EDINBURGH 2017: A Day At The Fringe- Sara Juli

Edinburgh Festival Fringe performer Sara Juli blogs for BWW to give us an insight into a typical day for her at the Fringe.

Sleep feels critical if I'm going to make it through 22 shows in 25 days and it's truly incredible that my kids (ages 8 & 6) let me sleep in. As soon as I'm up, I check my ticket sales report for the day and assess how much my team and I need to hustle for audiences'. Shouting "Tense Vagina!" on the streets of Edinburgh has been an amazing experience - my favourite responses have been the conversations with women young and old, about their own vaginas, right on the cobblestone streets. I then take the longest HOT shower possible to bring my body back to life and soak in the reality that YES, I am really here, and I am thrilled to be performing Tense Vagina for the global audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe!

Cooking breakfast for my kids comes next. Bringing kids to the Fringe, as a performer, is a challenge. They are really excited to promote the show with me, but I realized quickly that having them pass out the hot pink dildo keychains that I had made to promote the show, at the Middle Meadow playground, will alert Child Protective Services (in all fairness, I told my kids they were rocket ships....so I'm not THAT terrible of a mum). I then spend a few hours being a mother/tourist/wife and daughter (I brought my mother to look after the kids).

Once at the theatre, I replenish my free snacks for the show (Did I mention the show has free snacks? Come to the show and you too can score some crisps that taste like roast beef or pickled onions!). Next I test and replace batteries on my 20-something dildos - did I mention there are dildos in the show? I put-on my makeup, warm-up my voice, warm-up my body, and get into my costume. I then carry my entire show up a flight of stairs to the venue (Underbelly Cowgate, Ironbelly) and have five minutes to get everything in place before the house opens. While I literally cannot understand a single word Mark the technician says, we seem to have created a nice rapport, and he always delivers a smooth show!

I then perform, which includes everything from laughing to crying, bleeding (I cut my knee two shows ago), talking about vaginas (mostly mine), singing, dancing, making strange noises - and interacting with a room full of strangers with whom I fall in love, every afternoon. After the show, I promote my t-shirts (why did I bring 150 t-shirts that say Tense Vagina on them again?) and then have a few minutes to pack-up and head down that same flight of stairs to return everything to the holding area. Once I leave the theatre, it's either off to see other shows, or back to my flat to tuck my kids into bed. I then hit the computer and work on my "day job" for an hour or two - because yup, that's still happening!

Sara Juli's Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis

Underbelly Cowgate (Iron Belly), 66 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1JX

Thursday 3rd - Sunday 27th August 2017 (not 9th, 14th, 21st), 16:10

Photo credit: Kristofer Alan Thompson

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