Full line up announced for Hope Mill
Theatre’s third annual LGBTQIA+ Arts Festival
Returning to live events after 2020 launch and online
festival 2021.
The headline event is a rehearsed
reading and concert of ‘The Regulars’ a new US folk music musical,
about identity and self-love which
is being produced and developed by Hope Mill Theatre
Hope Mill Theatre Artistic Director Joseph Houston, said; “We
are thrilled to be bringing Turn On Fest
back to live audiences in 2022. While we
were glad that we managed to go online with this year’s festival, we
felt the loss of not being able to bring artists and audiences together,
especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, that we serve.
The headline event of the festival is a rehearsed reading and
concert showing of new musical, ‘The
Regulars’, a folk musical, which is
being produced and developed by Hope Mill Theatre, with Music, Lyrics and Book
by trans writter Will Shishmanian. The musical has been developed with and
Directed by Miss Hazel Jade. With a passionate score and a familiar story, ‘The
Regulars’ is a captivating original musical about identity and self-love -
reminding us that despite our differences, we are all deserving of acceptance
for who we are.
Mark Howard moves away from his
West Virginia home to a rural, upstate town in search of a new type of family.
When he picks up a stockroom position at the town’s local orchard, he’s met
with toxic masculinity and comes to terms with his newfound male privilege.
During his first day at wirk, he befriends Dani Thompson, a Black queer woman
who is opening her own gay bar. Over time, these two very regular people form
and find chosen family in one another and their community.
The Hope Mill will be bringing the
team over from America to work with a company of 10 actors on a preview concert
showing of the musical, which will then go into workshop and development in
early 2023.
Director of ‘The Regulars’, Miss Hazel Jade, said: “I am
unbelievably thrilled to showcase Shish’s (Will Shishmanian) beautiful songs at
Turn On Fest and continue developing ‘The Regulars’ with Hope Mill! It is a
dream to share the world of Amberland with Manchester audiences.”
Hope Mill Theatre will be
collaborating with Trans Creative to double bill ‘The Regulars’ alongside new
Trans writing. This event will be a Trans Social event.
Run by Trans Creative, Trans Social Club is a space
for trans and non binary people and allies to come together, socialise and
share work in a safe trans friendly space to tell our own stories. Come and be
part of the first 2022 Trans social club. Look out for the call out for new
trans writers mentoring for this performance . Featuring Maz Hedgehog, Taylor
Le Fin and more.
Other Festival highlights include:
Other festival highlights include:
Hive North and Hope Mill Theatre present the Turn On Fest Scratch Night, a bumper evening of LGBTQ+ live theatre
dedicated to developing ideas, sharing sparks of creativity with audiences and
asking for your feedback.
The Story of Derek Jarman, written and performed by Mark Farrelly;
a physical, poetic and moving piece about the English film director and gay
rights activist.
The Festival Launch night on Saturday 22nd January with Dungeness by
Chris Thompson, directed by Esther Dix, the show will feature a cast of young
performers, from Hope Mill Theatre School.
The venue will host a Turn On Queer Social in their bar area
on, creating an opportunity to bring together likeminded creatives and
individuals from the city. The venue will also be working with DIBBY theatre
and The Proud Trust, offering artist development opportunities and workshops.
Hope Mill Theatre will also be
opening up a call out for Queer Artists to receive £250 and a slot as part of
an artists developemt opporutinuty, which is looking to support a variety of
artists who have a piece in devleopemt and want to try it out infront of an
audience.
Turn On The Mic, will be an evening of LGBTQIA+ song, featuring
singers from the community soming together to celebrate queer music from pop
and musical theatre. This evening will be hosted by musical theatre performer
Duncan Burt.
‘Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’,
the venue wanted to host a queer friendly prom for everyone, allowing people to
come together and celebrate being their true selves. The festival will close
with Turn On - The Prom, a prom
style event for 18+, featuring live performances, a DJ and special guests. In
the spirit of recent successes such as Ryan Murhpy’s ‘The Prom’ and
Joseph Houston added: “We have an extremely exciting
line up of shows and events this festival and as always we are happy to be
working with an array of partners including Superbia, Trans Creative and Hive
North. Hope Mill Theatre has become known for its musical productions and championing
new work so we are truly hoboured to be working alongside the creators of a new
trans musical, ‘The Regulars’ and can’t wait to start the journey of bringing
this show to life. Since launching the festival in 2020, so many amazing queer
artist have already gone on to really exciting careers in the arts, we built
this festival both as a spring board for new creatives as well as an
opportunity to showcase the best queer art the region has to offer, and I can
tell you, there’s an abundance. So Turn Up and Turn On!”
Listings
Saturday 22 January, 2022 at 7pm
Launch party with a performance from Hope Mill Youth Theatre
Sunday 23 January
Scratch night in partnership with
Hive North
Monday 24 January
Turn On Development evening
Tuesday 25 January
‘Derek Jarman’ by Matthew Farrelly
Wednesday 26 January Superbia Event
Thursday 27 January Superbia Event
Friday 28 January
Turn On the Mic: Queer cabaret
Saturday 29 January
‘The Regulars’; new musical and Trans Social Event
Sunday 30 January
Turn On – The Prom
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