CELEBRATING QUEER CULTURE

Drag King Open Call

drag king open call

We’re excited to announce an opportunity for drag kings and things to perform at The Kingdom Come #7 on the 29 June!

This open call is aimed at those who have less than 18 months experience performing as their drag character.

You’ll be expected to perform one act no longer than 6 minutes long, at our drag king cabaret, The Kingdom Come, Pride is a Protest Edition on Thur 29 June at Crookes Social Club. We’ll need you at the venue for tech by 4pm on the day of the event. 

In return we’ll pay you a fee of £75 and send you a set of photos of your performance, taken by a professional photographer, and you get to feel the love of our supportive community. 

Who can apply?

> Drag kings or gender expansive drag acts 
> With 18 months or less experience performing as their drag act
> Who are based in Yorkshire or the North of England
> Who are able to commit to the date and times above

We will not consider applications from acts based in locations other than Yorkshire or the North of England, Northern talent to the front please! (We consider Northern talent to be inclusive of the East and West Midlands).

This is a great opportunity to have your act seen by a large and enthusiastic audience. Your act should be suitable for performing on a raised stage to a seated audience of 300 people. We are sorry that there is currently no step free access to the stage.

To apply, please complete the short Google Form and attach a video file or share a link to a short video of your drag act. 

Deadline for submission – Midday 6 June

drag king Mark Anthony performs in aviator sunglasses and leather biker jacket
Are you ready to perform on our stage like Mark Anthony?

We will be in touch with the chosen act by Friday 9 June. We are unable to give feedback to unsuccessful submissions, but we may keep your details on file for future bookings.

We look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions about this opportunity please drop us a line to hello@androandeve.com. Please note, we are a team that works part time so the best way to reach us is by email and there may be a delay in us responding. 

FAQ’s

I am not a drag king, can I apply?
Sorry no, The Kingdom Come is strictly for drag kings and drag acts existing beyond the binary. We programme other types of performance and drag queens at our other events.

I’ve never performed as my drag king before, can I apply?
Given the scale of this event and audience size, we are looking for acts who have some performance experience but are looking to take their act onto a different size stage and appear on a bigger platform. Therefore we do expect you will have some experience of performing as your drag king or thing.

I am based in an unspecified location, but there is a lack of opportunities for local drag acts, can I apply?
We are fiercely proud of being based in South Yorkshire and celebrating queer culture. We want to support more acts from the North of England. Acts based in Yorkshire will be prioritised over other areas in the North, where opportunities may be available through our friends who also make up the Queer Arts North Network.

What other opportunities will there be for newer or non king acts to appear on one of your stages?
Our open mic slots at A Reyt Queer Do are more suited to those brand new to performing and are also a place where we programme a diverse range of performance styles. Sign up to our newsletter below to be first to hear of further opportunities this Autumn.

10 Highlights of 2022

a group of performers onstage strike poses and one holds a cardboard sign that says Queer Joy is Powerful

2022 was a big year for Andro and Eve, with the return to live events supported by a significant grant from Arts Council England the The Civic, Barnsley. In fact, so much has happened this year, we’re quite glad of our winter slow down, with time to reflect and plan.

We want to say a huge thank you to all the artists and freelancers we’ve worked with this year along with our volunteers and board for helping bring people together through queer culture. And a massive thank you to those who’ve supported our work by attending our events or workshops, buying a zine or some merch or sending us a donation. Links above if you want to do the same!

So in no particular order here are 10 highlights of 2022 for Andro and Eve!

1.Our first live cabaret event in 2.5 years – A Reyt Queer Do!

A drag performer with a blonde wig stands in the middle of a crowd of people in a bar with everyone in the crowd having their phone camera lights shining
A Reyt Queer Do. Credit – Sophie Okonkwo

Hosted by Sadie Sinner, with Rhys Pieces, Ditzy O Darlin and a cracking line up of emerging talent, everyone who came down to Sidney and Matilda had a great evening. Read more about the event here.

2. Drag Kings!

drag king Mark Anthony onstage smiling with sparkly eyebrows and brocade suit
Mark Anthony performing at The Kingdom Come 6. Credit – Dawn Kilner

From both our online drag king workshops with Christian Adore, to ALL our live events this year, and especially The Kingdom Come, an event designed solely to share the UK’s most exciting drag king talent, we were thrilled to be making space to platform these amazing artists, that too often get overlooked in the drag scene. Long live the kings!

3. Fresh Air Zine

An A5 zine with a cream cover sits on a lilac surface. The cover is covered in a flowing line drawing with blue, lime and yellow fill that seems to depict two abstract figures,

We worked with Site Gallery’s Society of Explorers to create a brand new zine, inspired by our Gender Awareness Training. Packed full of illustrations by artist Luci Pina its a gorgeous resource for young and older people alike. You can still get a copy for free here.

4. A Reyt Queer Extravaganza

a group of three black performers strike poses on a catwalk. The person in the centre wears a gold dress and has gold paper flowing from their body.
A Reyt Queer Extravaganza. Credit – Misha Warren

Our biggest ever event was a collaboration with Ghetto Fabulous, with our artistic director, Finn Warman, working closely with artistic director and choreographer Darren Pritchard to programme and produce this event featuring over 20 performers to an audience of 300 people at The Leadmill. Hosted by the legendary Rikki Beadle – Blair, to say it was an epic endeavour, but utterly worth it, is an understatement! Read more about the event here.

5. Forgeous

Through queer dance and movement workshops that we produced in collaboration with Ghetto Fabulous in June and July, new queer dance collective, Forgeous were forged in all their gloriousness. They then made their debut performance at A Reyt Queer Extravaganza. Hear more about their experience in this short film made by filmmaker Toni Lee.

6. Teamwork!

Finn and Martha stand onstage smiling and speaking.
Martha Adebambo and Finn Warman at A Reyt Queer Extravaganza. Credit – Misha Warren

2022 marked a year of Finn and Martha working together as a producing duo, and for a brief time our team grew with other freelancers joining to help produce and promote our work. Not to forget our amazing volunteers who helped everything run smoothly at our events and Doncaster Pride. Martha has now stepped back from their role as Assistant Producer, but will work with us on a more ad hoc basis in future. A huge thank you for all their contributions to Andro and Eve.

7. Gender Awareness Training

an androgynous white person with cropped brown hair sits at a table in front of a screen that has a projection it it. They have their arms outstretched in conversation and wear a grey Andro and Eve logo T shirt.

Our second year of delivering this bespoke session saw us training over 250 people throughout the UK and giving them the tools and confidence to better serve trans and gender expansive clients and audiences. We also recruited a brilliant team of freelance trainers who will be very busy in 2023 with more training sessions. Please get in touch if your team could benefit from this professional development opportunity. You can book for our open session the 1 February here.

8. Festival of Debate – The Transgender Issue with Shon Faye

In May our artistic director Finn hosted a Q&A as part of the Festival of Debate in Sheffield with renowned writer and author Shon Faye about her first book, The Transgender Issue. To see a crowd of gender diverse people and allies centre and listen to the very real issues affecting trans people today, and make space for trans joy, was a really wonderful highlight.

9. Queer Delight

Following an open call in the summer, we commissioned filmmaker Alexis Maxwell to make a short digital film. The resulting animated poem, Queer Delight is a pure joy to watch, and the audio described version was beautifully enriched by Adedamola Bajomo.

10. Our Community

A group of 4 people smile huddled together wearing some fantastic coats and lit by warm lighting.

We were so happy to welcome so many new faces to Andro and Eve events, with folk working with our Safer Spaces policy, and generally being so warm and friendly to everyone. It was also super heartwarming to have plenty familiar faces return to our audiences and to witness the joy of being together once more.

So thats our year in a snapshot – there’s plenty more we could mention, truly, its been a wild year, but we hope you’ve enjoyed taking a moment to reflect on whats been achieved and the fact that 6 years after our first event, we’re still here, still queer and making space to celebrate queer culture.

If you want to make sure you’re first to hear whats in store for 2023, then make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter. The whims of social media platforms have been very much highlighted this year, so it’s more important than ever that we have other ways to stay connected!

Wishing you a peaceful and warm end to 2022 x

a group of people with their backs turned pose in a dance studio
Feeling Fabulous Workshop with Ghetto Fabulous. 2022. Credit – Emma Bentley – Fox

Drag Kings are part of our Queer Future

Two slim, white drag kings dressed like cowboys with cowboy hats and shirts, stand back to back on a stage. They are lip syncing and lit by blue, red and purple lighting.

Last month our drag king cabaret, The Kingdom Come made its long overdue return to Sheffield. Suffice to say, we were very excited. The queer future is here, and drag kings are definitely part of it!

Taking over another new venue for us, Crookes Social Club, we transformed this community venue into a silvery, spacey fantasy ready for our stellar line up to take to the stage.

Drag king Romeo De La Cruz is dancing onstage at Crookes Social Club. The stage is adorned with gold glitter bunting that says ‘The Kingdom Come’ behind which is the traditional Crookes Working Mens Club engraved lettering in gold. Romeo is a Black non binary person with short shaved hair. They wear a black shirt, sliver chains and patterned black trousers and have a serious look on their face.
Romeo De La Cruz. Credit: Dawn Kilner

Our hosts for the evening was the ‘godfather of the modern UK drag king scene’ Adam All, and his partner, Apple Derrieres. With Sigi Moonlight, Mark Anthony, Romeo De La Cruz and Brokeback Yorkshire, our sold out audience was treated to thrills and spills all over.

Adam All and Apple Derrieres hosting The Kingdom Come #6. Credit Dawn Kilner

With Adam and Apple blasting out the power pop anthems, Mark Anthony treating us to his seductive boylesque moves, Brokeback Yorkshire being the campest and sexiest gay cowboys we’ve seen, Romeo De La Cruz powerfully commanding the stage with their choreography and Sigi Moonlight taking us on a sublime yet silly seaside journey!

This was also our first live show where we were able to offer audio description, beautifully delivered by Dot, and our BSL interpreter, Max smashed out the BSL with panache galore.

Sigi Moonlight as Captain Birdseye. Credit: Dawn Kilner

A huge thanks to Crookes Social Club for the warm welcome, to all our artists and crew and brilliant volunteers for helping things run smoothly. We also want to say massive thanks to our community, who on the night, through fervent raffle action, managed to raise £246 for our Pay it Forward Ticket fund. This fund helps us provide free and discounted tickets to those who need them at future events.

Our friendly crew and volunteers were serving up cake and smiles!

The Kingdom Come: Queer Future Edition was our last event of 2022, but we’ll be back in 2023 with more queer joy and delight. Just make sure you’ve signed up to our newsletter to be first to hear about upcoming events and opportunities.

Enjoy the pictures, shot by Dawn Kilner!

Mark Anthony stirring things up
Death to heteronormativity in the queer future!

Meet Sigi Moonlight

a youthful East Asian drag king stands with his hands together in front of his chest. He is captured sideways onto the camera. He wears a white shirt with balck waistcoat and black jeans with black sequin detailing. He has a thin moustache and black hair with bleach blonde streak worn in a long side quiff.

We’re very excited that drag king Sigi Moonlight, will be performing at The Kingdom Come: Queer Future Edition in Sheffield next month.

You might remember him from our online discussion with Festival of Debate last year, Drag Beyond the Binary, or if you’re a long term Andro and Eve fan, you might have seen him on our stages in 2018!

Ahead of The Kingdom Come, we caught up with him. As somewhat of a chameleon in the drag scene, we thought we’d dig a bit deeper and find out more about this amazing artist!

1. We first had you perform in Sheffield in 2018. How did you get into drag?

I always used to play the male roles at the all girls’ schools I went to, and that was my first approach to performing masculinity and being on stage. I didn’t perform for a while after that. Even though I loved being on the stage, I never felt any of the castings mirrored my gender or racial identity.

Then in 2017, I saw my first ever drag king, johnsmith, who just happened to be performing in Leeds where I used to live. That was when it clicked. I took part in your king workshop led by Adam All and Apple Derrieres a month later and that’s where Sigi Moonlight was born. Shortly following that I came third in Man Up! drag king competition at The Glory, East London and it swiftly took off from there; it felt like I was meant to have been doing this all along.

an East Asian drag king, Sigi Moonlight strums a small banjo onstage. He wears a red shirt and black trousers and has short black hair with a bleach blonde streak at the front
Sigi Moonlight Performing at The Kingdom Come, 2018

2. Can you tell us about the character of Sigi and how you approach your drag performances?

My drag name is a play on Ziggy Stardust and it’s an expression of everything that’s gone a bit wrong with masculinity. Sigi was born in 2017, the same year that Donald Trump became the POTUS, and to me that spelled the beginning of the end for humanity. Just like Ziggy Stardust, Sigi is a bit of an alien sent to earth, an empty vessel who embodies different types of masculinity in order to shine a light on the weird and terrifying extremes it has reached. My “Siginature” (excuse the pun) style is taking an overtly darkly masculine character and flipping it on its head to reveal a softer, more feminine interior in the form of striptease and comedy.

3. We last caught up with you in a Festival of Debate Q&A in May 2021, what have you been up to since then?

I’ve since joined PECS Drag King Collective, graduated from drama school, got an agent, starred in an HBO series, played on a West End stage, performed in a lead role in Mulan Rouge at The Vaults in Waterloo, and been on a Netflix tour with drag race queens performing at venues across the UK promoting new forms of drag to audiences who’ve never seen a drag king before!

4. You’re part of the Bitten Peach collective. Can you tell us a bit about that, and what you enjoy about performing with them?

The Bitten Peach is the UK’s only Queer Pan-Asian Performer Collective aiming to address the balance of Asian performers on lineups in cabaret and live performance spaces as well as showcase the excellence of Asian talent on the drag and cabaret scene. I have performed in as well as hosted shows with them since they were formed in 2019.

The best thing about performing with The Bitten Peach is the strong sense of community and identity that is served up to make each and every show really special and heartfelt. It doesn’t just feel like any old “gig”; everyone is committed to performing and preparing well, and the spirit in our rehearsals and final shows is very apparent. I also love our outside social occasions like hot pot dinners and sports day events. It feels like being part of one big loving family! I’ll next be appearing in The Bitten Peach Halloween Whodunnit Show on Wednesday 19th October at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington… keep an eye on their socials for tickets!

Drag King Sigi Moonlight, a slim East Asian masc guy is pictured bearing his teeth in a fierce grimmace. He wears a white shirt with royal blue satin waist corset and dark blue brocade jacket with gold embellishments including spiked studs on the right shoulder. He also wears grey brocade trousers and dark round sunglasses. His hair is black with a white streak and styled into a side quiff.
Sigi Moonlight, who loves a 1950’s or 1960’s rebel! Credit – Captured by Corrine

5. What or who inspires you either in the world of drag or queer performance or any arts and culture?

I look to the aesthetic styles of the 50s and 60s for many of my own fashion sense, poses and direction in my photoshoots and acts. The film rebels, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and James Dean, are and will forever be my idols when it comes to style and eschewing the boundaries between masculine and feminine performance onstage and onscreen. In terms of drag artists, I am in awe of the make up talents of Landon Cider, the prop and costume making skills of Oedipussi Rex and Marnie Scarlet, the charisma and voice of LoUis CYfer and Beau Jangles, and the clowning wonders of Fancy Chance. However, I’m also very amazed by the upcoming drag king talent who have emerged the last couple of years.

6. What would you like to see or make happen as part of a hopeful queer future?A mainstream show on a worldwide platform that rivals RuPaul but welcomes and celebrates drag kings. There are more and more talented kings on the scene each year, so I hope it’s only a matter of time before we enter the mainstream.

You can catch Sigi Moonlight along with our amazing line up of drag kings at The Kingdom Come #6 on Thursday 6 October. Grab your tickets now!

Follow Sigi Moonlight on Instagram @sigimoonlight or on Facebook.

Whats The Cost of An Andro and Eve Event?

A drag performer with a blonde wig stands in the middle of a crowd of people in a bar with everyone in the crowd having their phone camera lights shining

And why are our General Entry tickets sometimes £20?

We’re here today to tackle the tricky question of money. Not in a ‘here’s a spreadsheet, please enjoy’ kind of way (we know that’s a niche joy), more as a way to be transparent on what it really costs to produce the scale of live events we do, and where that money goes.

It won’t have escaped you that there’s a state inflicted poverty war being waged, and so it could be argued we should be offering all our events for free. Problem with that is, we’d not survive long in a capitalist society, and competition for funding gets more fierce every year, so we need to earn income.

We are a not for profit social enterprise, which means any profits we make, go back into supporting the aims of our organisation, namely to create spaces where queer culture is celebrated, and our community has space to connect with one another. We believe in being transparent about our need to be sustainable aka, we’re in this for the long run.

So lets break this down.

You might be here as a community member trying to work out why our ticket prices seem high compared to other queer cultural offerings in South Yorkshire, or you might be working in the culture sector and here to magpie. Its all good. Read on for the inside goss. . .

A tall, Black dancer with their hair tied back stands posing on a stage with their arms framing their face. They wear black and white hot pants and a mesh black top and black furry boots. Behind them is gold letter bunting spelling out Reyt Queer Do
Jason Andrew voguing at A Reyt Queer Do at Cast, Doncaster 2019.

Our smaller events, like A Reyt Queer Do, cost around £3000 – 4000. That’s just the bare bones. Half of this is on artist and crew fees and their expenses like travel. When we say ‘crew’ we also mean the freelancers who support with production and marketing. A huge amount of time and effort goes into producing our events in a way that is caring and accessible for the team we work with and our community. That prep work needs investment. As does good access. We are committed to ensuring our events are accessible, and we pay people fairly for their skills. Think BSL interpretation, captioning and all the time we put into communicating so that our community knows what access provisions are in place.

What that £3k does not cover are our overheads. Things like insurance, IT, staff wages (we’ve currently got one part time employee) and the associated costs of running a business, like taxes, professional fees and website maintenance. Fun eh?

It’s also important to note we don’t have a venue. So while that helps keeps overheads down, it does mean we spend more on hiring quality venues that are accessible. Some venues have been incredibly supportive in offering us free hire or discounted rates, but at the scale we work, venue and tech is still a significant cost, and Sheffield is not blessed with as many live performance venues as other large cities, so we have to be flexible on the spaces we use.

Shesus and the Sisters perform at Abbeydale Picture House. Three figures dressed as nuns and faux Jesus stand on a stage in front of 350 people
The Kingdom Come with Shesus and the Sisters at Abbeydale Picture House. 2019

So now we come to our larger events like The Kingdom Come, our drag king cabaret. Here, we spend more. Whereas A Reyt Queer Do is for an average audience size of 140 – 170, The Kingdom Come is designed for 300+ people to enjoy. Bigger event, bigger budget. So we’re looking at around £5 – £6k. Again half of this is on artist and crew fees. But even with a sell out, we are not breaking even, because the costs of access, overheads and staff time are not covered by our ticket sales.

an East Asian drag king, Sigi Moonlight strums a small banjo onstage. He wears a red shirt and black trousers and has short black hair with a bleach blonde streak at the front
Sigi Moonlight at The Kingdom Come. 2018

So WHY DO YOU BOTHER we hear you scream at your screen? That’s where funding comes in. When we embarked on this queer culture journey, we quickly worked out that to make this sustainable, our core team would need paying. Can’t pay rent on the feel good factor eh? We know enough of our DIY queer scene herstory to realise burn out is a real and present danger.

It should also be pointed out that in the drag and cabaret scene it is not uncommon for performers to be paid way under the industry rate, or not paid at all. We believe fiercely in the value of drag and cabaret as an art form that pushes boundaries and gives voice to those otherwise marginalised, and its also *the most * entertaining too. The artists making it deserve to be paid fairly! (Don’t get us wrong, DIY scenes run by a committed team and serious amounts of volunteered time are wonderful and have produced some amazing culture, but that has become increasingly challenging in this neoliberal climate we live in).

So in order to support staff wages, and freelancers, we apply for grant funding and generate income through other means, like our merch, commissions and bookable training and workshops which includes our Gender Awareness Training and Gender Exploration Workshop. This supports the rest of our programme delivery. But without the grant funding, we could not produce the programmes of creative activity like the live performance events and workshops that we do.

A screenshot of a zoom window screen showing about 16 people smiling while holding up their finished felt faces, 2D felt portraits designed by Seleena Laverne Daye, a Black artist who holds up her sample portrait on the screen too
Through the pandemic we continued to offer creative activities online.

So why is it still sometimes £20 for a General Entry ticket if you’ve got grant funding?

With Arts Council, we have to have at least 30% match funding for a programme of activity. So if a programme costs £30,000, we need to demonstrate we have got £9k of other income. That could be in the form of other grant funding, commission fees or ticket sales. So ticket sales still make up a vital part of our income stream.

We also believe in the quality and uniqueness of our work. Compared to larger subsidised theatre, or the commercial drag sector, our tickets are still competitively priced. We are also unique in offering a clear and consistent Sliding Scale Ticket pricing system in place to support those on lower incomes to attend our events. We got this idea from Leeds Queer Film Fest and SQIFF, and this system has been in place for our events since 2017. It also enables us to give free tickets for refugees and people seeking asylum. Currently we do this though our friends at Lesbian Asylum Support Sheffield.

Solidarity Tickets were our own invention, and they are a way for those who can afford to, to ‘pay it forward’ and contribute directly to our ticket fund. This is ring-fenced money that directly supports the provision of cheaper and free tickets at our events. If you can afford to, we very much encourage you to buy one of these tickets.

It’s also worth noting, that we have been successful in getting funding to support free programmes of activity, like Joyful Noise zine in 2021, and there’ll always be parts of our creative programmes of workshops and events that are free for people to access, like the current Feeling Fabulous follow on workshops this July.

Our Feeling Fabulous Workshops in June 2022 with Ghetto Fabulous – Image Emma Bentley Fox

Our current programme is our most ambitious to date, and A Reyt Queer Extravaganza at The Leadmill, is our biggest ever event, with 20+ artists performing, (compared to 5 – 7 at our usual cabaret events). We have also been working in partnership with Ghetto Fabulous to produce and programme this event, which has needed proper time and investment. So our budget is reflective of the scale and ambition.

We’re here to demonstrate the value of queer culture to our LGBTQ+ community and beyond, and implement best practice when it comes to accessibility and equity in our working models. We know this is the harder way, but the payoff in terms of wellbeing for our community and those we work with, is worth the investment.

So next time someone says ‘why are Andro and Eve’s tickets £X’, feel free to signpost them to this blog. We here, we’re queer, and making space for long term investment in our community. See you at the Extravganza on 30 July!

House of Blaque will be performing at A Reyt Queer Extravaganza on 30 July

Cancelled – The Kingdom Come 6

It is with deep sadness and heartbreak that we announce the cancellation of The Kingdom Come 6 which was due to take place on Saturday 21 March at Abbeydale Picture House. This event, which would have been our 21st event, is the first event we have cancelled in our 4-year history. We do this in response to the escalation of the coronavirus and its impact on our wider community.

As a queer-led social enterprise, which means we put people before profit, and care of the most vulnerable and marginalised at our heart, we felt we must take action on this matter. By cancelling this event we can potentially reduce the amount of people contracting coronavirus, limit the impact of the coronavirus on our already strained NHS, and reduce the impact on public health workers.

As a small organisation with a staff team of one person alongside our team of volunteers, we cannot in good conscience put the health of our team, our artists, or wider community at risk. The board of Andro & Eve have consulted with our team and with our contacts in the arts and business community. This collective decision is not one we have taken lightly, or without much heartache.

Much of that pain comes from the fact that we know what the Andro & Eve events mean to our community, as well as to our artists. We send our love and solidarity to those already affected by coronavirus.

Everyone who bought a ticket is of course entitled to a refund, but if you can afford to, we’d ask you to consider your ticket a donation to help support our vision to bring queer arts and culture to South Yorkshire. Cancelling this event puts our financial security as an organisation at risk.

We rely on our big events such as The Kingdom Come to financially support the running of the organisation the rest of the year. Also, we are well aware of the pressures on freelancers at this time, and this will help us ensure that we can reimburse our artists and crew for fees they will lose, and in recognition for all the hard work they have already put into this event.

If anyone would like to support us at this extremely challenging time, you can by heading to Tickets for Good and buying a ticket for The Kingdom Come, before the 21st March. You can also add a contribution to our Pay it Forward Ticket fund there too. Your donation will be used to ensure we come back stronger and better than ever at a later date.

All those who have bought a ticket for The Kingdom Come will receive a discount on tickets for our next event; we will send a discount code to the email you used to book with, on announcement of the next event. We very much appreciate the support and trust you have placed in us. Details on refunds will also be sent to the email used to book with on Tickets for Good. Alternatively, please email hello@androandeve.com for more information.

We wish to thank our partner venues, Abbeydale Picture House and Theatre Deli Sheffield for their support and guidance in this difficult time. Independent venues and businesses in Sheffield will be at real risk of closure as we move through this health crisis. If you can also donate money towards Theatre Deli Sheffield or Abbeydale Picture House, you can do so via these links.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/abbeydalepicturehouse

https://www.gofundme.com/f/theatredelisheffieldheatingfund

Finally, over the coming days we will be sharing resources to support our community. If you have any questions or have seen any useful links or resources, we are happy to promote.

For now, Queercare have some excellent resources available including this Google Form if you are in need of extra support at this time.

With love and solidarity

Team Andro & Eve

What is a drag king cabaret?!

It has come to our attention that, SHOCK HORROR, some folk don’t KNOW what a drag king cabaret is? Hold our redbush tea while we gently explain the lowdown on the glorious and rare beast that is a cabaret night dedicated solely to DRAG KINGS.

Drag king romeo de la cruz onstage dancing
Romeo De La Cruz performs at The Kingdom Come 5, May 2019

Firstly, some of you, (gasp) may not know what a drag king is, but we think you *may* have heard of drag queens. So, a drag king, instead of performing femininity like most queens, will perform a version of masculinity. This can include use of makeup, facial hair, body transformation, and just like a queen, a wholly formed persona to amuse an audience. But ‘blokes are not as exciting to look at as the trappings of a woman’ we hear some dissenters mouth.. HOLD UP! Have you seen Spikey Van Dykey?  Adam All? Christian Adore? Oedipussi? The latter three kings have all performed at our very own drag king cabaret, The Kingdom Come. No one with working eyesight could accuse these kings of not dazzling the heck out of audiences with their OTT looks.

Adam All and partner Aple Derrieres perform at The Kingdom Come, June 2017.

Starting to get an understanding? Okay. Now. Just don’t say ‘so its a woman dressed as a man right?’ This is because many kings identify as non binary, trans-masculine or as men. That said, some kings do go about daily life as women, just please ask before assuming this. Misgendering folk is never a good look and we really don’t want our community feeling less than damn brilliant. Got it? Champion.

So what does a drag king do? Glad you asked. They usually perform a 5 – 10 minute act in which they may dance, strut, pose, sing, lipsync or clown but always with the intention of entertaining an audience. Many kings use their performances to deconstruct and play with the idea of masculinity, using props, humour and audience interaction to give audiences a rollicking thrill ride of fun, while potentially also blowing your mind with a different perspective. Even if that perspective is that you didn’t know the macarena could be performed *that* fast, (cheers Oedipussi), or you now have a taste for a dick in a box (thanks Louis Von Dini)!

Chiyo onstage at The Kingdom Come, with tattoos and piercings on display
Scene star Chiyo performs at The Kingdom Come, May 2019. Abbeydale Picture House.

And a drag king cabaret such as The Kingdom Come? Well we put 5 of these kings on a massive stage, in the historic surroundings of old 1920’s cinema, Abbeydale Picture House in Sheffield, and get them to perform for 200 – 350 people. They usually perform 2 different acts each with an interval in between. Its a room full of queer joy, community and the feeling that for 3 hours, we can come together and just celebrate. We also transform the space with decorations, a dedicated lighting designer, stage crew, and a team of amazing volunteers are on hand to support our community throughout (and sell some of the best vegan cake in Sheffield).

We do this because often, women and trans performers are marginalised, because its the turn of the kings to get the recognition they deserve, with scene stalwarts like Boi Box having helped develop the careers of so many wonderful kings, and because Northern cities like Sheffield deserve some of the finest entertainment the UK has to offer! (And like so many cities, are lacking in dedicated LGBTQ+ venues). We want to put Sheffield on the map for queer arts and culture.

350 audience members watch Shesus and the Sisters onstage in Sheffield.
Shesus and the Sisters hosting The Kingdom Come at Abbeydale Picture House, May 2019.

Now you may have a better understanding of what The Kingdom Come is, we hope you can join us for a future edition. Because of the scale of these shows (the largest drag king show outside of London), we only do them once or twice a year. Our next is on the 21st March and you can get a ticket here, with sliding scale prices so all can enjoy a night of queer joy!

We hope to greet you there! 

So What Have We Been up To?

Happy LGBT+ History Month! Its been very busy the last 6 months at Andro & Eve, so we thought it was high time we gave you all an update on what’s been going on!

In November we hosted our first Drag King Workshop Weekend in collaboration with award winning drag king Louis Cyfer, and founder of the Women’s Comedy Network, Natalie Diddams at our partner venue, Theatre Deli Sheffield. (Sidenote: Go support their fundraiser to support this brilliant indie arts space!)

13 participants from across the North of England and the Midlands joined us to learn skills in makeup, character development, gender as performance and creating comedic material, with an informal sharing at the end of the weekend. Feedback from participants was very positive, and we gained a lot of insight into what worked, and where we could push this talent development further. Comments from participants included;

‘I liked the thought, love and organisation that went into the weekend, it was wonderful. I felt very safe and cared for’.

‘I learnt it’s okay to take time and to take up space’.

Jason Andrew treated us to some vogue dance at Cast.

A few days after our Drag King Weekender we headed over to Cast in Doncaster for our first Donny event, A Reyt Northern edition of queer cabaret, A Reyt Queer Do. Louis Cyfer was back for hosting duties with performances by House of Ghetto’s Jason Andrew, and up and coming talents, Ding Frisby, Spent Reznor and Donny Lad. An audience of 60 people turned out and we were thrilled with the support, and to meet so many new faces. There was a lot of laughter in the room that night, and the 6 weeks of outreach work in the run up to the event clearly paid off. Thanks to Cast for their support in developing our audience! Doncaster folk commented

‘Thanks for an amazing night, it made hump day bright and beautiful’.

Rapper Bad Lay – Dee

We rounded off November with a big queer party and cabaret back at Theatre Deli with A Reyt Queer Do 5. This ‘Shine Like a Diamond’ edition was hosted by non – binary rapper Bad Lay Dee with performances by poet Maz Hedgehog, theatre maker Victoria Firth and drag kings Sveto Slava and Dickhead Dave Debonair. DJ Chardine Taylor – Stone from punk band Big Joanie ensured everyone got a chance to raise the roof once the performances were done.

In January we collaborated with DocFest to produce a cosy film screening at Yellow Arch. We chose to screen the brilliant documentary SILVANA, about Swedish rapper Silvana Imam, after seeing this film at Doc/Fest in 2018. The film follows Imam’s rise to fame, her experience as an immigrant in Sweden and new romance with Swedish lesbian pop star, Beatrice Eli. Cake and cosy vibes were enjoyed by all, and we think it’s is fair to say most of the audience fell hard for this lesbian power duo!

Silvana Imam and Beatrice Eli giving face

In between running all these events we successfully recruited a new Assistant Producer, Emma, who brings with her a wealth of marketing and event experience. We’ve also had some fab new volunteers join the team and been recruiting a new board of directors (more news on that coming soon) and planning our events for 2020.

Currently, Andro & Eve is featured in a new exhibition to celebrate LGBT+ History Month at Sheffield’s Central Library. It’s great to see this sort of visibility and recognition, especially at a time when mainstream media seems intent on sowing division between different communities.

We’re also gearing up for our biggest drag king cabaret to date, The Kingdom Come on 21st March at Abbeydale Picture House. It’s going to be a special Under the Sea Edition! Hosted by star on the rise Christian Adore and featuring a line up of ridiculously hot and talented drag kings, its going to be a night to remember.

Christian Adore is headed to Sheffield. Hold onto your hats!

We’re forever grateful for those in our community who have gone before, making space for the LGBT+ community to come together, and are proud to be continuing this work. But we know only too well how precarious the creation of queer friendly spaces are. Want to support your LGBT+ community now and help us continue this work? Then nab a ticket and come feel the mer love at The Kingdom Come! See you then!

A special thanks to all those who continue to support our work, giving their time, money or expertise to help us grow, and Arts Council England for funding much of the work of the last 6 months.

KW x

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

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..

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