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Who’s the Pride daddy in 2015?

Men’s tent returns to Brighton Pride 2015 supported by Brighton Bear Weekender.

Brighton Pride Bears Tent

IF you go down to Preston Park on August 1 you’ll be sure of big bear surprise!

The Brighton Pride Men’s Zone, supported by Brighton Bear Weekender is back; bigger, better and more Bear-tastic than ever before.

The popular Men’s Dance Tent along with the scene’s best loved DJs will be keeping the dancefloor hot, hot, hot from 12 noon on Preston Park.

Add the Men’s Zone alfresco area, Bears bar, food stalls, Hog Roast, seating area, picnic area plus lots of Bear surprises. The Men’s Zone will be the perfect spot to get your grr! on and grab yourself some big burly bear, silver daddy and bear cub grizzly action.

The Men’s Zone at Brighton Pride 2015 will be the daddy of all proud days this summer.


Event: Pride Brighton & Hove 2015

Where: Preston Park, Brighton

When: Saturday, August 1

Time: 12noon – 10pm.

Cost: Early Bird Tickets sold out £16.00 advance (first release )  The advance £18.50/ £21.00.

Joint tickets available for Festival and Village party.

To book tickets online, click here:

Health Secretary to visit Royal Sussex County Hospital today

Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, will be welcoming the Health Secretary to the Royal Sussex County Hospital today.

Simon Kirby MP and Jeremy Hunt MP
Simon Kirby MP and Jeremy Hunt MP

THE visit comes as Mr Kirby has been pressing the Department of Health and the Chancellor for an additional £60 million for the Royal Sussex County Hospital redevelopment.

The MP successfully lobbied for the original £420 million funding, signed off by the Chancellor in May 2014, as part of the Outline Business Case from the hospital. However, since then costs have increased by a further £60 million and Mr Kirby has been supporting the Trust in their efforts to secure the additional £60 million now required from the Government.

Mr Kirby said: “I have been busy lobbying both the Chancellor George Osborne, and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, to approve an additional £60 million for the redevelopment of the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

“I successfully campaigned in support of the hospital’s Outline Business Case for £420 million, petitioning the Health Secretary, bringing the Chancellor to the hospital and raising the issue with the Prime Minister during PMQs.  Following this campaign, the Government approved this funding in May 2014. Subsequently the hospital has been working hard to finalise the proposal and is now requesting additional funding.

“I have been working hard to convince both the Treasury and the Department of Health that this further funding is absolutely necessary. This extra money will allow the local NHS Trust to commence work with complete certainty.

“I have made sure that both the Health Secretary and the Chancellor are acutely aware of how important this hospital is to everyone in Brighton and the surrounding area, and the local desire for this additional funding to be approved as soon as possible and I look forward to welcoming the Health Secretary to the Royal Sussex.”

 

THEATRE REVIEW: Calamity Jane: Congress Theatre

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Calamity Jane opened at the Congress Theatre Eastbourne last night to a standing ovation from a very enthusiastic audience. Starring Jodie Prenger alongside a cast of multi-talented actor/musicians, this stylish production gets to the heart and soul of the musical, each and every actor on the stage is also an accomplished musician and this gives a real immersive edge to the musical and makes it feel really intimate and fresh.

 

Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane can outrun and outshoot any man in Deadwood. Hard, boastful and desperate to impress, she travels to Chicago on the Deadwood Stage to recruit a star, Adelaide Adams. But things don’t go too smoothly for Calamity, as everyone in town favours the new girl and she struggles to keep her jealousy and pride in check. It takes her long standing enemy Wild Bill Hickok to make her see sense, and realise her Secret Love…

With a score that includes The Black Hills of DakotaThe Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away) and the award winning song Secret Love, this is a musical with a high recognition factor, although my young companion didn’t know any of the songs, had never heard of Doris Day and didn’t know ‘Secret Love’  but still enjoyed this new production and was humming the tunes as we made our way home.

 

Calamity JaneJodie Prenger headlines the cast and is a big presence whenever she’s on stage, her voice is big brassy and has the wonderful vocal power that reminded me of Ethel Merman and I mean that as a huge compliment. She is also unfortunately acting like Ethel too, which slightly takes the edge of the performance. Prenger’s Jane is big, bold and gives it her all, all the time, so there’s little space for tenderness or romantic reflection when the need comes along.  Her Jane is all front and not much heart.

Luckily she is paired with Tom Lister who’s performance was convincing and engaging from the off and his second act solo played with heart-warming reflection on his guitar was the high point of the night for me, his deft handling on the duets injecting some much needed romance. His voice is dreamy and subtle and just perfect for Wild Bill, he’s also an accomplished comic actor and his timing, especially when dressed roughly as Queen Victoria was touch perfect and got some of the biggest laughs of the night, although Prenger can certainly milk some humor from the odd mishap on stage too, which pleased the audience no end last night.

The supporting cast were all superb, their musical skills given some cute entertaining outings on stage, and the dancing and chorography are also high energy and using the limited space on stage they manage to bring a verve and vigour to the dancing.

The set is a ‘stage within a stage’ and gives us a feeling of being in Deadwood, with great atmospheric effects done with lighting and smoke. This gives a real feeling of watching something vintage and improvised.  This is a serious production though, so not much irony in the jokes, just good clean laughs and the songs sung as they were meant to.

For more information on the show, click here:

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The Congress Theatre is a nice modern theatre with great acoustics and perfect slight lines from each seat. It’s a comfortable venue too, although not terribly stylish at the moment but it is undergoing a face lift, so let’s be patient and see what happens; it also has the cheapest theatre bar I’ve been to in the last five years. Car parking is free and easy too, so it’s well worth a jaunt out to catch this show while it’s running. You’d pay much less in petrol than it would cost to park in central Brighton, save a fortune on your interval drinks, plus you get to drive back under the moon via Beachy Head humming ‘take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota.’ Perfect!

Tuesday 24 – Saturday, February 28 2015
Opening Times: Evenings 7.30pm
Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday Matinee 2.30pm

For more info or to book tickets, click here:

Box Office: 01323 412000

Map for the Congress here

Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 4BP

 

 

 

 

 

FA develop Trans* inclusion in football policy

On Saturday February 7, the FA opened its doors to a group of 14 transgender footie fans.

Trans* Inclusion FA Workshop

AGES present at the workshop ranged from 10 – 59 and the group came together to think about the best ways to include trans* people who participate in football – as players, coaches, match officials or as fans on the terraces in the national game. The group also heard from some trans* people who have stopped participating in football as well as from those who want to get involved but have reservations.

Gendered Intelligence – a community interest organisation that aims to increase understandings of gender diversity – has been commissioned by the Football Association (FA) to develop guidance around the practical inclusion of all trans* people in football.

The guidance aims to support the FA’s new Trans People in Football policy. The guidance will highlight the ethos of the FA – which is that football is for everyone; it will be friendly and easy to read and is for anyone who wishes to know more about trans* people participating in football.

Jay Stewart, co-founder of Gendered Intelligence, said: “It is a fantastic opportunity that we have here to contribute to shifting culture and to assert that trans* people play football too.  But no doubt there are barriers for trans* people in the footballing world and indeed other sports too. In general there is not enough knowledge of what it means to be trans* and there are a lot of myths we need to bust. The guidance is there to educate people, to break down stereotypes and cultural assumptions. At the end of the day we want to ensure coaches, players, referees and fans know that it’s okay to be trans* and that we have trans* people within our footballing communities. Let’s just get on with the game in hand – which is football!”

The workshop aimed to offer an opportunity to contribute to trans* inclusion in the national game at all levels, via the biggest sporting body in the country by gathering some real life experiences of trans* people who participate in football.

One ten year old trans* boy said that his school have been really brilliant in allowing him to play in the boys team. He did attend a club once but he got bullied so left. At the end of the session he said that he hoped that he won’t have a problem playing football when he gets to secondary school.

FA Trans* Inclusion WorkshopAnother participant has been playing in a women’s team for many years and despite being nearly 60 is still enjoying her football. Currently, whilst she is not ashamed of her trans* status, she doesn’t feel like it’s something she wishes to share with others around her.

Some of the participants identified as non-binary in their gender identity – neither male nor female – and said that choosing between the men’s and women’s teams is tricky, as are changing facilities, requesting a gender neutral pronoun and just the lack of understandings by others in general.

For some non-binary and trans people it became clear that they would prefer mixed gender teams or perhaps an LGBT team. After the workshop everyone played a friendly knock about on the astro turf.

Participant Charlie Kiss, said: “I loved football and I missed out in skills development after the age of 11 because I wasn’t allowed to play at school. In my 30s I joined a women’s team for a while, and then transitioned and didn’t play so much after that. I’m nearly 50 now but I feel inspired today and am thinking I’m not too old to play after all”

A second workshop is taking place in Leeds on Saturday, February 21.

For more information about Gendered Intelligience, click here:

 

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