EXCITED…Clara Tracey
AN ENNISKILLEN-born woman is taking on the Edinburgh Fringe festival for close to a month with a performance entitled ‘Nobody’s Boy’.
Clara Tracey, a Queen’s university graduate, and the daughter of Patsy and Carmel Tracey, has spent the last three and a half years living in Paris, where she met an Irish actor and singer, Adam Caslin, who was working on a show for the Edinburgh Fringe festival.
“He is a pretty accomplished performer after performing on BBC and the West End and was taking time out in Paris to work on a show for the Edinburgh Fringe. We both went to Queen’s and actually share the same friends from university but it was a chance meeting in the city of light of all places that started our work together on the show,” explained Clara.
The 26-year-old graduated in Law and French and recently completed a Masters in International marketing at Smurfit business school – skills that she found herself utilising as co-producer for the production.
“The piece is called ‘Nobody’s Boy’ and I initially came on board as the musical director and pianist and now have actually been able to use my marketing knowledge from Smurfit to become co-producer. It’s like a full time job.
“From arranging and co-designing posters, to contacting music hire shops in Paris for smoke machines, to learning about the art of the press release, it is a whole new world but one I really love. It’s been great to use not only my love of music but also my business acumen that I acquired in my masters and bring it to the world of performance.”
She described the show: “The show is a theatrical experience, using the words of songs by the likes of Rufus Wainright and Nina Simone to take the audience on an emotional journey from youth to maturity marrying both theatre and music. Adam takes these songs and interprets them like an actor would interpret a monologue, and I have designed the arrangements to musically mirror him, so it’s pretty different to anything I have seen before.”
The venue for the show is called ‘Espionage’, and performances take place from August 1 to August 25 at 9pm every night.
“It’s great because Espionage is right in the centre of Edinburgh and also we are playing at night time which totally suits the feel of the show and the night tinged interpretations of these songs. It’s also my first time in Edinburgh for the festival so it’s a mad combination of immense excitement mixed with ‘what am I doing’ type nerves.”
Concluding, Clara said that she is pretty open in terms of her expectations.
“We want people to respond well to the show and to be moved by it. If it all goes well I would love to continue down the creative road post-Edinburgh.”
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