Want to tell your story at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

First time? Or did maybe “first time” go not so well?

We know how you feel. We’ve been there. And now we’re able to help.

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The BoonDog Theatre Mentorship Scheme

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BoonDog Theatre have been producing theatre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2007. Over this time they have learned many things about putting on work in this most beautiful, wondrous and terrifying of eco-systems.

For Edinburgh 2026 we are offering to mentor a company/individual through to their Edinburgh show. Maybe you’ve participated before, maybe never… But we’re looking for someone who wants to go and tell their story.

We are looking for a early-career act who reminds us of ourselves back when we started and had no idea what we were doing - we want to give you a head start on catching up to where we are an entire voting-age later (blurgh). Ideally your show will be a small-scale theatre (one or two hander) or storytelling piece. We’ll even entertain comedy shows if they have a significant dramatic component. Yes, even comedians are welcome to apply!

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We’ll adapt our package of help depending on your needs, but here’s what we think we can offer you:

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The most valuable stuff, and your least favourite thing: Admin. Ohhh we know Edinburgh Admin. We will use our network of programmers at the venues to find a perfect slot for the work. We’ll help you through the application process, aid the accommodation hunt, help you master Eventotron to manage all your paperwork, risk assessments, insurance, set ticket prices… 

We’ll help with your Marketing and PR efforts to make sure that your show is ready to SELL and help organise print and socials, as well as marketing briefs for the venue. We’ll also help to try and get the right press in to your show (this can be a lottery, but hey - we’re in your corner on it.)

We can offer creative feedback and consultation throughout - We won’t lead on this: it’s your show, but if you need sounding boards, dramaturgy, technical advice etc then we’ll have regular check-ins for that.

 

Sadly, we won’t be able to fund the production, so we’re going to need to know that you can fund it yourself - we will help with fund-raising as best we can from various sources, crowdfunding, bursaries etc, and we will try to put together a fund ourselves to help, but worst case you’ll need to be able to raise the capital yourself. Sorry. We wish we could.

 

Application Process

We’ll be accepting applications up until midnight on August 25th, final day of Fringe 2025.

We’ll have a shortlist by August 31st, reach out for chats and quickly make a decision - The work begins in September!

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To apply:

• What story do you want to tell?

• Tell us about your company/organisation/self: How many people will be involved doing what?

• Any non-negotiable practical considerations? Any complicated technical requirements, unusual set pieces, “show must be performed in zero-gravity conditions” etc.

• This space is where you can pretend you’ve heard of us or seen our work and flatter us - Creativity encouraged, but deffo try to get away with it.

• Why do you want to be at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2026?

 

Email the above to BoonDogTheatre@gmail.com with any supporting documents you think useful, links to previous work, websites, etc. We particularly welcome applicants from those underrepresented in the arts industry.