Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, wrapped up August 28 after 23 days of theatre, comedy, circus, and more. With over 3,000 shows, productions often gain buzz as fan favorites and awarded stand-outs. Among the many awards given at the festival, three particularly notable prizes are The Carol Tambor Award, Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award, and The Scotsman Fringe First Award.
As one of the most sought after prizes at Fringe, The Scotsman Fringe First Award is given to recognize best new writing at the Festival by Scotland's national newspaper, The Scotsman. Presented weekly throughout the festival, this year's winners include Karim Khan's Brown Boys Swim and Maimuna Memon's Manic Street Creature, both of which Playbill caught during its on-the-ground Fringe coverage. Check out Playbill's interviews with the two artists to learn more about Khan's two-hander play and Memon's intimate musical.
See the list of announced Fringe First winners here:
Breathless, written by Laura Horton
And Then the Rodeo Burned Down, written by Chloe Rice and Natasha Roland
The Beatles Were a Boyband, written by Rachel O’Regan
Happy Meal, written by Tabby Lamb
Masterclass, written by Feidlim Cannon, Gary Keegan & Adrienne Truscott
The Last Return, written by Sonya Kelly
Ode To Joy, written by James Ley
You're Safe Til 2024: Deep History, written by David Finnigan
Truth's A Dog Must To Kennel, written by Tim Crouch
Aberdeen, written by Cassie Workman
Age is a Feeling, written by Haley McGee
This is Not a Show About Hong Kong, written by Max Percy
This Is Memorial Device, adapted by Graham Eatough from the novel by David Keenan
Silkworm, written by Vlad Butucea
Feeling Afraid as If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen, written by Marcelo Dos Santos
READ: Karim Khan's Brown Boys Swim Wins 2022 Popcorn Writing Award
Another award to watch is The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, which considers productions awarded four or five stars by The Scotsman's critics that have yet to debut in New York. From that initial list, productions are subsequently selected for a spot on the shortlist which comes with a $1,000 prize. A winning company or performer, however, receives $25,000 to transfer to New York with guidance on theatres from Tambor. This year's winners include Ottawa Little Theatre's Burn, emma + pj's Ghosts of the Near Future, PLANT[UNLTD] and Susanna Hamnett's Hotel Elsinore, Early Doors Productions' LIGHTHOUSE, Brite Theater's Sandcastles, Tom Foreman Productions' Swell, Voloz Collective's The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, Michael Mears' Essential Theatre's The Mistake, Moon Rabbit's The Poetical Life of Philomena McGuinness, and Treehouse's Ultimatum.
Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder from Francesca Moody Productions wins this year's Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award which honors excellence in the genre, promoting the range and growth of musical theatre presented at Fringe.
For more Fringe awards, visit EdFringe.com.
