So You Want To Do A Solo Show?

A unique guide to every aspect of putting on your own solo show: choosing the subject, raising the finance, booking the venue - and performing it! More and more actors - faced with ever longer periods of unemployment - are turning to the solo show as a way of keeping active, keeping visible, and keeping the wolf from the door! This book is essential reading for anyone contemplating such a move, and comprehensively covers every aspect of putting on your own one-person show. Being a veteran of the solo-show circuit, as a writer, performer and director, Gareth Armstrong is the ideal guide. He takes you step by step through each stage of the process: Choosing the right material - or devising your own Raising the finance Finding the venues Hiring a bookings manager and other personnel Arranging publicity Winning an audience There is a special section on that mecca for solo shows, the Edinburgh Fringe, and an extensive appendix covering funding bodies, venues, festivals and more. Throughout the book, Armstrong illustrates his points with case studies of actual solo shows by performers such as Miriam Margolyes, Linda Marlowe and Guy Masterson. 'So You Want To Do A Solo Show? is a thorough, meticulous, hands-on, 'how-to-do' manual, covering everything from the germination of an idea right through to the costing of the flyers. It is, I think, the most valuable read for any performer who has ever thought 'If only I could have some control over the way my career is going'' Maureen Lipman, from her Foreword

Gareth Armstrong has worked extensively as an actor in regional theatre, the West End and the RSC and was a founding director of the 'Made in Wales' stage company and of the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. He often works for radio and has had no fewer than three stints as an actor in The Archers.