Assembly at the Edinburgh Fringe
Among Edinburgh Fringe venues, Assembly is perhaps one of the most famous and recognisable brands, and has earned a reputation for innovation and excellence in the performance arts.
William Burdett-Coutts, Assembly's grey-haired director, the "grand-daddy of the Fringe", has steered the organisation for three decades from a single venue with a couple of handfuls of staff to a operation involving hundreds of performers and support staff.
The Assembly Rooms on George Street are closed for renovations in 2011. Assembly fought, unsuccessfully, the controversial plan to put a restaurant and retail outlets on the bottom floor of the venue.
In 2011, Assembly continues to operate 11 theatres spaces out of two main venues - Assembly Hall and Assembly @ George Square venue, which includes three-tents on the East side of the square. There is also a site specific venue at Inverleith allotments.
Assembly's 2011 venues (follow link for info and map) are:
Tickets for all the Assembly venues can be booked at one single box office number or on its web site:
Box office telephone (0131) 623 3030
Web site www.assemblyfestival.com
Assembly History
As well as operating out of its George Square venue in 2010, Assembly introduced a new venue in a big tent Assembly @ Princes St Gardens.
In 2008, due to financial losses in 2007, Assembly was operating just 3 venues under the Assembly banner. Assembly's Expansion in 2007, to 8 venues with some 600 staff (not including the additional 500 people working on the shows themselves), proved to be too much.
Among those venues axed was its Aurora Nova contemporary dance programme at St. Stephen's Church and comedy at the Edinburgh Comedy Room.
Universal Arts continued with two other former Assembly venues: Universal Arts, and the Hill Street Theatre
In 2009, Assembly's venues included its the two main ones - Assembly Hall on The Mound and Assembly Rooms on George Street - as well as Assembly @ Royal Botanic Garden and Assembly @ 7 Holyrood Road.
