Welcome back to The Crush Bar!
Some admin, some changes, and a new way to support this newsletter via paid subscription...
Welcome back – or just welcome, if you are a new subscriber – to The Crush Bar, a weekly theatre newsletter written by me, Fergus Morgan, and published via Substack. I’ve been on a bit of a break since the end of the Edinburgh Festivals in August, when everything was a bit crazy for me, but I’m back at my laptop now and ready to write about all things fringe theatre again!
Usually, this newsletter gets published at 11.45am-ish every Friday and features an in-depth interview with an emerging theatremaker - or several. Those regular issues will resume soon, but seeing as it has been a while, and seeing as a few hundred more subscribers have signed up since July, I wanted to use this issue to quickly do a bit of admin and a bit of explaining about future issues, and to ask for your support.
To put it briefly, I’m introducing a couple of new features to The Crush Bar and starting a paid subscription option – but don’t worry, nothing is going behind a paywall. Read on to find out more. Oh, and if you haven’t signed up as a subscriber yet, then you can do so via the button below.
First, a quick reminder what this is all about.
I started The Crush Bar back in January 2020 as a platform to write about the theatre and the theatremakers I didn’t think were getting enough attention elsewhere. Since then, it has grown. Each issue now lands in the inboxes of almost 1300 subscribers – 1299 to be exact! - of which you are probably one!
The newsletter’s aims remain the same, though. Firstly, I want to keep shouting about the directors and designers, actors and artists, dramaturgs and dramatists that are doing exciting things, and that other performing arts publications do not have the space or the time to spotlight.
And secondly, I want to help those theatremakers connect with the people that can help them. Each interview gives them a chance to be explicit about who they are, what they want to do, and what they need to get there. If that’s you – or if that’s someone you know – then get in touch with them!
Now, a few changes I’m making to the newsletter.
I’ve decided to add a couple of new features to The Crush Bar going forward. Firstly, starting next week, the last issue of every month, instead of featuring an interview with an emerging artist, is going to feature five upcoming fringe theatre shows or events in the following month that will be worth checking out.
Most of these picks will be editorial – i.e. chosen by me – but, like they were during the Edinburgh Fringe, a couple of them will be available for promotional purposes, too. For more information on that – and for more information on promoting with The Crush Bar in general – use the button below.
And secondly, The Crush Bar is going international. Every now and then, this newsletter is going to focus on an artist or artists based outside the UK. Most of the time – hopefully – those interviews will be done in person. Next month, for example, I’ll be sending a short dispatch from Dublin Theatre Festival. The following month, I’ll be writing to you from Pristina in Kosovo. After that, who knows?
Lastly, The Crush Bar could do with some support.
This newsletter’s success is brilliant, but it does mean that it is taking up more and more of my time – and I need some support to keep it all up. There are various ways you can help here – you can share it far and wide, you can donate to my Ko-Fi, or you can use it to promote something, for example. Now, I am introducing one more method you can use to support The Crush Bar directly via Substack.
For the price of one-and-a-bit coffees a month – or two recipe books a year, if you prefer – you can support The Crush Bar by becoming a paid subscriber. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, or think what it’s doing is worthwhile, then you can help keep it going for either £5 a month or £50 a year.
I want to stress that nothing is going behind a paywall: this newsletter will always be free to read and becoming a paid subscriber doesn’t get you anything that a free subscriber doesn’t get already – beyond the sense of satisfaction that you are doing your bit to support theatre journalism. If you want that warm fuzzy feeling right now, then you can become a paid subscriber via the button below, or at the top of the page.
One last thing. I want to say a quick but sincere thanks for reading this newsletter. I always find sending out each issue a bit nerve-wracking - this one more than most! - but the fact that people keep opening it, reading it, subscribing to it, and supporting the theatremakers it features makes it all worth it. So thank-you!
That’s all for now. I’ll be back in your inboxes next Friday with some fringe theatre picks for October. All the best until then.
Fergus