Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022 Wrap Up

In my work as an executive coach, I encourage clients to challenge their assumptions about life and what they’re capable of doing. A couple of years ago, I decided to “walk the walk” and do something that I’ve wanted to try for a while, but was a bit afraid of actually doing. I wrote a one-woman show about my experiences as one of the first women to fly combat jets in the navy and I performed it off-Broadway last November. While I've done quite a bit of public speaking during my corporate career, that was the first time I’d acted on a stage since I performed in the Wharton Follies at business school.

For the past month, I was in Scotland performing my show, I Feel the Need, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Yesterday was my last performance of 23 shows…23 times of getting up in front of strangers (and some friends!), sharing my story, reliving the tragedies and challenges in my life and the celebrations. Almost seven hundred people came to see my show, and I hope they left feeling inspired to try something out of their wheelhouse, and maybe more educated on naval aviation, too.

What an experience to be part of >3,600 shows and thousands of artists. I loved the feeling of community here, whether it was sharing reviews, leaving snacks for each other in the dressing room or helping each other via online groups for those of us performing. It was wonderful to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen in a while and those who traveled a long way to see my show.

I’m grateful to my producers, Mike Blaha and Nigel Miles-Thomas for their support in getting me and my show to the Fringe. I’m also grateful to our PR person, David Burns. He snagged a radio interview with BBC4 Saturday Live for me and arranged interviews with British Forces Broadcasting Service and The New Current that helped increase visibility for my show. I consistently had 20-50 people in my audience. Each day, I was prepared to do my show to an audience of 0 if need be, so I was always pleasantly surprised to walk out and see people in the seats.

I was thrilled that my show was reviewed, not every show gets one and I had three. One felt right on target, the second hypothesized I had done the show to get dates (?!) and the third got so many things wrong (including using a picture of a different woman naval aviator, not me) but still had some nice quotes in it. From what I understand, getting 3.5- and 3-star reviews for my first show out of the gate, as a first-time writer and actress, is commendable. I’m already thinking about how to further develop the show and what I want to improve.

Besides performing my own show, I also made time to see 18 shows by fellow performers. The styles ranged widely but every performance was enjoyable and I got lots of ideas for things I might like to try the next go-around.

Finally, I loved living in Edinburgh. It’s a beautiful, historic, friendly city that I enjoyed walking through, every day. I learned to not believe the morning weather forecast of 0% precipitation, and to bring layers in my backpack for whatever Mother Nature felt like delivering. I enjoyed the food and marveled at the affordability of some extremely delicious meals. My only regret is not having more time to explore outside of the city. I’m hoping to come back for next year’s Fringe, and if I do, I’ll come a few weeks early so I can experience more of this beautiful place.

Farewell Edinburgh Fringe! It was a blast!