Summary

There's no doubt that the Fringe has played an important part in certain parts of my life. It was the shows I saw in the mid nineties (94 and 95) which switched me on to the world of live performance in a way I'd never conceived on before. I had planned to have my own show at the Festival before the 90's were out. This never happened - I never got motivated to go to another Fringe until the events of 2002 gave me the kick in the ass I needed to get my life back on track.

Fringe 2002 introduced me to certain key people and certain key performances which have unlocked a world of creativity for me in the last few months. I'm looking forward to this year's fringe greatly. It will be the first year that I'll have been present for the entirety of the festival. Perhaps this will be a one off, or perhaps I'll be hooked from this point forward.

Hopefully I will be smart enough to chronicle the next series of shows I attend. I'm reasonably diligent with the acquisition of programmes for the shows I attend in regional and West End end theatre, and I'm recording every show that I personally perform... so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that this particularly patchy diary will have a successor for the 2003 Fringe Festival. Who knows... with the power of broadband and my laptop (both of which will be available to me next month) I may chronicle it all as I go along... leaving me something to remember myself by when I'm confused come 25th August!

06 July 2003
Ashley Frieze