Rose Coogan, whose play Rose + Bud features at this year’s Fringe, said it was a great opportunity to “get eyes” on her work.
“It’s no secret that there’s a certain level of validity that doing the Fringe can give you.”
She described her play as “a queer coming of age story about learning who you are and forgiving who you were”.
She said it was more important than ever that “queer people make art”.
“Hopefully people, who don’t know any trans people, walk away from the show knowing we are looking for the same things in life as them,” she said.
Rose said she felt many artists left Northern Ireland because the local art scene “doesn’t know what to do with them”.
“Belfast needs to treat itself just as important as Edinburgh or London. Sometimes working in theatre here can feel like screaming at a brick wall,” she said.
“We need to strive to get our things put on here.”
She added that people from working-class communities struggled to afford the costs associated with performing at the Fringe.
“This would have been undoable if I hadn’t got the experiences and opportunities I’d been given,” she said.
“We don’t give working class artists here enough room to grow. Art needs to be more accessible.”