Emma Hay has been involved in Performing Arts administration since 2010, when she was a Box Office Supervisor for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society whilst still a student. Now deeply involved in planning, and organising the Edinburgh International Festival, she was kind enough to take a few minutes out of a busy day to answer a few questions.
Given the attentions directed towards the Festival by many of my other interviewees involved with the Fringe, this is an invaluable peek inside the philosophies, and ideas that drive Edinburgh’s marquee Summer Festival.
The Edinburgh International Festival
5th – 28th August
For further details click here.
Prompts from me: Italics
Emma Hay: bold
How would you summarise the EIF’s philosophy on staging, and promoting performing arts each Summer? What has been your own journey into arts management?
Ultimately, I think our philosophy is about experience and connection – and that applies across our artists and audiences. When we think about putting a programme together it’s identifying exciting propositions for our artists and audiences that will make the process of creating, staging or attending performances memorable – like we see with Gravity and Other Myths performing Macro in Murrayfield this year or National Theatre of Scotland’s Medea which will transform The Hub into a space where audiences are given a very 3D experience of the drama. Those kind of moments are special, because you can watch knowing you might never see a work performed in that way often – or even ever – again!
My own journey started as far back as I can remember – I always loved going to the theatre as a kid – and I did a drama degree eventually and worked in various festivals before this one, but I always say I just followed my instincts and even now I let curiosity guide me.
How do you set about creating the programme? I imagine you have some difficult choices/decisions to make, so what’s your own guiding principle?
The analogy I use is that creating a programme is like a chef creating a menu. For me, the guiding principles are balance, journey and storytelling. It’s important to see the programme as a whole, much more than the sum its constituent parts when it comes together and understand how one piece of work contrasts or complements another.
How do you view the EIF’s position amongst the Summer festivals season in general? As the Fringe has grown, and diversified, what maintains the EIF’s distinct identity?
The summer festivals are a carefully woven fabric. We work together a lot through the year and we respect that audiences’ “August experience” with involve multiple festivals. Our identity is clear, in part through the scale of our ambition – because we’re putting large companies and orchestras into the biggest houses in Edinburgh and in part by the careful curatorial line we maintain across all artforms we work with: music, theatre, dance and opera.
How has/Has the pandemic/lockdown affected how you approach your work?
I am grateful every day for the job I do. The industry hasn’t recovered yet and there will be a lot of impacts of the last two years that are still to be fully realised, including staffing retention, skills development, not to mention we haven’t felt the full force of Brexit changes yet.
What are your hopes for this year’s (2022) Festival?
I hope people come along and have a really good time. This could be the first time some members of the audience have returned to a theatre or concert hall, so I hope they feel safe and comfortable enough to come along. And when they’re there I hope they experience the joy of shared experience that I feel we’ve really missed.
The REFUGE season of programming is clearly highly timely, and immensely topical.
What can an audience expect?
There is a rawness to some of the work in Refuge that arguably isn’t elsewhere in our programme. And that will be intensified in the Studio space where you’ll feel a real sense of connection to the performances and the artists, the perspectives and experiences they are generously sharing.
Do you believe the arts can help shape the conversation on immigration etc?
What I think the arts can do is express deeply complex ideas and articulate the most profound experiences and emotions. And when you engage with art as a spectator or participant, you find a way of navigating those things – the contradictions, the horrors, the sublime that exist in our humanity.
What challenges have you faced in attempting to bring this particular sub-season together?
When we started this collaboration with Scottish Refugee Council over 18 months ago, many theatres were still closed, or performances were being cancelled so it was hard to see work and a lot of that initial R&D period was online. It’s really hard to build relationships that way. I’m really grateful that my collaborator Soizig Carey and I have a great relationship, it’s supportive and empowering and I think we’ve created something really interesting.
Do you have a favourite, or top 3 favourite artists/groups/acts who’ve worked with you so far?
In 2018 we produced Kadamati, a short piece by Akram Khan for 300 participants. There was something about the purity of intention and goodwill around this event, that took place at the Palace of Holyroodhouse that will always stay with me.
When I worked at Edinburgh International Book Festival I worked with Nile Rogers when he came to promote his book – I was his artist liaison and we had a real laugh. He subsequently tweeted I was the “best handler” he ever had, which I should probably frame.
And honestly, the collaboration this year with Scottish Refugee Council has been hugely invigorating. A true model for the value of working in partnership, continually sharing, learning and improving.
The EIF programme looks stellar this year, the programme is packed with unmissable performances. Is there anything you are particularly excited about?
So many things. Particularly A Little Life from Internationaal Theater Amsterdam as I know that’s real mind-blowing material, Kyle Abraham’s An Untitled Love which I’d happily watch over and over and Farah Saleh’s A Wee Journey, which will have it’s world premiere with us.
Note: I did submit the same questions to the Edinburgh International Festival, as I put to the other organisers/venue directors involved in the Summer Festivals. The absence of replies with regards to accommodation costs, over-tourism, are purely a matter of discretion on the part of the Festival.
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