QUEER CONTACT FESTIVAL 2018

QUEER CONTACT FESTIVAL 2018 Celebrating LGBT+ arts and culture in Greater Manchester

27 JAN –24 FEB. VARIOUS VENUES. BOOK NOW CONTACTMCR.COM

WELCOME

We celebrate Queer Contact’s 10th anniversary with our biggest festival yet!

As our Festival home – Contact - expands and refurbishes its remarkable building on Oxford Road to create even more opportunities for our communities, Queer Contact Festival spreads its wings across Greater Manchester to celebrate the rich diversity of LGBT+ arts and culture.

THANK YOU

Join us across the region at our partner venues for a packed

programme of theatre, music, cabaret, film, clubbing, dance, spoken word and visual art from around the world, examining gender, sexuality, health, religion, politics and more.

Barry Priest (Queer Contact Producer), Nasima Begum, Mandla Rae, Isaac Rose and Ali Wilson (RE:CON - Contact young programmers)

Thank you to our funders, partners and supporters, and all of the people who have donated online and in person.

Contact Funders:

Festival Partners:

Contact is a charity, 501953, dependent on our valued Funders, Trusts and Foundations, and the generosity of individual donors. To find out more about how you can support our work, please contact: Jane Hall, Development Manager, janehall@contactmcr.com I 0161 274 0657.

© Lee Baxter

© Gary Williams

MOTHER’S RUIN: MAKE A SCENE: LIVE AT THE HEDWIG AND THE COLISEUM ANGRY INCH Mother sashays over to Oldham for an evening of outrageous hilarity.

Rock out to the classic queer movie musical as never before!

Hosted by bearded glamour-puss Timberlina, the sensational lineup includes Jonathan Mayor, Debs Gatenby, Cheddar Gorgeous, Thick Richard and Fat Roland.

Riotous film party Make A Scene present a way-too-interactive screening of John Cameron Mitchell’s underground queer rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch with trans drag icon Grace Oni Smith as the internationally ignored songstress.

It’s a night of singing, boozing, audience interaction and rocking out!

Sat 27 Jan, 8pm. £10. Over 18s only.

Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Fairbottom Street, Oldham OL1 3SW

Sat 3 Feb, 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

Sun 4 Feb, 6pm. £10 plus booking fees. Over 18s only.

Box Office: 0161 624 2829 coliseum.org.uk

Texture, 67 Lever St, Manchester M1 1FL

Supported by Arts Council England and Contact.

Box Office: makeascenefilmclub.com 3

© Benji Reid

JAMIE FLETCHER & COMPANY AND CONTACT: DANCING BEAR A brilliant, moving and musical night out.

Full of compassion, honesty and humour, Dancing Bear explores the struggle between faith, sexuality and gender identity.

A multi-talented cast (featuring drag star Divina De Campo) deftly flip between catchy pop tunes and dramatic storytelling to create a feast for the heart and head.

Commissioned by Contact.

Dancing Bear was commissioned by Contact and West Yorkshire Playhouse, Theatre in the Mill, Yorkshire Dance, Live Art Bistro, LCI (Leeds Church Institute), Christian SeedBed Trust, chapelFM and Arts Council England.

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Tue 6 – Wed 7 Feb, 8pm. £20 / £15 restricted view / £7 conc. plus booking fees. Over 16s.

BSL interpreted and audio described performances.

Palace Theatre, 97 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 6FT Box Office: 0844 871 7615 atgtickets.com Presented in association with Palace Theatre, Manchester.

Supported using public funding through the National Lottery by Arts Council England.

201 DANCE COMPANY: SKIN This is not my body. This is not my body. This is not my body.

After the sell-out international tour of Smother, 201’s award-winning Hip Hop theatre returns to Queer Contact with SKIN: a boy’s intimate journey of gender transition to discover a body that feels like home.

Fusing urban and contemporary styles with an original score, choreographer Andrea Walker directs a cast of 7 dancers in a fast paced, emotionally driven story of family, identity and belonging.

Fri 9 Feb, 7.30pm. £12 / £10 conc. plus booking fees.

Over 12s.

Waterside, 1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Trafford M33 7ZF Box Office: 0161 912 5616 watersidearts.org Presented by Waterside and Contact.

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HOUSE OF SUAREZ AND CONTACT: VOGUE BALL

© FOTOCAD

Club culture meets high art, as Vogue Houses come together from far and wide to compete for dance supremacy in a catwalk spectacular reminiscent of 1970s/80s New York at its most glamorous.

Manchester Vogue Ball Sat 10 Feb, 7pm – 11pm.

Celebrating global vogue culture, an extravaganza of costume and drama will be displayed as the fiercest voguers and performers battle in this multi-award winning event.

£20 seating / £15 standing plus booking fees. (includes Vogue Ball + after-party) Over 18s only.

Directly following the main event, stay for the post-show party Manchester Is Burning with music by DJ Paulette.

Produced by House of Suarez and Contact.

Manchester is Burning (after-party) Sat 10 Feb, 11pm – 1am.

DJ Paulette.

Manchester Academy 2, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR Box Office: 0161 832 1111 manchesteracademy.net Supported by Richmond Tea Rooms.

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THE NEWSPAPER BOY Coming out as a kid in the 90s was never going to be easy. Especially when you’re on the telly.

Moston, Manchester, 1992. Christian Dibmore is the working class 15 year old who’s got it all as the newest child star in the nation’s favourite soap.

But Christian has a secret that’s soon to be on the front page of every tabloid...

Tue 13 Feb, 7.30pm (preview). £6 plus booking fees.

Wed 14 - Sat 24 Feb, 7.30pm (not Sun). £11 / £8 conc. plus booking fees.

BSL interpreted Tue 20 Feb, 7.30pm.

Play and a Rave (show + after-party) Sat 17 Feb, 7.30pm - late. £19 plus booking fees.

DJs Dave Kendrick and Guy Williams.

53Two, 8 Albion Street, Manchester M15LN Box Office: fatsoma.com Written by Chris Hoyle.

Directed by Simon Naylor.

Supported by Contact.

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© Dirk Visser

© Lee Baxter

OUTSPOKEN Prose, poetry and spoken word from an all-female line-up of Outspoken voices.

Afshan D’souza-Lodhi hosts, with readings from Seni Seneviratne, Jackie Hagan, Mandla Rae and more.

Plus new work from Superbia’s Manchester Chapbook project.

Wed 14 Feb, 6.30pm – 8pm. £8 / £5 conc. Over 12s.

Manchester Central Library St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD Box Office: 0161 274 0600 contactmcr.com Produced by Contact.

Supported by Superbia by Manchester Pride, Manchester Libraries and Manchester Metropolitan University.

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DRAG QUEEN STORYTIME Storytime doesn’t get more glamorous than this!

Manchester Libraries are proud to be working with Queer Contact and The Family Gorgeous to present their first Drag Queen Storytime at Central Library.

Drag Queen Storytime is exactly what it sounds like, drag queens reading stories to children in libraries. The aim is to capture the freedom of childhood and give children positive, gender fluid and unabashedly queer role models in a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.

Sat 17 Feb, 2pm – 3pm.

Free. Over 5s.

No booking required.

Manchester Central Library St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD Presented by Manchester Libraries.

CHA CHA BOUDOIR: ICONIC Manchester’s Home of Fabulous, Cha Cha Boudoir brings Queer Contact Festival 2018 to a raucous close by delving into queer herstory with a night celebrating LGBT+ icons.

Featuring your hosts Anna Phylactic and Cheddar Gorgeous, a glorious soundtrack by DJ Danny OlssonLane and performances from the #ManchesterQueens as you’ve never seen them before!

© Fake Trash

Fri 23 Feb, 11.30pm - 5am. £8 plus booking fees.

Over 18s only.

Sub 101, Cruz 101 101 Princess St, Manchester M1 6DD Box Office: skiddle.com

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© Lee Price

THE HOUSE OF KINGS & QUEENS Documentary photographer Lee Price explores life as a member of the LGBT+ community in Sierra Leone, where homosexuality remains illegal and people face daily persecution for revealing their true identities.

Providing a glimmer of hope to the community is a young transgender woman who offers her home – The House of Kings and Queens – to those in need, providing a sanctuary for visitors to be amongst those who understand and accept them.

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Sat 4 Feb – Sun 15 Apr. Free entry.

People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER Commissioned by Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and Humber Street Gallery.

Presented by Contact and People’s History Museum

© courtesy of Archives +

TEMPORARY MONUMENT, PERMANENT PROTEST In 1988, the UK government introduced Section 28, legislation that stated that councils should not ‘intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ in its schools or other areas of their work.

Over 20,000 people marched in protest against the legislation on 20 February 1988 in Manchester: the city’s largest ever peaceful protest.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the protest, Contact’s young programming and producing team, RE:CON and artist Manuel Vason will be inviting the original protestors and present-day activists to come together to create new images to be displayed in Manchester later in 2018.

Produced by RE:CON, Contact’s young programming and producing team Nasima Begum, Mandla Rae, Isaac Rose and Ali Wilson.

New artworks by Manuel Vason.

We want YOU! Were you a part of the original protest? Or are you a present-day LGBT+ activist? Interested in taking part? Email recon@contactmcr.com

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A THEATRE OF THE FUTURE WHERE YOUNG PEOPLE LEAD WHERE EVERYONE IS WELCOME

PART OF A PROGRAMME OF PERFORMANCE ACROSS THE REGION DURING CONTACT’S BUILDING TRANSFORMATION

Thank you to our funders, partners and supporters, and all of the people who have donated online and in person.

Contact is a registered charity, 501953.

All info correct at time of going to print. Check contactmcr.com for up-to-date info.

Designed by Gr! Design/COG Design.

Cover image: Jamie Fletcher and Company + Contact: Dancing Bear © Benji Reid