And…you can get involved! We need steering group members, as well as course participants, volunteers and audience members. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter accounts, and contact us at “info@womenandtheatre.co.uk”:mailto:info@womenandtheatre.co.uk.

Women & Theatre, The Laughing Sole and The Feast are running the third Faithful and Funny Comedy Course, this time at the Springfield Centre, Sparkhill.

Young People of mixed faiths from across the city are working together to create original comedy material, supported by Mrs Barbara Nice, through the first week of the Easter holidays, before sharing their work with audiences on Thursday 5th April.

Faithful and Funny Comedy Evening, is free for all to attend, and is open to everyone. The event will be held at The Springfield Centre, Springfield Road, Moseley, B13 9NY, on Thursday 5th April, 7.30pm. All you need to bring is yourself and a good sense of humour – so join us if you can! Faithful and Funny Flyer

Underrated: Birmingham the Musical

More miles of canal than Venice? Unlikely.
A tree for every person? Doubtful.
Underrated? Definitely.

Underrated: Birmingham The Musical will be a multi-voiced theatrical extravaganza celebrating the best bits of Brum through the eyes of its young people. Beyond the Bullring and the Balti triangle, what our city means to our most dynamic residents – the next generation who will shape its future.

Underrated has been developed by Women & Theatre working in partnership with Queensbridge Secondary School, Priestley Smith School for the Visually Impaired, and The Children’s Society’s Strong Voices, Strong Lives project for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

This project has been funded by BCC Next Generation, The Edward & Dorothy Cadbury Charitable Trust, The Eveson Trust, The Ernest Cook Trust, the Harry Payne Trust, and supported by mac Birmingham.

W&T have shown that laughter really can be the best medicine as its Community Comedy Club wins the Big Ideas Bonanza.

The Big Idea Bonanza – a campaign seeking ideas to improve the health of residents in Birmingham and Solihull – has announced Women & Theatre’s ‘Community Comedy Club’ as the winner of its inaugural award.

W&T’s Community Comedy Club was developed in 2010/11 in partnership with Stanhope Hall Community Centre. It consisted of 4 community comedy courses each culminating in a Comedy Night, where community participants performed their own material alongside a professional headline act  and host Mrs. Barbara Nice, the well loved comedy alter ego of W&T’s Artistic Director Janice Connolly. The courses were very successful with participants reporting raised self esteem and confidence and Comedy Events attracting large audiences and fantastic feedback.

The Big Idea Bonanza prize includes a package of support from The Young Foundation to develop the project further and maximise its potential to:

• Tackle low level mental health issues such as anxiety and depression
• Remove barriers of isolation and loneliness
• Develop new approaches in mental health
• Encourage social inclusion in health, education and the wider community
• Raise confidence and self-esteem
• Provide new opportunities for genuine social engagement

Eleanor Cappell, Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Cluster, who managed and ran the Big Ideas Bonanza said  “I and my colleagues at the Young Foundation look forward to working with the ‘Women & Theatre’ team over the coming months developing their ventures sustainability, scalability and impact measurement tools.”

Our Community Comedy Club has been incredibly successful, making a huge impact on individuals’ lives and uniting the Highgate community. We are thrilled to have won this award and have the opportunity to work with The Young Foundation to explore sustainable ways of developing the project, ensuring the benefits of laughter can reach more people in a range of contexts.

The Story Lady has a passion for stories; for telling them, collecting them, sharing them, performing them, singing them, for perfecting them. She is always looking for new stories, new listeners and new learners. She often appears when she is least expected; she might be hiding in a classroom, in the corner of the library, in a stationary cupboard or even under the head teachers desk! You never know….

The Story Lady project is being developed primarily in partnership with Allens Croft Primary School. It will involve regular visits from the Story Lady who will share stories with pupils and explore the ‘ingredients’ of a good story and help pupils set about creating their own. They will carry out research with people in their local communities and use their real life experiences as the basis for writing stories. The Story Lady will then work with the pupils to share those stories through performance.

The Story Lady will also be travelling on to 6 other Primary schools in Birmingham that will experience a scaled down version of the project, which will nonetheless celebrate stories and develop pupils’ speaking & listening, writing and performance skills.

This project is funded by Allens Croft Primary School and Creativity Culture and Education, as part of the national Creative Partnerships School of Creativity programme.

For more information about bringing the Story Lady to your school, community centre, hospital, workplace, or anywhere where people would like to hear a good yarn, please contact Women & Theatre on 0121 449 7117.

The Palace of Wasted Dreams
Thurs 3rd – Sat 5th & Wed 9th – Sat 12th February, 8pm
mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH
Tickets & Information:0121 446 3232 www.macarts.co.uk
Tickets £12 (£8) (Suitable for ages 14+)

It’s here, it’s arrived. Come on in! The Palace of Wasted Dreams.

Licensed for laughing, crying, dancing, singing, surprising and thinking on.
A place where anything can happen, and something always does…
Whether you’ve been before or it’s your very first time, come on down to the Palace!

The Palace of Wasted Dreams is the culmination of a two-year project called Wasted, a new participatory musical theatre project exploring and giving voice to women’s relationship with alcohol.
An essential night out, an intoxicating total live theatre experience. Dress for a night out. Non-drinkers very welcome!

The Palace of Wasted Dreams has been devised by Women & Theatre from materials gathered through research. It is performed by Women & Theatre and a cast of local people and directed by Gwenda Hughes. Music has been composed by Gurdan Thomas and The Company, with musical direction by Clare Edwards. Production Design is by Andrew Purvin, Lighting Design by Simon Bond, and Stage Management by Sara Crathorne.

The Palace of Wasted Dreams is a co-production with mac and is supported by Arts Council England, Aquarius, Sir Barry Jackson Trust, Bryant Trust, AERC, John Feeney Charitable Trust, Birmingham City Council, the Harry Payne Trust, The Grimmitt Trust and The Cole Charitable Trust.