The first lockdown of 2020 was difficult for everybody. Particularly, for the young LGBTQ+ individuals who had to leave the comfort of chosen family, and return home to families who were yet to come to terms with their queer identities.
In June 2020, we joined forces with MPTheatricals and ALPMusicals to produce MTPride: An Intersectional Online Musical Theatre Festival.
Over three weeks, four bespoke Musical Theatre events explored queer pasts, presents and futures. MTPRIDE celebrated queer beings through the powerful art form of musical theatre, whilst bringing queer performer together and building LGBTQ+ community in a time of isolation.
Guests Included Waylon Jacobs (Hamilton, The Last Five Years), Toby Marlow (Six The Musical), Charlotte Yorke (Pretty Woman), and Rikki Beadle-Blair (Team Angelica)
Queered.
Queered reframes existing shows and reimagines classic MT moments in completely new contexts to explore queer histories, lost stories & personal experiences. In volume one, stories of love and lust, community and identity are brought to life through new arrangements and performances of musical theatre's vast repertoire.
Featuring a cast of LGBTQ+ talent, queered's debut digital performance blends live performances and spectacular recordings to create an evening that celebrates and interrogates what queer representation in Musical Theatre can be.
Sinqueerly, Me.
Our hosts Tabby Lamb and Francesca Forristal choose songs through which their own life story as an LGBTQ+ woman can be told: from queer classics, to re-imagined pop songs, and new writing. These songs will be brought to life by an ensemble of west-end experienced and up and coming queer performers, resulting in a hysterical, heart-warming and occasionally challenging show about discovering your own queer voice.
Panel Discussion.
The history of musicals has included many artists who haven't identified as heterosexual, yet the vast majority of musicals have remained heterocentric, even when LGBTQ+ characters are included onstage. In recent years we've seen a slight increase in the diversity of LGBTQIA voices and characters represented in new musical theatre, including stories with trans protagonists and non-binary characters. Sometimes this has led to new questions about representation, and who is telling whose story appropriately. What do we hope the future holds?
Signal X MTPride
Bringing the festival to a close, MTPride is proud to be collaborating with musical theatre director/producer Adam Lenson to present SIGNAL x MTPRIDE, a concert of queer artist driven new musical theatre. Since lockdown ALP has produced five multi-location SIGNAL ONLINE concerts that have been watched by over 40,000 people. In this special version of the acclaimed series, twelve LGBTQ+ musical theatre writers will present new songs live from their living rooms to yours.