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LGBTQ street theatre a huge success

Gary Hart August 26, 2015

What makes lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) lives feel really ‘liveable’, not just bearable?

Liveable Lives street theatre
Photo by Lorenza Ippolito: Liveable Lives street theatre on Sunday, August 9

On Saturday, 8 and Sunday 9 of August, LGBTQ people from Brighton took part in a series of exciting and entertaining public street theatre performances to showcase their own ideas about liveable lives!

Saturday 8 saw participants take part in an Identity Twister gameshow on The Level, falling over themselves and each other as they struggled to maintain the identities society imposed on them – before disrupting the show by tearing up their unwanted labels!

On Sunday 9, another group took to the beach and performed a chain of short monologues entitled Words To Live By, exploring words that make their LGBTQ lives feel liveable or not liveable – Sensuality, Disability, Friendship and more – before coming together in praise of Community.

Photo by Lorenza Ippolito: Liveable Lives street theatre on Saturday
Photo by Lorenza Ippolito: Liveable Lives street theatre on Saturday, August 8

These performances were put together and performed by participants in just a single day as part of the Liveable Lives project. Queer activists from Indian LBT group Sappho For Equality guided participants through sharing their experiences and ideas, and putting them ‘into action’ in a fun and engaging show. The workshops, performances and audience reactions were recorded, and will be available on YouTube and the project’s website liveablelives.org in the coming months. You can also read a detailed account of both workshops and performances on the website.

Liveable Lives is a transnational research project led by the University of Brighton in the UK and activist group Sappho For Equality in India. Since November 2014, LGBTQ people have been sharing their ideas and experiences of what makes life liveable at interactive workshops and through the project’s website liveablelives.org.

IF you missed the performances you can still take part in the project by signing up to the website, completing surveys and sharing ideas with UK and Indian LGBTQ people via the website’s discussion board!

 

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