CELEBRATING QUEER CULTURE

Volunteer With Us!

Andro and Eve is all about bringing our community together, and one of the ways we do that is by working with a wonderful team of volunteers who give their time to help make our events happen. We’re looking to expand our volunteer team and would love to hear from you if you’ve got some time and energy to help out.

We’re looking for folks who can be at events, interact with members of the public, are happy handling money and love a spot of decorating. (If you’ve been to one of our events, you’ll know our approach to decor is more is more!) Some of our volunteers also help out with stage management and sound. We’re also keen to hear from people who would be up for distributing our posters and flyers, this is an important part of helping us reach new people.

A volunteer operates the sound desk alongside our technician who is wearing a pink suit.

Typically, we ask volunteers wanting to help with events to work with us on evenings and weekends, and for shifts of 4 – 8 hours. We always provide food, breaks and plenty of support for our team, and as a volunteer, of course you’ll get to see behind the Andro and Eve scenes. We also organise socials for our team and offer event training throughout the year.

Here’s what some of our volunteers have said about working with us…

‘After feeling like a lost queer in Sheffield during my time as a student, volunteering for Andro & Eve was one of the best things I could have done for myself, whilst also contributing to the local community. Meeting younger and older LGBTQ+ people who were all so vibrant and positive opened me up to a whole new world and I feel so much more connected to my queer identity. If you feel like you are in a similar state of mind to how I was, or simply want to have fun and contribute your time to some of the best queer events this planet has seen – volunteer for Andro and Eve! Without them and the caring people who dedicate their time there, I’d still be looking for my queer identity’.

‘Being part of Andro and Eve is like having a fabulous queer family. I’ve volunteered now for a number of their events and have loved every minute, we always have such a laugh and I love that its supporting and developing a strong queer presence in the Steel City’….. Laura.

‘Getting involved with Andro and Eve has been a great decision. There’s something really powerful about coming together and putting on these fabulous events to celebrate aspects of our queer culture. The team are so friendly, and its been a pleasure to meet so many new friends from those involved’.

We’d love to hear from folks who are available on the 13th and 30th November for our events in Sheffield and Doncaster, and for dates after this too. If the above sounds good to you, and you have some availability then drop us a line using the contact form here. Thanks!

New Acts Wanted!

Could you be the next Wesley Dykes? Got a new act you want to debut? Or test out a scratch performance in front of a friendly and supportive audience?

Open mic slots available

We’re on the look out for new queer performance to fill our open mic slots at our events at Cast in Doncaster on 13 November and Theatre Deli Sheffield on 30 November. We’re committed to developing talent in Yorkshire and hope by offering slots across two nights we’ll be able to programme as much Northern talent as possible.

For A Reyt Queer Do 4: Reyt Northern Edition (13 November) and A Reyt Queer Do: Shine Like a Diamond Edition (30 November) we’re on the lookout for any type / style of queer performance as long as its between 3 – 10 mins long. As well as getting to share your act with our wonderful community you’ll also get £50 to cover any expenses and some photos of your act.

To apply to perform please send the following  to hello@androandeve.com

  • Name of your act
  • Short description of the act / style of performance
  • Where you are based
  • Whether you can perform at either night, or only Sheffield OR Doncaster. 
  • A short bio of your performance experience (don’t worry if you have none, but do tell us why you want to take advantage of this opportunity)
  • A 3 – minute video of you performing. This could be a link to a video online, or send us a file to download. 

We want to support Northern talent and highlight marginalised voices, so if this applies to you, please apply! Deadline for applications midday on 23/10/19. If you have any questions please also drop us a line. All applicants whether successful or not will be informed by 01/11/19.

If you’re planning on attending our DRAG KING WORKSHOP WEEKEND on 9 – 10 November and want to use either of these events as a way to debut the act you plan to create, we also encourage you to apply for a slot!

A New Phase…

We are very excited to announce that less than a year since becoming a not for profit arts organisation, we have received funding from Arts Council England to support an exciting programme of work for Autumn 2019 – Spring 2020.

Our events continue to grow in scale and ambition, with the last, a drag king cabaret at Abbeydale Picture House, attracting an audience of 330 people. Building on this success we will produce another drag king cabaret, The Kingdom Come at Abbeydale Picture House in March 2020, along with another edition of queer party and performance series, A Reyt Queer Do at Theatre Deli Sheffield on the 30th November.

The programme will also provide both training and performance opportunities for emerging artists in the Yorkshire region, as well as showcasing some of the UK’s most exciting queer performance. We are also excited to announce a new collaboration with CAST in Doncaster, enabling us to bring our feel good events to Doncaster, with the first such event, A Reyt Queer Do, planned for 13th November and hosted by award winning Drag King Louis Cyfer.

This month also marks a new phase for the organisation, which was originally founded by Rhiannon Scutt and Katherine Warman in 2016 to address the lack of safe, inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community to enjoy queer culture in Sheffield. Having worked together creating queer events over the last three years, Rhiannon is now stepping down as a director of the board, and Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Katherine Warman, supported by the board of directors, will lead the company. 

Rhiannon Scutt says ‘It has been a greatly fulfilling experience to nurture Andro & Eve from the seed of an idea and the tiny film night it started out as, to what it has become today. As lesbians in Sheffield, it was important to us that we offer an alternative, gentle night out, where the focus is fun and there is a sense of community. I’m proud to say I think we’ve achieved that time and time again. I wish the team every success, and hope to support Andro & Eve events in the future as an attendee’

Natalie Diddams, Chair of the Andro and Eve board says, ‘we’re so grateful for the hard work and vital input Rhiannon has given to the organisation over the last three years. It’s been a pleasure working with Rhiannon and we wish her all the best with her future projects. We’re excited by the programme of work and confident that the plans we have, will help grow the community benefitting from our events to celebrate queer culture’.

We are also thrilled to announce a weekend of drag king performance workshops on the 9th – 10th November at Theatre Deli Sheffield. Participants will then have the opportunity to apply to perform at either CAST or Theatre Deli in one of the open mic slots showcasing new queer performance. The introduction of a Pay It Forward Ticket scheme in 2018 has enabled an increasing amount of audience members to attend events who may not otherwise have been able to access them, using donations from the public to support the scheme. The funding received will help support this provision of discounted and free tickets for those on lower incomes, as well as enhance accessibility for deaf and disabled audiences.

Katherine Warman comments, ‘It’s been an honour to work alongside Rhiannon the last three years and I’m so proud of what the team and we have achieved. The demand for our work is clear, with so many of our events in the last 18 months selling out in advance. I’m excited that this funding will help us work towards our vision to put South Yorkshire on the map for arts that explore LGBTQ+ lives, nurturing artists and the community we serve’

A Night of Electric Dreams…

On the 16th February 2019 we came to parrrrty at Theatre Deli Sheffield with A Reyt Queer Do: Electric Dreams Edition. This queer party was hosted by Louis Cyfer with queer performance from new acts including drag kings Jamie Pizazz and King Kitt and also featured drag star on the rise, Christian Adore. Hearing the whole audience join in with Louis Cyfer’s rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody was blummin brilliant.

The crowd did not disappoint with outfits to keep your eyes popping for days, some full 80’s glam / punk / new romantic / pop realness, others dragged it up to the nines. After the queer performance (and plenty cake, courtesy of Kelham Island Kitchen), Chardine Taylor Stone ramped up the sound and the sparkly dance floor was full.

Louis Cyfer

Huge thanks to all the performers for bringing such talent and energy, to Theatre Deli for their support of our work and being lovely hosts and to Chardine Taylor Stone for the tunes. We’re eternally appreciative of our fantastic volunteers, without who, our night’s would not be the same, and of course those who came and shared in the queer joy, creating such a fab night for everyone. Until next time!

Strong party lewks

The Kingdom Come #4

On December 1st 2018, we brought our drag king cabaret, The Kingdom Come back to Walkley Community Centre, Sheffield. The night was a sell out, with audience members rocking some amazing costumes and outfits. Its never too early for tinsel right?

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Host Don One was charm personified, his Brummie accent and smooth songs winning everyone round. Stellar performances came from Dick Slick, Loui Von Dini, Mo Torboat and Chiyo, who were warmly enveloped in the love from our audience.

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Host Don One from Birmingham!

As usual the cake sold faster than you can say hotcakes, and the Andro & Eve volunteers did a brilliant job of helping the night run smoothly. We want to say a huge thanks to them for giving their time to help at this night and the others we’ve produced in 2018.

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Loui Von Dini had treats for us all…

A massive thank you to Walkley Community Centre for lending us their venue again, to all the local businesses who donated towards our raffle, and our audience for contributing to our Pay it Forward Ticket fund. This fund allows us to provide cheaper and free tickets to those who need them. We raised £245 from this event through raffle and online contributions alone! Thank you! Here’s to more super events in 2019. Have you got your ticket to A Reyt Queer Do: Electric Dreams edition on February 16th yet?!

All photos credited to Ndrika Anyika. See more of the night via our Facebook album! 

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Pirates came ashore for the evening…!
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Mo Torboat. Spoken Word Artist. Musician. All round good egg..
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Dick Slick serenaded the audience…
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CHIYO

Announcing: Queer Hub!

We’re excited to bring news of the Queer Hub. On Wednesday 18th July 5.30 – 7pm at Theatre Deli Sheffield. What’s a Queer Hub you may ask? Well, this session is aimed at people who have been to one or more Andro & Eve events. The Queer Hub is a place for the Andro & Eve audience and volunteers to feedback on their experiences and help shape an exciting programme of queer arts events that Andro & Eve are currently planning! (Subject to funding). Join us for a facilitated discussion with food and friendly vibes exploring –

– What films/ artists / performers do you want to see programmed in future?
– How can we make Andro & Eve events even more accessible?
– Are there other queer arts projects you’d like to see / make happen in Sheffield?

Places are free but limited in order to make this a productive and accessible session. Please come with ideas and energy! Find out more and reserve your ticket for FREE by clicking here. 

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A Reyt Queer Do: Birthday Edition!

Earlier this month we celebrated two years of Andro & Eve with a special edition of A Reyt Queer Do. It was nearly two years to the day that we first screened But I’m a Cheerleader in Cafe 9, Sheffield, and we marked the occasion with a night of drag king cabaret, cake and queer joy.

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Drag King Oliver Assets – stoney faced guy.

We transformed Broomhall Community Centre with our trademark handmade decorations and we were happy to welcome new and familiar faces to the venue. One of our audience stating ‘the decorations were like something out of a dreamy retro prom dance’. Yasss!

_V3A0147 (1) copyThe vegan cake sold out super quick, and no less than eight drag kings performed, some for the first time. Host Zayn Phallic gave everyone life with his 90’s pop themed act. A humble leaf blower brought all the drama, conjuring up  Michael Jackson’s Earth Song in the best possible way.

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Zayn Phallic, host and King of the 90’s…

As always we want say a big thank you to our volunteers, who work so hard to make our events run smoothly. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and supported the night, and to the kings for sharing their drag acts. We’re also grateful to Broomhall Community Centre for the use of their hall. _V3A0614 copy

This was our last event before the summer break but we’ll be popping up at various events over the summer, including DocFest next week! We’re working hard behind the scenes on the next steps for Andro and Eve. Make sure you’ve signed up to our mailing list to be the first to hear all the news from us!

Here’s some more snaps of our audience and drag kings…

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Fact: More people leave with a fake moustache than arrive at Andro & Eve events..

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King Confusa
King Confusa!
Wesley Dykes
Mr Wesley Dykes

 

The Kingdom Come #3

On Saturday 10th March we brought The Kingdom Come back to Walkley Community Centre for it’s third outing and what a night it was. The event sold out well in advance and our enthusiastic audience certainly made the effort, turning up with more beards than we’ve ever seen before. Ginger? Crochet? Rainbow? Yep, they were seen at The Kingdom Come 3, along with some incredible outfits too.

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Yes this person did crochet this beard. They also had a ‘realistic’ brown crochet version!!

That’s just the audience. The line up of drag kings left us all gasping for breath with their hilarious and thought provoking drag acts. Luke Warm was the perfect host, charming the socks off the audience, getting them *really* involved and utilising a random glockenspiel to great effect.

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Luke Warm creates drama with our raffle

Richard Von Wild treated us to some super lip syncing and his Tony Stark was hella realistic.

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Richard Von Wild as Tony Stark, Disney Princess style..

Sigi Moonlight took us to the movies with his dramatic drag, while highlighting the issue of diverse representation in mainstream film with an act where he transformed into the Oscars statue.

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Sigi Moonlight serenades with ukulele

Joey Bambino floored us with his Silence of the Lambs themed act which was fantastically funny and creepy in equal measure.

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Joey Bambino wasn’t expecting it to be quite so cold in South Yorkshire..

Lastly, but by no means least, Oedipussi returned to The Kingdom Come to save the day, stepping into the large gap left by a poorly Zayn Phallic. Oedipussi’s costumes get bigger and more fantastical every time,  delighting the audience and even managing to give one of them their own striped beard. #sharethelove.

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Oedipussi; ‘has anyone seen a stick on eye? Think I’ve lost one’

The vegan cake went faster than you could say ‘I follow a plant based diet’ and the raffle was a hit, with our generous audience raising £184 towards our accessible ticket fund. This is brilliant, as we will be able to provide more tickets for those on low incomes at our next event.

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Luke Warm quite literally warms up the crowd!

We want to say a huge thank you to our wonderful volunteers who helped the night run like clockwork, we’re so grateful for those that give their time to help Andro & Eve develop. And of course thank you to Luke Warm, Oedipussi, Richard Von Wild, Joey Bambino and Sigi Moonlight for travelling to Sheffield and performing for us.

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Clockwise from top left, Oedipussi, Joey Bambino, Richard Von Wild, Sigi Moonlight, Luke Warm

Thanks also to Walkley Community Centre for letting us use their lovely venue, and SheFest for providing funding to support accessibly priced tickets. Lastly thank you, awesome audience, for turning out, dressed up and ready to cheer on our drag kings. You made it a night to remember. 

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Some of the audience felt so inspired they couldn’t help but werk onstage at the end!
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Yet more strong beard action from our audience..

Drag King Open Mic Slots available!

We’re excited to announce that we have drag king open mic slots available!!

We’re planning our next A REYT QUEER DO, and there are a few drag king open mic slots available. These are for brand new drag kings or newbie kings who want more performance experience. It is not a paid opportunity though we can help out with some travel expenses and we always provide food and drink for our performers. You’ll also get a set of photos of your performance taken by our professional photographer and free entry and probably* free cake at our big queer party. Priority for slots will go to Kings based outside of London but all applications welcome! To apply, you need to be available on Saturday 12 May and be able to perform one 3 – 5 minute drag act. Head to our website and fill in our contact form with the title ‘drag king open mic’. Please give us:

  • Your drag king name
  • Where you are based
  • Any links to your drag king’s social media (this is not essential, just helpful).
  • A rough idea of what your act involves. Singing? Clowing? Dancing? Stand up?

Deadline to apply is 6pm on Monday 2 April! We look forward to hearing from you!

For more information on how we programme artists and content for our events, please head to the ‘How we Programme’ section of our website.

Andro and Eve x

*home baked cakes are an essential part of Andro and Eve events…

Drag King Romeo De La Cruz. Ndrika
Romeo De La Cruz at The Kingdom Come #2

Women and The Word

On Saturday 27 January we curated and produced a special event in Sheffield focused around the film, The Revival: Women and The Word, directed by Sekiya Dorsett. We originally saw this documentary at SQIFF in 2016 and fell for its warmth, humour, honesty, and unique perspective on an often overlooked part of the LGBTQIA community. The film follows a group of Black lesbian poets on a salon style tour of the US organised by creative force and entrepreneur Yaani Supreme fka Jade Foster.

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Jonquille Rice aka Solsis and Bea Steadwell. Credit: The Revival: Women and the Word

Documentaries like this allow you to imagine a different world, one where Black, queer womanhood is centered, celebrated and given space to breathe. We felt it was important to not only show the film, but make sure the Black British community was celebrated, while giving our audience a taste of the talent that exists within the UK, by showcasing poets of colour on this side of the Atlantic.

To do this we worked closely with Manchester’s Rainbow Noir and Sheffield’s Our Mel to programme artists, and help Andro and Eve reach new audiences. We cannot praise Rainbow Noir’s organisers enough for their generosity and support of our aims for this event. It was also awesome to work with another grassroots organisation in Sheffield, through Our Mel, and realise we have many of the same ambitions of creating special events where our communities feel free to express themselves.

Annalisa of Our Mel hosting the event

As massive lovers of zines and indie publishing we also curated a stall selling the words of women of colour.

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Classic zine stall

The event sold out a week in advance, and on the night over 70 people from across the UK turned out to our specially chosen, (and secret) Sheffield venue to enjoy the evening. As ever, we were thrilled that so many people had made the journey out on a cold night to attend, and we want to say thank you for those who supported our work in this way.

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Some of our wonderful audience!

Thanks also to all the people who have been contributing to our accessible ticket fund. This was the first event where we were able to offer discounted ticket prices for those on low incomes, and we can say it certainly encouraged some new faces to attend.

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DYLEMA (Do You. Let Every Man Adapt).

The poets, Ella Otomewo, from Manchester and DYLEMA from East London, performed their captivating poems after the film, making quite an impression on our audience and us. It was so rewarding to listen to the comments from those that had gathered together for this event, and realise the hard work had paid off.

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Ella Otomewo performs her poetry

We’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, but special thanks should go to Rainbow Noir, Our Mel, LAS Sheffield, QTIPOC Notts, Enjoy Your Homes Press, our fabulous volunteers, and last but no means least, photographer Ndrika Anyika, whose images you see in this post.

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If you missed this event, hopefully we’ll see you at The Kingdom Come #3 on March 10th! Tickets are on sale now. 

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_V3A4831Some of our awesome audience members! _V3A4528_V3A4524_V3A4511_V3A4526_V3A4553_V3A4534

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