Welcome to an evening at The Ruby Slippers! Forget the cold, dark November night and enter a world of laughter, sequins, glitter, and sometimes pain. The Ruby Slippers is a drag club that is about to face some difficult decisions. For the people who live and work there it represents family. All the members of this family will be seeing some changes..... When we set about writing the play we started with the subject of change. In particular, How do relationships change? Relationships are transitional and go through numerous stages as life circumstances, growth and choices move us forward. The central question we wanted to ask was, if your partner changes their gender would or does the relationship need to end? We encountered several different questions and answers when we began our research. Do we fall in love with someone’s personality? Is that enough? How important is the physical side of a relationship? How does gender define us? From the moment a child is born the gender label that child will carry for the rest of their life is determined. For a transgender person life can be full of challenges. Imagine feeling that you don’t live in the correct body. And having made the decision to correct mother nature, then facing prejudice from family and friends? These important questions are explored in the play and at the same time life goes on and we find a way through challenging situations with comedy and humour. EMMA CULSHAW & DAVID PAUL
The Ruby Slippers for me is a play about the changes people's face in their lives and how it can be something to either fear or embrace. I was attracted to the play because it deals with huge issues such as sexual bigotry, alcoholism and parental abandonment, but through intelligent observational writing the characters use humour and self depravation to cope as many of us do to deal with real life problems. Deep down Love & Family is at the heart of the piece. The ruby slippers is a place that if your natural family can't cope you know there will always be a place for you. Working with all the cast and crew on this production has been for me like meeting and working with a new family, and I am immensely proud of all the hard work and talent of everyone involved." MARK HELLER
Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster and enjoy the show
Break A Leg Productions in association with Bill Elms Presents
James Rogerson Raz Jamie Paul Ryan/Rachel Jordan Simms Phoenix Owen Richard Farrow Destiny Debra Redcliffe Helen Emma Vaudrey Laura
Production Company Break A Leg Productions Writers Emma Culshaw and David Paul Producers Bill Elms, David Moorhead, Emma Vaudrey Director Mark Heller Production/ Stage Manager Fiona Hilton Set Designer Gemma Hollywood Lighting/Sound Designer Oliver Bush Sound Technician Jordan Hewitt Marketing & PR Bill Elms Associates Ltd Make-up/Transformation Gordon Fawcett Thanks to: Arts Council England, Jon Spruce and John Moore’s University Robin Summerfield, Matt Bury, Liverpool Pride, TicketQuarter, Margaret Hollywood Tony Lloyd, Christopher Hammill, Jackie Downey, Jane McNeil, Elaine McNeil the staff and management of Funny Girls, St Helens Theatre Royal and the Epstein Theatre.
Emma Culshaw and David Paul –
The Writers & Producers Break a Leg Productions was formed in 2015 by Emma Vaudrey and David Moorhead in order to produce their work. As writers under the pseudonyms Emma Culshaw and David Paul they have written the theatre play, The Ruby Slippers. Previous successes include: For Those We Remembered… written by David Paul and Emma Culshaw which was performed at St George’s Hall 2014 to mark the centenary of the First World. TV They also wrote a tv pilot called Boxroom Babies starring Andrew Lancel and John Henshaw. Independently Emma wrote and produced “Baggage “, which was a play and short film on teenage health drama. David wrote an Amnesty International play for teenagers called Wish You Weren’t Here, and was performed in schools.
Bill Elms – Producer Bill has a wealth of experience of producing theatre tours such as: Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles (with Jen Heyes), Twopence to Cross the Mersey (UK Tour) and a series of events on St George’s Hall called “Lovehistory Loves” and “Tales From Haunted Liverpool”. He also runs a successful marketing and PR Company, Bill Elms Associates Ltd specialising in live entertainment and ticketed events.
Mark Heller – Director
Mark trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Mark directed US theatre shows ‘FlIDDERS ON THE ROOF’ and ‘LET IT SNOW’ in Los Angeles. His first feature film THE PASSAGE which starred Stephen Dorff and won the Jury Commendation Award for Best Feature at Durango Film Festival. He also directed the films STAR CROSSED’ staring Luke Mably and ‘THE MULBERRY TREE’ an indie drama starring Emmy winner Joe Morton (Scandal, T2). The MULBERRY TREE has won multiple awards at films festivals across the states.
Oliver Bush – Sound and
Lighting Director Oliver is a Lighting Designer who has been approached to create a dynamic lighting design for the tour; he has worked around the country lighting aerial circus, musicals, dance and theatre. He trained at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts being awarded a first class honours degree. Most recently he designed Julius Caesar at the Brighton Fringe festival and the UK tour of Life On Wheels by Bella Kinetica. His designs have won awards from The Association of Lighting Designers and been praised for his work. Future projects the return of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee later this year, and the 2017 Tour of Life On Wheels.
Gemma Hollywood – Set Designer
Gemma Hollywood has been contracted to design/create a set design based in the Ruby Slippers drag bar. She studied Spatial Design at Liverpool John Moores University, with a special interest in set design during the course at John Moores. She has worked at Bay TV Liverpool, helping to design a transformable set to be used on their new TV Channel. She has also worked with Stage Door Theatre on the National Heritage Lottery funded play ‘Only Remembered for What They Have Done,’ designing a set based in the trenches of WW1 and in a wartime home. For her final project at University, which was taken down to the Free Range Design show in London, she designed an event/ camping space “Unreal Environment” inside St Luke’s Church in Liverpool. This brought her love of theatre and fantasy elements into the design to create a space people can become immersed in.
Gordon Fawcett – Make Up
Gordon is a make-up artist who specialises in transgender and transvestite make overs. He is a skilled artist who has worked in this field for over 20 years. www.themakeoverrooms.co.uk
James Rogerson plays Raz
James trained at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. He appeared in the BBC sitcom Eyes Down with Paul O Grady. His theatre work includes the musicals She Loves Me and The Last 5 Years as well as Fassettoland. His work as a director includes Honk!, the comedy Two, Road and Our Country’s Good.
Jordan Simms plays Phoenix
Jordan Simms trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. Since then he has worked as a part of fringe theatre, devising and performing pieces including Andrzej Welminski’s “Pages from the book of …”, which gained success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Jordan has also worked with Institut Del Teatre in Barcelona starring as Puck in their rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most recently Jordan has been performing as a drag artist at venues in Manchester, he has supported RuPauls Drag Race stars Sharon Needles and Alaska 5000 in their Halloween special.
Emma Vaudrey plays Laura
Emma is an actress and writer. She has worked in all mediums of the Performance industry, Theatre, T.V, film, radio and documentary. Her Theatre credits include: Anna Karenina, Laid Bacharach, The Hired Man, Road, Dahling You Were Marvellous, Two Gentleman of Verona, Private Lives, Romeo and Juliet, The School for Scandal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two, Flu, On My Way and Twopence to Cross the Mersey at The Liverpool Empire. Her T.V appearances include Springhill, Nice Guy Eddie, Eyes Down, The Bill, Ladykillers, Moving On, Justice, Hollyoaks, and Emmerdale.
Owen Farrow plays Destiny
Owen studied dance and drama at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has been working as drag artist Divina De Campo for the last ten years. Divina recently supported RuPauls DragRace Stars nationally and internationally aswell as making television appearances on Must Be The Music , Britain’s Got Talent ,MTV’s A-Z of Drag and most recently The Voice. Owen also is a director and choreographer. His most recent theatre show was the critically acclaimed Dancing Bear.
Jamie Paul plays Ryan
Jamie has created a large body of comedy work online, amassing hundreds of thousands of views. He made his dramatic TV debut in Casualty last year. He can now be seen in season three of Black Mirror for Netflix and in the Pinewood Studios feature film The Daekest Dawn He also appeared in Hungerford 2 and worked for Channel 4 for several years.
Debra Redcliffe plays Helen
Debra trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. Her TV credits include Emmerdale, Peak Practice, Where the Heart is, Coronation Street, Nice Guy Eddie, Being Eileen, Girls in Love and Cops. Theatre credits include Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Waiting For Hillsborough, Cabaret, Fall from Grace, Accrington Pals and title role in Mother Courage. Film roles include I Mean It, Under The Mud, She recently won best actress in a short film award for Loathing at the Wirral Film Festival which she also wrote.
Transgender people are people who have a gender identity that differs from their assigned sex. Being transgender is independent of sexual orientation transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual. Indeed many may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable. Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and some seek medical treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, sex reassignment surgery, or psychotherapy. Not all transgender people desire these treatments, and some cannot undergo them for financial or medical reasons. Most transgender people face discrimination at and in access to work, public accommodations, and healthcare. They are not legally protected from discrimination in many places.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance Sunday 20th November. April Ashley was one of the earliest transgender success stories. She was born George Jamieson in Liverpool in 1935 and had the surgery performed by Georges Burou in Morroco in 1960. April enjoyed success as a model for Vogue! In 2012 April was awarded a MBE for services to transgender equality.
WED 2 NOV 2016 8PM Tickets from £14
Funny Girls 5 Dickson Road, Blackpool Lancashire, FY1 2AX funnygirlsonline.co.uk 01253 649194
THU 3 NOV 2016 7.30PM Tickets £19.50
St. Helens Theatre Royal Corporation Street St Helens, WA10 1LQ sthelenstheatreroyal.com 01744 756000 ticketquarter.co.uk 0844 8000 410
SAT 5 NOV 2016
6pm & 9pm Tickets from £16.50 Epstein Theatre 85 Hanover Street, Liverpool, L1 3DZ epsteinliverpool.co.uk 0844 888 4411 ticketquarter.co.uk
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