“Pure magic.” These words were how director Laura Lang-Ree described The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where The Upper School Conservatory’s punk rock rendition of Pippin is currently being performed.

After rehearsing and remounting the production to conform to The Festival Fringe’s requirements, there are four performances of Pippin this week at Edinburgh’s Church Hill Theatre.

“At home, many of the [audience members] have a certain expectation of our performances,” Adi Parige (’11) said. “Here at the Fringe, […] we get to impress people who don’t know us personally—I love that.”

The cast and crew attended productions, such as Hamlet: House of Horror, and interacted with schools from across the nation and professionals from around the world.

“It’s really refreshing to meet so many people with the same aspirations and thoughts like mine,” Ashima Agrawal (12) said.

For the college-bound Gautam Krishnamurthi (’11), his experience at The Festival Fringe has improved his time-management and has allowed him “to become a more self-sustaining individual.”

Experiencing other facets of professional theatre, the Pippin cast and crew had to sell tickets to their four shows at a street called the Royal Mile. Instead of passing out programs, they performed a Three-card Monte, with the trick card as the ticket.

“I gained insight into the realities of the arts when we advertised on the Royal Mile,” Payal Modi (11) said.

Despite the challenges of demanding time requirements, performing in a new location, and working with a professional tech team, Lang-Ree considers it “a daily learning curve.”
Lang-Ree said, “[The Edinburgh Festival Fringe] is an experience of a lifetime, and I’m so proud of the way our cast has bonded and so proud of their work on stage.”