Come and chat with Foxy and Husk

This summer, Foxy and Husk are travelling across the UK doing research for their new show Fox Symphony which premieres at Camden People’s Theatre in November.

Fox Symphony was inspired by Foxy’s brother, who is attempting to renounce his British citizenship in favour of being Singaporean. Foxy is investigating what drives us to seek and identify with a community and how that effects how we see ourselves.

For the research, Foxy is inviting you to share your relationship (or lack of relationship) to a community. This could be any kind of community, one based around; family, nation, race, a social group, an activity, or anything else you associate as a community of significance.

If you have something you would like to share with Foxy, email info@foxyandhusk.com for more information and to arrange a time to chat.

Foxy will be available in London to chat from the 1st – 18th August and in Brighton from the 20th – 22nd August.

****************************

Foxy and Husk is a playful performance artist who creates full length shows, experimental films and interactive installations, merging the disciplines of lip-synch, film, cabaret and performance art. As an animal/human hybrid, Foxy picks apart the absurdities of human life through an outsiders’ perspective. Her favourite tipple is milk.

Fox Symphony is being developed at Camden People’s Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Pink Fringe, Exeter Bike Shed, supported by BornShorts Film Festival and funded by Arts Council England.

http://www.foxyandhusk.com

info@foxyandhusk.com

Transforming Stories: Lucy Hutson looking for interviewees

I am a live artist looking to talk to people who bind their breasts, whether that be an everyday choice or a performative act.

As research for the Ovalhouse, Pink Fringe & Theatre in the Mill Transforming Stories commission, I am looking to make a collection of video/sound work, by meeting people and conducting interviews.

As someone who has experience with binding, I feel a great responsibility to treat everyone’s stories with the utmost respect, and would tailor the conversation/recording/meeting to whatever each person would feel comfortable with.

Interviews will take place in Brighton between 30th and 10th July.

For more information email lucyhutson@live.ca.

www.lucyhutson.com

Ellie Stamp Discusses Are You Lonesome Tonight? with Pink Fringe

Ellie Stamp will be showcasing an Edinburgh Preview of her show, Are You Lonesome Tonight? as part of a Double Bill on Thursday 17th July at 9pm. Tickets can be purchased here.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is a solo performance based on a story when you were told, that you are in fact, Elvis’ love child. When were you told of this story and what were your thoughts?

For Christmas 2010 a family member gave me a present, a book they found, titled ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight – The untold story of Elvis’ one true love and the child he never knew’ and explained that this book was about me and I am the secret love child of Elvis.
At this time this family member was experiencing delusions, hallucinations and a separation from our shared reality. They changed my identity and for them it was real. This started me asking how and why delusions occur, what the difference between an imaginative thought and a delusional belief is and how we classify delusions in the first place. This piece is an interactive game I made with a neuroscientist which explores the neural processes involved in how we create meaning as well as examining how we classify and measure ‘madness’.

What’s your favourite record of Elvis’ and why?

My favourite Elvis Song is Hound Dog. Its great piece of music and good one to do all your Elvis moves to.

As this is an immersive and interactive performance, what can people expect from your show?

Are You Lonesome Tonight? explores how we perceive ourselves. Expect seeing each other, conversation, a little bit of adding, searches for meaning, singing, laughter and Elvis.

More of Ellie’s works can be found on here.

 

Rachael Clerke talks achieving redemption and Braveheart

Welcome to Marlborough Theatre! Great to have you on board for an Edinburgh Preview. Your show tackles the meaty topic of national identity, and how you have had difficulty connecting with your Scottish heritage, does the idea of performing  24 shows in Edinburgh make you want to sob into a kilt and comfort-eat shortbread?

Yes. It’s something I’ve never done before, despite feeling like a bit of a fringe veteran. I’m from Edinburgh, and I’ve flyered (badly, aged 15, 17 & 18), programmed & compered cabaret nights (better, aged 22), seen five shows a day without buying a single ticket (aged 16, and yes, most of them were shit) and generally just always been around for it every single year of my life, but I’ve never actually put a show on. So I feel like in one sense I can go in quite well prepared, but on the other hand am perhaps too aware of what can go wrong when people take a show to the fringe. I’m scared of tiny audiences, angry reviews and losing loads of money. With this show there’s the added bonus that it’s political, which to me feels important, but also means that it’s bound to get people’s backs up a bit. I’m lucky to have amazing support from Underbelly and Ideastap and everyone involved in the show so I feel like I’m going in with good  people around me, which is important. 

 

What can audiences expect from the show?

 I think they can expect to laugh, and then to have a think about what it might mean to have an identity that is dictated by place. I want them to be able to understand the way I feel about Scotland, and my place within it, which is well encompassed by both the film Braveheart and also Dougie MacLean’s 1977 hit folk song Caledonia. Both of these things make me want to die for my country and vomit at the sentimentality, simultaneously. Hopefully the show will throw the audience around a bit – there’s a lot of very silly bits, but then also some dark things thrown in. Oh, and they should be grinning at the end.

 

In one of your reviews, you were told to ‘either learn to paint or sculpt or fuck off,’ how did you take that news?

That particular quote comes from a barrage of abuse I received on a football fan forum after a performance I did dressed as Mel Gibson/William Wallace. It features in this show actually. So it’s not a real ‘review’ as such, but is also more than that, because this forum was like 115 very bad reviews, all in a row. That quote was actually light relief amongst all the misogynistic/homophobic/sectarian vitriol that was flying my way at the time. And I think it’s a brilliant reaction to performance art, because it’s probably quite representative of what a lot of people think. Mainly though I like it because it still makes me spit out my tea laughing when I read it. 

 Catch How to achieve redemption as a Scot through the medium of Braveheart on Thursday 17th July at the Marlborough Theatre. 

Annie Siddons and Pink Fringe talk all things nice.

Annie Siddons shows her Edinburgh Preview show, Raymondo, on Saturday 5th July and Sunday 6th July as part of a Double Bill with Sh!t Theatre’s Guinea Pigs on Trial. Tickets can be purchased here.

Hi Annie, Raymondo, is a tale of two brothers who are locked in a cellar together for 6 years. What was your inspiration for your new show?

I’m a huge fan of Lemony Snickett, aka Daniel Handler. A few years ago I found a complete set of Series of Unfortunate Events Cds – there are like 78 of them – for a ridiculously bargainous price, and me and my kids listen to them on long car journeys. We’ve  listened for about 6 years and even now we still find new things. He is a phenomenal writer – hilarious and playful with a viscous satirical side and a massive moral compass and as an adult I never tire of them. So I guess the desire to create something  that is dark but also playful – which has always been my vibe – has been honed by listening to him. It’s Tim Curry performing so it’s pure joy.  Also I wanted to set myself the challenge of performing my own full length show -something I haven’t really done for a long time – and there are so many ridiculously good female solo artists around at the moment and many of them – Kate Tempest and Bryony Kimmings particularly – are crazy inspirational. My work is really different from theirs but the bar they set is so high. The content of the show just kind of happened – it contains a lot of the things that have been preoccupying me for a while – some of them very personal and some less so.

Raymondoland, is the place you refer to when you’re writing the show. Do you have any tools or people you keep close by for when you need to come away from writing the show?

Yep I have two daughters. They stop me from entirely disappearing into imaginary realms. I have a very grown up adult life as a single mother.

If you were trapped in a room, who would you be with?

An escapologist,obvs.

Annie Siddons’ work can be found on her website: http://anniesiddons.co.uk/

Jamie Wood has a chat with Pink Fringe.

Jamie Wood, tennis enthusiast, is bringing his solo show, Beating McEnroe, to Pink Fringe on 27th June, tickets can be bought here. Here’s what Jamie had to say about his show:

Beating McEnroe is a piece about competitive behaviour and the relationship between you and your brother, would you say that it is important to maintain a competitive relationship between siblings? 

One of the things the piece is about is how competition can inspire you and also strangle you. I think the most important thing I try to maintain with my siblings is honest communication and openness to allow our relationships to change as we get older.

You had a very successful time in Edinburgh last year as a solo performer, can we expect more work like this? Or would you be inclined to rekindle your love for directing?

Beating McEnroe is my first solo show and I’m really proud of it, I’m proud of every object and every moment and how all these very different elements come together over time to form a complete fun and exciting experience for an audience. I’ve just presented the first stages of my second solo show called O No! about Yoko Ono and John Lennon, love and art, and it went down a complete storm in Liverpool last month. At the same time I still direct, and teach, and also work in children’s hospitals. I’m very appreciative of every strand that my work entails because they all stimulate different parts of me and all contribute and complement one another. I am a lucky man.

Through your Clown and Circus Skills, you have been working in children’s hospitals with Theodora Children’s Trust, what’s your favourite trick or joke to perform?

The wonderful thing about working with children is that they can truly be amazed and so utterly honest in their joy, and it’s incredible and so heart warming to see a child’s mouth fall open as they seem to multiply balls in their hands, and scream at their parents to come see. Sometimes it is just what a parent needs to remind them their child is not only ill but still plays and laughs and it gives the child some time when they are not all consumed by their illness. Oh and, What do you call an Italian man whose big toe is made of rubber? Robbberto!

What is your all time favourite underdog winning story in sports?

Not sure I have a winning underdog story but I love Cool Runnings and the story of the Jamaican bob sleigh team and also Eddie the Eagle Edwards. Such spirit and courage to compete at such a top level in such dangerous sports.

Find out more about Jamie Woods’ works here.

Ireland’s first LGBT play for kids comes to Brighton Fringe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bring your family and spread the word!

This bank holiday weekend, Irish theatre makers Super Paua bring their award-winning play for kids ‘Aunty Ben’ to The Marlborough Theatre. Fresh from a phenomenal run at Dublin’s Gay Theatre Festival, where they added two extra dates due to demand, ‘Aunty Ben’ is a colourful and playful exploration of gender, family, love and happiness, for all ages.

Nine-year-old Tracey loves her Aunty Ben. It doesn’t matter to her that Aunty Ben is actually her uncle, or that he is a Drag Queen, because in Tracey’s family dressing up is for everyone! The play is centred around Tracey introducing Aunty Ben to her friends and their reaction.

‘Aunty Ben’ was directed and written by 24 year old Sian Ni Mhuiri who established the company in 2013. The play is inspired by the true story of Ben Giddins and his niece. “I always admired the honesty in their family dynamic, and thought how lucky this young child was to be raised in a family where boy/girl rules were broken down. What a special opportunity to be or do whatever makes you happiest!” Read a Q&A with Sian Ni Muhri here.

Get a taste for the show here – Aunty Ben on Irish TV.

The show was nominated for three awards at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival – including Best Female Performance for Amy Flood (playing Tracey) and Best Aspect of Production for the colourful animations created by Hanae Seida- and won the Doric Wilson Intercultural Dialogue Award. Thanks to the IdeasTap Brighton Fringe Award, Super Paua will bring ‘Aunty Ben’ to the festival before touring schools in the UK and Ireland.

 

“The reason I call it an LGBT play for kids is because [Aunty Ben] paves the way for a classroom discussion about LGBT issues and how to react to people who may be different or come from different family structures” – Sian Ni Muhri in The Sunday Times.

The Marlborough is very pleased to be hosting a play which aims to connect with children and teach them about difference and gender identity. ‘Aunty Ben’ received great support in Ireland, following criticism in a very triggering article by David Quinn in the Irish Catholic: ‘Gender – bending comes to your local primary school’ .

Brighton may be a very different context to Catholic Ireland, but the show still needs your support. We want to see the theatre packed out with all ages, so please bring your family, let your friends know, and share!

Twitter

#AuntyBen @marlytheatre @brightonfringe @superpaua

Facebook

Walking: Holding call out

Hello

My name is Rosana Cade, and I am an artist who lives in Glasgow. I have created a project called Walking:Holding, which I take to different towns and cities and work with local people there to make it happen. In May I will be doing it in Brighton in partnership with Pink Fringe as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe and I am looking for people to participate.

I started this project because as a gay woman I found that I was sometimes uncomfortable holding hands with my partner in public. I spoke to other gay people about this, and they said that they had all experienced the same feeling at least once in their lives. Some people said that they never felt comfortable enough to hold hands with their partners in public. This is something that makes me feel very sad, and something I wish to challenge.

I began a series of experiments in Glasgow where I walked holding hands with lots of different people in public, and I became interested in how different I felt with each person, and also the differences in the way other people on the street reacted towards me. I held hands with someone much older than me, with a pregnant woman, with a tall black man, with a goth, with a cross dresser, with an Indian woman and with my girlfriend.

It was a privilege to share this intimate action with all these different people, and hear their different relationships to hand holding and stories about their experiences in the city.

So I decided to create this ‘performance’ called Walking:Holding where one audience member at time gets to go on a walk and hold hands with a range of different people. I did it first in Glasgow, and have since worked with people in Bristol, Ipswich, Dublin, Cork, London and Edinburgh to make it happen. This year I will be returning to Glasgow and going to Birmingham, Sheffield and Hong Kong.

I’m looking for people to be a part of this walk around Brighton. As a participant you would get to meet a new group of people and take part in a workshop exploring the themes within the project in order to prepare for the performance. During the performance you would be positioned at a certain point along the route, and walk holding hands with each audience member one at a time for about 5 minutes. People who have participated before have found it to be a very interesting and profound experience, where they have had an opportunity to learn a lot about themselves, and also to meet a new group of people.

If what I have described above resonates with you, then please do get in touch with my Producer Sally Rose on: sally.c.rose@gmail.com You need to be available for:

–       The workshop on:     Friday 9th May 12pm – 5pm

–       The performances on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11^th May between 11.30am – 5pm

Its ideal if you can do both days, but please still get in touch if you can only make one or the other and we can make it work.

In order to make it an interesting experience for each audience member I need to work with people who are as different to each other as possible, e.g. a range of ages, backgrounds, genders, sexualities, appearances and identities. I’m open to anyone who is interested getting involved, and you don’t need to have any special experience. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone else who you think might be interested.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Love Rosana x

Transforming Stories – A Pink Fringe, Ovalhouse and Theatre in the Mill Co-Commission

Pink Fringe, Brighton; Ovalhouse, London and Theatre in the Mill, Bradford want to commission three new works exploring moments of profound change.

From June – September 2014 we will collaborate on Transforming Stories: a series of seed commissions for Queer-identifying artists working across a wide range of live performance disciplines. We want to work with artists who are interested in exploring the places where sexuality, gender, politics and aesthetics intersect and the times when their balance shifts within our identities.

Ruptures and revolutions; maturing and metamorphosis; political change, physical change, a change of heart or a change of mind.

Each of the three artists will benefit from residency time in Brighton, London and Bradford and will present a series of work in progress performances, as part of a triple bill,  in all three cities.

We hope that the commissioned artists will share their approaches and networks to help develop each others’ professional practice. We anticipate that these seed commissions will have a future touring life. Each commission includes a fee and development time and space in London Brighton and Bradford (see below for details).

Underpinning this project is the desire to provoke artists/companies to explore new ground and to reflect on their individual practice whilst creating new work. We are looking for artists who want to create a new piece of devised Queer performance.

What we want

• A work in progress piece (one from each artist or company) with minimal tech requirements
• 20-40 minutes in duration
• With a get in/out time of 15 mins or under

Each artist / company will receive:

• Producing support from Pink Fringe, Ovalhouse and Theatre in the Mill throughout the development process.
• 5 hours of technical support from each venue
• A technical operator for all performances
• Marketing support and inclusion in season brochures
• A £2000 commissioning fee (£500 of which should be earmarked specifically for work with an outside eye/dramaturg)
• 20 %  box office takings (minus VAT & ticketing costs)
• Accommodation at The Marlborough during the Brighton development period
• Accommodation during the Bradford development period from Theatre in the Mill
• £300 towards accommodation costs in London from Ovalhouse (if based outside of London)
• Additional financial support for travel from The Marlborough and Theatre in the Mill, Bradford

SCHEDULE

Deadline for applications:  Monday 24^th March at 9.00am

w/c 16 June: Development time at Ovalhouse, London

w/c 23 June : Performances at Ovalhouse, London (Weds – Sat)

w/c 30 June: development time at The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton

w/c 28^th July: 2 performances at The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton

w/c 8 September: Development time at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford

w/c 15 September: performances at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford (Fri & Sat)

To apply

Please send us

• A description of your idea (maximum of 500 words)
• A short summary of your artistic practice maximum (maximum 350 words)
• Supporting material/ links to evidence of your previous work (maximum one side of A4)

Please send your application as a Word (.doc) file attachment to programming@ovalhouse.com with ‘Quit Playing with Yourself [YOUR NAME]‘ in the subject line.

Applications in other formats or those received after the deadline will not be considered.

Dealine for applications: Monday 24^th March at 9.00am.

Interviews will be held on 1st April at Ovalhouse in London.

The partners in this programme are all committed to the development of exciting and inspiring new performance. Find our more about Pink Fringe and Ovalhouse and Theatre in the Mill.

Hamburger Queen Call Out!

Scottee welcomes you back for a forth and final, super sized helping of his infamous talent show for fat people Hamburger Queen!

Over three heats and a grand finale, a gang of plus size punters will be whittled down in a game show designed to find the perfect fatso. Each chubby contestant will endure three rounds: Trend (flaunting your fat fashion), Taste (your signature dish served to our celebrity judges) and Talent (light entertainment for heavy weights).

This years head judge is international plus size model and ‘British bombshell’ (Vogue) Felicity Hayward!

The winner will receive £100 cash, £300 worth of prizes from Tatty Devine, Paul A Young, Mr Bake as well as Bestival tickets (with a slot on Scotteeʼs festival stage show, ʻCampʼ), a bottle of fizz, the coveted Hamburger Queen medal, the legendary Golden Unhappy Meal and the 2014 title!

The search to find the perfect plus size porker has begun.

Who will become the final Hamburger Queen?

www.hamburgerqueen.co.uk

#hamburgerqueen

Hamburger Queen comes to the Marlborough, Brighton on 4th April 2014.