- How to take part
- Hill Street Theatre Plans
- 2008 Festival Programme
- 2007 Festival Programme
19 Hill Street is an old Georgian four-storey Masonic Lodge, just a few minutes walk from Princes Street and around the corner from New Town Theatre (former Universal Arts Theatre) and the Assembly Rooms. It has been used as a Fringe Venue for thirty four years and under the constant management of Tome Borrow for the past nineteen years, it has become a firmly established landmark on the Fringe goers’ map.
In Hill Street we adapt the building for theatrical purposes during the Fringe while retaining the essence of its history. The outside of the building is unmissable with its large banner, publicity boards and exterior flood lighting. The box office is located in the ground floor foyer as a welcoming entry to the venue. There are further display areas on each of the three audience accessible storeys of the building.
Our Bar, on the 1st floor, is a laid back place to have coffee or hair of the dog by day and a lively drinking den by night. We boast the best Bloody Mary in Scotland (based on Polish Vodka and other secret ingredients) created by our Bar Manager, an authentic Polish/Lithuanian Tatar. 2009 will see a programme of free midnight music in the bar for people to enjoy at their leisure.
We provide all the basic theatre facilities: - staging, seating, basic lighting and sound. Please remember that these spaces are temporary theatres so plans may vary from year to year and are subject to licensing modifications. More detailed information is available upon request.
Situated in one of Edinburgh’s oldest Masonic Temples this is a comfortable performance space, which induces a very good audience/performer relationship. It is ideal for most theatrical productions. Please see Theatre plan for more details.
| Stage: |
Black dance floor on wood - 5.5m x 5m. STORAGE IN THE CELLAR. |
| Lighting: |
30-channel board and dimmers. General cover provided by Acclaim Fresnels 650w, Acclaim Profile 24/44 and 6 source 4 26 degrees 750w. |
| Sound: |
Minidisk player, cassette player, CD player, 16-channel mixing desk, C-Audio RA-3000 amplifier, 4 speakers all seperate channels and 2 x subs. |
| Seating: |
120 seats. Fully raked Arena Productions Stand Seating. High powered extractor fans. |
| Dressing Rooms: |
Small backstage dressing room. Main dressing room on the first floor. |
| Access: |
Up fire escape (two flights of stairs). |
PLEASE REMEMBER ALL STORAGE IS IN THE CELLAR
SETS MUST BE DESIGNED ACCORDINGLY |
This is an intimate 72-seat (64 seats with facility for additional 8 seats) black box studio with backstage crossover providing entrances stage left and right. The studio is ideal for one handers or productions with a small cast, however we have had a company of eight perform there quite comfortably. Please see Studio plans for more details.
| Stage: |
Black Dance Floor on wood - 3.3m x 4.5m. STORAGE IN THE CELLAR. |
| Lighting: |
24-channel board and dimmers. General cover provided by Acclaim Fresnels 650w, Acclaim Profile 24/44. |
| Sound: |
Minidisk player, , CD player, 8 channel mixing console and pair of speakers. |
| Seating: |
72 seats. Fully raked Arena Productions Stand Seating. High powered extractor fans. |
| Dressing Rooms: |
Small backstage changing area. Main dressing room on first floor. |
| Access: |
Up fire escape (one flight of stairs). |
Hill Street Theatre provides professional technical support crew and trained box office and front of house staff, many of whom have been working with us for a number of years.
While many other venues provide non-professional crew all our technicians are trained, with many years of experience in theatre and importantly, of the Fringe and its special requirements. Our technical support will be on site at all times to deal with problems and if you haven’t got a technical operator of your own, for an extra charge they can manage your get-in and operate your lights and sound (see paragraph Rehearsal/Technical Get-in).
All our staff understand the particular pressures Fringe companies are under and make a special effort to be efficient and supportive in helping with technical, back stage or front of house matters. They will be more than willing to try to point you in the right direction if you are hunting for props, looking for copy shops, or if you just need to find a good local pub to relax in.
 Hill Street operates a computerised ticket agency system. We take credit card telephone bookings as well as walk-up sales. A small handling fee for credit card transactions is levied to customers. All companies receive a report showing the number of tickets sold and the amount of money taken and a summary of complimentary and press tickets, detailing to whom these tickets were issued. We also liaise with the Fringe Box Office on your behalf. For this full box office service we charge 6% + vat of gross tickets sales from our box office.
Merchandise – we can sell your merchandise through our box-office system. We charge a commission of 15% for this service.
Each company is allocated a 4-hour technical get-in/rehearsal as a part of the standard rental fee. We are happy to arrange for any lighting and sound equipment you may require over and above the equipment provided in each space. We can arrange hires for you, which will be charged back to you at cost and pre-rig before your rehearsal/technical get-in. As mentioned above, if you need an operator to run your show this can be provided for an extra cost. An operator costs £20 per show with a £70 rehearsal/get-in charge.
We publish a high quality professionally designed and printed Venue Brochure. We produced and distributed approximately 15,000 brochures both locally and nationally. Each company has an eighty-word entry and photograph or image. You can see a web version copy of our venue brochures elsewhere on our web-site to give you an idea of the scale and quality of shows presented in our venues.
In tandem with the Fringe Press Office we promote the venue and the companies within as a whole. However we strongly advise all visiting companies to mount their own thorough press and publicity operation, as we do not provide press office services for individual shows. With 20 companies performing in the venue we don’t pretend to be able to provide an adequate number of press officers to ensure you get the dedicated campaign that you need.
We can provide professional digital video recording of your show during the Fringe with 1, 2 or 3 cameras. Sample promotional videos are available on request. Fees can be tailored to suit your requirements. If you bring an external company to film your show, a facility fee will be payable to the venue.
1999 at Hill Street saw the instigation of the Golden Cockerel Award (yes, it’s true!) presented by Artistic Director, Tomek Borkowy, to his favorite actor, director, playwright designer or entire production. This award is given for artistic merit and effort and is not reflective of the company’s audience attendance or box office takings. The winning company receives a beautiful statuette made by Edinburgh artist, Catherine Lindow.
| 2008 |
Adam Brace of Rested Theatre Company, England, for his play
“A Real Humane Person Who Cares And All That” |
| 2007 |
Chicos Mambo, France, for “Méli Mélo II” |
| 2006 |
Y Touring, England, for ‘Every Breath’ |
| 2005 |
7K, England/Germany, for their innovative use of video projections in ‘Shadows’ |
| 2004 |
Paul Rajeckas, USA, for ‘Notes to the Motherland’ |
| 2003 |
Patrick Tull, USA, for ‘ Hero of the Slocum’ |
| 2002 |
Peter Aterman, Canada, for ‘Slaves of Starbucks’ |
| 2001 |
Sandy Grierson of Lazzi!, Scotland ,for his role in ‘Mr Pinocchio’ |
| 2000 |
Hunger Theatre, USA, for American Buffalo |
| 1999 |
Ursula Rani Sarma, India/Ireland, for her play ‘Touched’ |
We hold two parties during the festival. The first is mid-festival which is a chance for everyone to say goodbye to companies who are leaving and welcome new arrivals! The second party is the last night party, which starts after the final performance and goes on till sunrise! We are also keen to celebrate birthdays, awards, engagements….. any excuse will do!
At Hill Street we try to keep our rental prices down without compromising the professional service we provide. Our rental arrangement is 40% of the total ticket sales with a Minimum Guarantee (whichever is grater) based on 20% of capacity at an recommended average ticket price of between £5 and £12 depending on the time of day and length of slot.
Due to recent changes in VAT legislation, the VAT-able element of your guaranteed fee has reduced, however there still remains a VAT payment. More details follow in the next paragraph and we apologise in advance for the fact that VAT is confusing and boring. If you are VAT registered we can supply you with a VAT receipted invoice.
Here goes: We charge a basic guaranteed fee for the lease of the theatre space. This sum is subsequently off-set against 40% of your box-office. This exempts us from adding VAT (at 17.5%) to 50% of the guarantee (the remaining 50% relates to the services element of the space – seating and basic lighting/ sound - and is therefore subject to VAT). If, at the end of the festival, the guarantee is less than 40% of your box-office we will charge you the difference. This additional amount will be subject to VAT. Any other deals will be VAT-able. Please not that we are required to charge VAT on all other services ie: the venue Brochure and Web-site entry; Technical hires and support as required; Box-office commission.
We will be delighted if you can join us for the entire festival, however, as companies often wish to come to the festival for two of its three and a half weeks, we have developed a two-part timetable which provides the best opportunity for promoting your show and is great value for money.
Hill Street runs for two twelve-day blocks with one dark day in the middle for turn around. In 2009 our performance dates are 6 - 30 August, with a dark day on the 18 August. You can therefore perform from Thursday 6 - Monday 17 Aug, or Wednesday 19 - Sunday 30 Aug, or on all days apart from Tuesday 18 Aug.
 We require:
40% upon signing the lease
40% as per contract but not later than 17 April, and the remaining
20% as per contract but not later than 5 July.
Venue Brochure and Web Site entry (£500 + VAT @ 17.5%) must be paid not later than 7 April.
Standard slot lengths vary between 1hr 10 minutes and 1hr 45 minutes, however this can be changed to suit the particular requirements of your show.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOUR SLOT TIME INCLUDES TIME FOR YOUR SHOW PLUS YOUR GET-IN AND GET-OUT. You must allow a MINIMUM of 10 minutes to get-in and 10 minutes to get out.
Please call us for guide prices or send us detailed information about your show and we can give you a more accurate fee for your show.
If you have any questions about Rental Charges please contact Tomek or Laura
(+44 131) 478 0195
e-mail: admin@universal-arts.com. |
