In March we reported that independent arts charity IdeasTap had announced the winners of their competition to win £10,000 to help bring a show to this years Fringe Festival. Back then we chatted to The Bridge Theatre Company about what this funding meant to them, and today we catch up with the other winning group, RashDash Productions.
Helen Goalen and Abbi Greenland (23) met while studying drama at The University of Hull. In 2008 they formed their own company, and this year are set to return to Edinburgh for a second time with Scary Gorgeous.
What made you decide to set up your own company?
Both of us wanted to be performers, and it felt like a clear choice after uni between drama school training and setting up a company. We chose the company because we’d had a great time making work together and people were enjoying it. We liked the style we were developing involving text, music and movement and felt it had the potential to go further.
How hard was it to set up by yourselves?
Although RashDash is just the two of us, we weren’t really on our own – we had so much help and support and advice from people along the way. Apart from very supportive families and friends saying ‘go for it,’ we also spoke to a lot of people who had done the same.
We had a great role model in Abbi’s mum, who set up a dance company called JABADAO when she was in her twenties and made it work. Liz from Unlimited also helped us with all the technical and legal bits we needed to know. She was terrifyingly organised and meeting her really kicked us into gear.
Alan Lane of Slung Low was incredibly supportive, and he helped us work out what we needed to do. He came round to our house one night and said ‘stop eating the GFA guidelines (Grants for the Arts) and make something!’ That was an invaluable piece of advice.
It was hard, because of all the emails you send with no replies, and because we were working nights in a bar while making work all day. It was very tiring, and until you’ve got something and you think it’s good, it all feels a bit futile. A bit like if you didn’t get up in the morning and jump around in a freezing warehouse no one would care – or even know!
You’ve mentioned some of the people who have helped you along the way – do you have a regular ensemble you work with as well, or is it just the two of you?
We have a tech team consisting of two people – Simon Perkins and Emma Bright, who have worked on all of our shows to date. Both of them have an understanding of what we want the feel of a RashDash show to be, so it’s very easy to communicate the effects we want.
We also have two collaborators we work with regularly; singer Becky Wilkie and actor Marc Graham. However, our latest show is a collaboration with Brighton based band Not Now Bernard. Our shows vary in content and style, and so do the people involved in them.
Scary Gorgeous is the first production we’ve worked on with a writer, but as we’re keen on improving our writing/dramaturgical skills we asked Chris Thorpe (of Unlimited and Third Angel) to help facilitate our writing of the show, rather than doing it for us! So far we haven’t worked with a director but would be very interested in this if the right person came along…
Is RashDash full time or do you have other jobs/projects to keep you going too?
RashDash is now our full time job. We do other projects and work for other companies but these days people ask us to come along as RashDash rather than individual freelancers.
Do you have any tips for others wanting to go it alone?
Yes. Be sure you want to do it. I think if it’s one of a few choices, at the beginning you will spend most of your time wishing you’d chosen one of the others, because they’d probably be easier. Don’t do it alone. We have each other – I don’t think either of us would have made it solo. We take it in turns to question what we’re doing, and while one is panicking, the other is staying positive.
Be honest about the things you’re not good at, and find people who are better than you at those things. We’re just learning that we don’t have to and don’t want to do it all – and it means we can be better at the stuff we need to be good at.
And also, keep making. We got lost in funding applications and admin for a bit and didn’t make anything, which is ludicrous – it’s got to be all about the work.
You brought Another Someone to the Fringe last year – how did it go?
Taking Another Someone to the Fringe was an amazing experience. The show was a lot more popular than we expected – we sold out, got some very lovely reviews, and the icing on the cake was being awarded a Scotsman Fringe First in the final week – something we’d never considered might happen.
What are you looking forward to about returning this year?
Cobbled streets and late night shows and seeing the sea from the city centre and the bagpipes! Can’t wait to see lots of other shows that are going up, it’s a wonderful time to catch up with other young companies that we miss throughout the year, because of being busy or not in the right place at the right time. And we can’t wait to perform this monster we’re creating – it’s a scary, noisy, messy animal.
Why should we come and see Scary Gorgeous?
Because it’s alive. It’s messy and funny and troubling and all embracing. It’s full of difficult thoughts and ideas, scary images, gorgeous images. It’s full of very noisy, very exciting music. We hurl ourselves around, we dance. It’s about now – it’s about raunch and porn. It’s about sex and love and the difference. But it’s not for people under 16 and it’s not for people who don’t like loud noise, so don’t say we didn’t warn you! We don’t want people to hate it for the wrong reasons.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a company?
This show. Every show takes so much – but Scary Gorgeous is personal and takes a lot in the making and performing. It’s about issues and ideas we really care about – and caring makes everything so messy.
The other challenge has been negative feedback. We make the shows; direct and write them and star in them, so there’s nowhere to hide and no one to protect us or cushion the blow. That’s fine because we made this choice and obviously it’s part of the way it all works, but there have been times – particularly when we were starting out – when we’ve really taken a knock and it’s been hard to hope we’re good enough to continue. Having said that, difficult feedback has been so important in our development. We listen to everything. Some people say that’s a bad idea, but everything goes in and we think and talk about every comment.
What’s in the future for RashDash?
We’re only up for the first two weeks of Edinburgh this year because we start work on another project at the end of August. We’re going down to Northampton to work on Matthew Dunster’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, which we’re very excited about. It’s our first chance to work on a big show – we’re going to learn so much, and we’re performing Shakespeare! So it’s massively exciting and terrifying. After that, hopefully a tour of Scary Gorgeous and making a new show… got to keep making, keep learning, and keep getting better.
Keep an eye on the @RashDashTheatre Twitter account for details on when Scary Gorgeous opens this summer.
