HOOTS believe the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals should belong to everyone – not just audiences who can afford premium ticket prices and artists who can cover high venue hire fees.

Their mission is to create a number of bespoke low impact spaces that encourage participation and attendance without excessive financial risk.

Kent Place School

The St Anne's County Debutante Class of 2000 has been struck with a plague of lice – maybe because God hates them, maybe because of what happened last summer to Emma. They decide to revive the ancient ritual of sin-eating to cleanse them of their misdeeds before their presentation to society. Instead they uncover secrets about each other and themselves that will rock the foundation of their friendships forever. This dark comedy explores guilt, grief and girlhood in the vicious world of country club debutantes.

Midnight Sun Theatre

Before Rent, there was Tick, Tick... Boom!. This autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning composer of Rent, is the story of a composer and the sacrifices that he made to achieve his big break in theatre. Containing fourteen songs, ten characters and three amazing actors, Tick, Tick... Boom! takes you on the playwright / composer's journey that led to a Broadway blockbuster.

BHS Drama

What happens when the Queen (really) wants her son-in-law, the Prince? Drums. Movement. Taboo! Euripides' shocking Greek tragedy, Hippolytos, presented in a poetic and percussion-based adaptation by the Burbank H.S. Drama troupe and its award-winning director. Witness this powerful choral work, inspired by theatre icons Jerzy Grotowski, Frederico G. Lorca, and Carol Churchill in telling the mythic tale of forbidden love.

The Periwig Players

Imogen would rather stay home and knit, but her mother, famed mountaineer Clarantine Hilbig, pushes her to conquer the treacherous Flugelhorn in the Austrian Alps. Facing a disgraced guide, a boastful rival and an overly enthusiastic ghost, Imogen must navigate more than the mountain’s dangers. As she climbs, she confronts the weight of her mother’s expectations and her own identity. Imogen Up the Mountain is a Victorian-era absurdist comedy with a modern twist about family pressure and finding your own path – even while hanging off a cliff.

Center Stage Theatre

What began as a provocation to create a physical theatre piece inspired by a fairy tale was further developed around Erikson's Stages of Development to explore life through a lens not often seen in storytelling. What if none of the characters are truly heroic? What if they are just human? What if good intentions aren't enough to create a meaningful life? And what if there is more to life than how we define ourselves? The story that unfolds is a grave and poetic reminder that each choice we make impacts the people we leave behind.

Henrico High School

A haunting historical docudrama that reconstructs the 1811 Richmond Theatre fire, one of the greatest urban disasters of its time in the United States. Through a series of vivid monologues, the play weaves together the voices of performers, technicians and audience members, exploring the events that led to the chaos and tragedy that claimed over seventy lives, as well as the sombre aftermath that reshaped the community. It highlights the personal losses, including the death of Virginia's governor, and the rise of evangelical fervour that contributed to a ban on public performances.

Freed-Hardeman University

With a swirl of his motley cape, Limkin, a grand storyteller commands the stage, dazzling the crowd with his glittering 'flash tales.' Backstage, sharp-eyed Millie sees through the spectacle. When she boldly confronts the man who tells lies, the theatre trembles – both are swept into the realm where stories are born. There, amid wonder and danger, they discover that neither cynicism nor falsehood can silence a story that is true. Co-created with New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Brad Montague (Fail-a-bration).

Wolves Productions

Who are the people on the subway? What lies beneath the surface? Every person has a story, and they all connect. Through shared glances, communal frustrations, spontaneous decisions and unexpected intersections, this group of New Yorkers slowly realise they are more than just strangers on a train. Beneath the city streets, this will be no mere commute but a journey of discovery and shared humanity.

The Clemson Players

Inspired by online forums where people air their dirty laundry and seek vindication (or judgment) for their actions, The Clemson Players have created a comic romp through four true stories ripped from the internet. Are these characters guilty of being a**holes? Set up in a game show format, these characters go head-to-head in competition; each show is different as the audience decides winners and losers. Bee stings, mixtapes, exiled exes and a catheter bag (yes, you read that correctly), make for a rousing episode of Jerk or Justified.

Molloy University

A zany comedy in the style of Italian commedia dell'arte about the planned marriage of Flaminia and Orazio by their money-grubbing fathers Pantalone and Gratiano. On the day of the wedding, the braggart warrior Captain Spavento, thought lost at sea, arrives to rescue his beloved Flaminia from the clutches of a forced marriage. Meanwhile, Spavento's sister, the fiery Isabella, arrives incognito, seeking her lost love Orazio. As the spurned lovers pursue their quests, the servants get involved, and with the help of hapless bystanders, surprising discoveries are revealed and the world is somehow happily realigned.

Theatre33

Inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, this staged production of The Little Prince explores growing up, opening one's heart and discovering the true meaning of love. Travelling from planet to planet, the Little Prince encounters vanity, loneliness, ambition and absurdity – reflections of the adult world seen through a child's clear and questioning gaze. Each meeting brings him closer to a simple but profound truth: to care for someone is to accept responsibility for them. Through distance, wonder and longing, he learns that love is neither possession nor perfection.

Weehawken High School Theater

This girl-loves-ghoul rock'n'roll musical is set in the atomic 1950s. Senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy. Family pressure forces her to end the romance and he charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing and determined to reclaim Toffee's heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the prom. The principal orders him to drop dead while a scandal reporter seizes on him as the freak du jour.

Kamehameha Schools Hawai'i

Keaomelemele is a breath-taking stage production by Kamehameha Schools Hawai'i that brings Hawaiian mythology to life through music, dance and chant. Adapted from Moses Manu's 19th-century epic, the story follows supernatural gods on a journey of love, loss and transformation. Audiences will experience a rich tapestry of Hawaiian language and poetic imagery as our heroine discovers that the source of her power and identity lies in traditional Hawaiian practices.

The Barstow School Theatre Program

In the aftermath of tragedy, a community gathers to ask what went wrong. This bold reimagining of Romeo and Juliet frames the story as an investigation into the forces that led two young people to their deaths. Blending theatrical storytelling with a documentary lens, The Lost Children of Verona explores accountability, memory, and the systems that fail the young. As testimony unfolds and narratives collide, the familiar tale fractures –revealing not just what happened, but why it was allowed to happen.

Catawba College

Written by Adison Schwab this original play follows Joe, a battle-weary soldier, and Willa, a firecracker of a nurse, set against the tumultuous panorama of World War I. As fate exerts its pull, Joe and Willa face the ultimate trial: the resilience of a love born in the shadow of turmoil. No Man's invites audiences to reflect on the unyielding courage of the human soul and the transcendent power of hope amidst the darkest of times.

Hayley Earlam

Brrr is a multi-sensory installation and dance performance for young audiences with complex needs aged 10-18. Set within an inflatable dome, Brrr is an immersive exploration of winter featuring dance, sound, video and lots and lots of snow! Created in collaboration with young people, the performance is tailored to meet the needs of each audience member to engage in their own way and at their own pace. The performance is suitable for those with PMLD, Autistic and neurodivergent individuals, and wheelchair users or other mobility aid users. Limited capacity of 8 young people plus accompanying adults. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com