - The
@UniAtypical
Bounce Emerging Talent Award (Flights, Hotel, Headliner at the Fest) Plus many more
Right, we are gonna take some time compiling a list of all the shows to come and review over
#EdFringe2022
we need to be mindful of not being overwhelmed, and making sure we can fit as many people in as we can.
We find it worrying that we are already seeing our community worn out, exhausted and overwhelmed by
#EdFringe22
remember the fringe is now mainly a capitalist model and thrives on your labour, you're allowed to take days off, take it easy.
We do understand that it can trigger RSD a lot at the Fringe.
We feel that responsibility as the only disabled/nd-led review site.
But we can’t get to everything, and we have our own accessibility needs to accommodate too.
So please think before messaging us.
Review: Robin Ince - Weapons of Empathy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Beneath the jovial Radio 4 safety of the show, Ince is quietly activistic and it’s wonderful. He also recommends books with such a fervour, he gives ‘your favourite English Teacher’ vibes.'
So excited to announce Jade Flack
@Flackster_Actor
as our newest reviewer as part of the
@edfringe
Emerging Critic Programme :D She will be coming up to the Fringe in the last week.
At the beginning of the month we were told we should ‘name and shame’ reviewers for ableist reviews, we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt and try and educate - but we are seriously a click away from doing
TOP 10 ABLEIST REVIEWS OF THE FRINGE
DM if you want to nominate
Hey, we will be doing
#TweetTheMedia
tomorrow, may not reply immediately, but will respond to every tweet we are included in. Really want to have conversations about nd/disabled-led work at the fringe, and how you are getting on :D
The demand for our new site is far more than what out few volunteers can do have, despite having worked all day every say since the fringe began. We can't do everything and what we are doing has teething problems, but we hope to have made a positive difference for this fringe.
The awards nominations have closed. We will be contacting those who made the longlist shortly. Thanks for the 100's of nominations we had in all categories. Amazing that so many members of the public have championed so much of our work.
We are getting more reports of ableist language used in reviews about disabled acts at the
#EdFringe
Last year the most positive reviews went to non-disabled acts creating work about disabled people :S
Thank you for all the nominees and well-wishers that came to our third award ceremony today. It was great to come together again and celebrate the talent in our communities, wishing everyone the best for the last week of the fringe and beyond.
We're in the process of getting ready for
@edfringe
2023! We've refreshed our website, including a new application form if you'd like to write for us. Our full launch will be on Thursday 27th July; when we will publish our guide, awards process n stuff
Closing soon!
We are very excited to be supporting a disabled critic who will be able to bring a much-needed perspective to work at the Edinburgh Fringe.
- Travel & Accommodation
- Payment for your reviews.
Applications close tomorrow at midnight!
Shout out to one of the best journalists working at
#EdFringe
we'd love to have them work for us, but they're out doing great work, one of the few openly
#disabled
reviewers at the Fringe, I think?
Hello! I’m Liam, a Deaf and disabled journalist and campaigner.
Let’s chat if you’re after pieces on deafness, autism, asexuality, OCD, politics or social media.
I can moderate/speak on panels, too.
Email: liamodelluk
@gmail
.com
📸:
@antw0rld
|
We are already feeling the weight of judging these awards, we hope nobody is too disappointed and that you'll see that our panels will give real consideration to all acts nominated. We won't be going away so they'll be future opportunities. Yours, an empathetic team.
We want to reiterate what
@lyngardner
says, 3 star reviews are not bad reviews. Any reviewer worth their salt, will write something that you can pull a quote from, that will help your show, even in 2 stars. We've made a choice not to promote 2 and 1 star reviews.
Feeling super overwhelmed today - be cool if the support was a two-way thing :D
We are an all-disabled reviewing team and we are getting a lot of hectoring emails and contacts annoyed we haven’t come to shows…
… and it’s like, we are not going to get to everything…
We are gutted that our scope for awards were limited to 7, we would've liked to have had more categories, different criteria and we know some amazing acts from our communities haven't got through. Next year, with funding, we will have bigger awards.
The idea that
@bbcstrictly
has 'gone woke' is such a narrow and ableist framing of things. These spaces are just as much ours and always have been, we are part of life and society. We don't see it as 'inclusion', we see it as 'About f*cking time!'
Had a great time watching the opening night of
#DontMakeTea
by
@boptheatre
a pitch perfect satire of the benefits system and its cruelty, coupled with a riotous second act. Intense, very funny and brilliantly done. see it at
@traversetheatre
its on till sat. Brilliant experience!
Just has an email from a reviewer who co-reviews with her 10yr old autistic son, and she asked me if we knew of truly relaxed performances, because her son is routinely castigated and asked to leave theatre shows. A perfect example of what we were talking about the other day.
Review: Breathless ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Sensitively portrays a much misunderstood addiction, showing an audience the human behind the tabloid headlines, it is an education wrapped in brilliant theatre.'
Just popping out from the bubbles in our bath to see that our winners have so far been celebrating by:
- Buying Optimus Prime Lego
- Doing their laundry.
We love our communities!
Review: Darren McGarvey: Trauma Industrial Complex – Trauma and Oversharing in the Age of Lived Experience ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘An informed thesis around how we have become over-saturated by bite-sized online self-help in lieu of any substantial therapy.’
An Open Letter to all Reviewers at
#edfringe
'There is really no excuse to write reviews that are ableist and have little understanding about various neurodivergent and disabled creatives.
We are holding a zoom session to answer any questions.'
We are going to be offering workshops for all the major publications doing reviews for
@edfringe
- will be contacting them over the next few weeks - in the hope that it’ll stop the tide of ableist reviews that will come down the line during august.
#UnleashYourFringe
@AMatterofTime5
Tell Nathan we are coming to see the show and review it, we met him at the Meet The Media and really liked the show's message. So sad to hear he's having a hard time!
All 34 of our reviews are now on our new website; We also have interviews, and info about our awards noms too - it's been a lot of work for our small team, and
@TChandlered
@EllaZinc
and
@aimee_speaks
reviews are amazing.
@SimonCJay
our editor helps too!
Worrying to see entitled and gatekeeping 'professionals' telling us what can and can't be at
@edfringe
there might be a clue in the word 'fringe', it's already priced out for many people anyway, it seems 12 years of Tory rule has emboldened producers and venues.
We support
@jenivescomedian
and find it shocking
@Gildedballoon
aren't doing more to protect one of their acts who is being subjected to a hate crime!!!
🚨News: The Emerging Critics Programme
If you are a disabled, deaf and/or neurodivergent writer interested in being mentored, writing reviews for us and staying at the Fringe in the 3rd week of August; Apply below. (Applications close 28th June)
We've got 8 new reviews to drop today, two interviews, three quick fire q & a's, all whilst compiling our nominee lists for our awards; AND then we'll go out and see more shows!
And we'll put up our updated list of shows with star ratings!
So, a busy one!
Hello, we are back at
@edfringe
for a third year. Lots of people asking about the digital brochure.
It'll be back, but we do ask if you can make a donation (whatever amount), to be included - put your show name/detail when donating and you're in:
Some outlets have been consistently negative about lots of acts, shows, venues with a 'its not like the old days'... I think the entitled old men with Media Passes deciding what's good has been pretty consistent through the years, surely?