Sheepish | Lauren Talitha Ziebart | Olive Studio, Greenside @ George Street

🎥 Video Introduction: Interview with Lauren Talitha Ziebart – Creator of Sheepish

Step into the surreal, soulful, and side-splitting world of Sheepish—a genre-defying theatrical romp through identity, purpose, and, most importantly, the legacy of Dolly the Sheep. Following a sold-out run in London, this Fringe-bound show is baa-ck (but surprisingly light on sheep puns) and ready to challenge everything you thought you knew about existentialism, cotton wool, and Marlon Brando impressions.

In this exclusive interview, I chat with the brilliant and bold Lauren Talitha Ziebart to unpack what it really takes to bring a radical, ridiculous, and tender production to the Edinburgh Fringe. From navigating the chaos of creative logistics to staying on top of marketing whilst performing a show that dances between absurdity and emotional truth. Lauren shares the highs, the hurdles, and the heart behind Sheepish.

Whether you're a fellow creative, a Fringe fanatic, or just curious about how one turns a cloned sheep into a philosophical muse—this conversation is for you.

TRANSCRIPT:

I'm here with Lauren, she's promoting Sheepish, which is a show going on over at Greenside. Tell us briefly, firstly, what your show's about. My show is about Dolly with sheep and one of her clones having an existential crisis about what it means to be a clone.

That is amazing. Thank you. That is so fringe.

Thank you. How's the response to your show been so far? Oh my god, it's been amazing. We sold out our show yesterday, that was our second ever show.

No way! When Mirroring sold out today as well, so that's like super cool. Yeah, it's been great. Awesome.

And why did you decide to bring it to the Fringe? Um, um, why? Because we did shows in London that went super well and we extended our run in London and then we were like, well, we should just, we should go to the Fringe because Edinburgh is actually the home of Dolly the sheep. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, it was quite a whirlwind because we only applied in March.

Oh, amazing. Yes, now we're here. Awesome.

So where have you come from? Are you from London originally? Perfect. Yeah, I'm from London. And you've done work with the Soho Theatre, is that right? That's right, we're part of the Soho Theatre Labs.

They do an Edinburgh lab, they help develop our show for the Fringe. Ah, perfect. Do you do theatre production for a living or do you have a day job? I have lots of, lots of little jobs.

Oh, please share. Oh, um, I work in theatres in London. Amazing, great.

In like administrative roles. Perfect. But only part-time three days a week and then the rest of the time I'm freelance working in like creative theatre roles.

Amazing. How did you fund or budget this show? So we were a recipient of the Keep It Fringe fund. Amazing.

So 180 artists got two and a half grand and we are one of those peoples. And then we also had a thousand pounds from our London shows as well. So that three and a half grand has pretty much covered all of our costs.

Oh, that's incredible. We're only doing a short run and we, fortunately, some of our performers live in Edinburgh. So we, yeah, we're able to save on accommodation.

And where are you guys? And you're staying with your performers, are you? I'm staying with my boyfriend's dad. Perfect. Lives in Edinburgh.

Massive win. One of them, two of them are staying in central Edinburgh because that's where they live. One of them is staying in Glasgow.

Nice. And what's the hardest bit of preparing for your show? Oh my god. Anxiety.

Yeah. Because it's all the unknowns. Like once I was here, everything was fine.

But it's all the anxiety of like, is everything going to go okay? Am I going to sell tickets? Am I going to be bankrupt? But actually we all took manageable risk. So it was all fine. And you've got a lot of funding behind you.

So it's been very, very fortunate. Just got to be able to step down a little bit there as well. Yes.

So what's your daily schedule look like during the fridge? Daily schedule, we wake up. We have eggs for breakfast. Nice.

We then go to the Royal Mar, which we are here right now. There we go. We flyer for about an hour and a half before our show.

Then we do our show. Then we get post-show hot chocolates. Amazing.

Then we maybe watch a show. Maybe we go to a little gallery. Then we flyer again, watch some other shows.

Brilliant. See where the day takes us. Perfect.

How do you handle your marketing, flyering, PR, social media while you're here? So obviously you're flyering yourself. Right here, right now. This is our marketing happening right now.

We made these really lovely pictures. These really lovely flyers. We've got a team.

We've all got t-shirts with my face on. That's my brother. Hello.

They're wearing my t-shirt there. That's my boyfriend also. Nice.

Also doing it. You've got the troops in. Amazing.

What else do we do? Having chats with people, just networking, not being too weird. Yeah, nice. Social media as well.

Cool. Do you have any tips for managing burnout or exhaustion while at the festival? Oh my goodness. I guess do a shorter run is one.

We're doing a shorter run. But I guess longer, it's just like I have a really, really lovely team. And we're all very generous and supportive of each other.

And we're all very communicative. That's what leads to burnout for me, is having little fights. But we're all very kind.

And just get enough sleep. Look after each other and get sleep. Yeah.

Bed by 11. Yeah, perfect. What do you wish you'd known about The Fringe before coming? Um, just, I don't know.

I've done Fringe before. So I feel like I knew things already. But just know that it's such a beautiful experience.

Like you'll have like such incredible, unique interactions. Like yesterday, there's this whale show going around. And they are puppet whales.

Oh, I love puppets. I'm here for that. My brother lifted me up like I was a whale.

And we all swam around each other. And they kissed me on the head. And it was just like gorgeous.

Amazing. So your heart has to be open to beautiful experiences like that. Perfect.

So some of your Fringe experience so far in one sentence? My God. Exceeding expectations. And very silly.

Amazing. And where can audiences find you and your show? We are at Greenslide on George Street. We're venue 236.

It's at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Very fancy. In Olive Studio.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Oh, at 12.30. 12.30. 12.30, perfect.

Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)