Boy In A Dress

Hello, lovers,

"an icon in the making" Time Out

We are seeking your support to take Boy In A Dress, written by and starring La JohnJoseph, directed by Sarah Chew, to the Edinburgh Festival, following a hugely successful premiere at Oval House Theatre in London. We have had a generous offer from The Stand in Edinburgh to re-mount the show, but we still need to raise some production and accommodation costs. This is a career-making opportunity for La JohnJoseph and the Boy In a Dress team - a chance to perform a show that has been five years in the making to a wide audience at the biggest theatre festival in the world, to get National newspaper reviews, and to keep working towards out ultimate goal of a national and international tour of the show. In dealing with economic exclusion and gender oppression, Boy in A Dress deals with some of the most pressing issues of the society we live in today - which is why we have to take up this opportunity now, rather than waiting a year.

Unusually for Edinburgh Festival projects, we will be undertaking outreach and education work alongside the show, delivering free workshops to economically excluded and queer young people. Between the show, outreach and media presence, we are aiming for Boy In A Dress Edinburgh to function as a true piece of performance activism.

About the show

Autobiographical, raucously political, and accidentally profound, Boy in A Dress follows the life story thus far of La JohnJoseph, a 27 year old, third-gendered, fallen Catholic, ex-fashion model from the wrong side of the tracks, as she moves from the council estates of Bootle to the performance art houses of New York. Boy In A Dress combines spoken word, song, film, striptease, vaudeville, postmodern philosophy and live art, in a frank and almost charming "retrospectacle" exploring intersections between class, gender, faith and identity formation, told from a somewhat unique cultural perspective.

Boy In A Dress explores queer and transsexual themes, but it is by no means exclusively a show for a queer audience: it is also politicised about economic social exclusion, religion, feminism, parenthood, and many other issues that have universal relevance.

Boy In A Dress was premiered in a co-production between Oval House and La JohnJoseph, at Oval House Theatre, Kennington, London, 14th Feb - 3rd March 2012. La JohnJoseph was awarded his first Arts Council Grant to fund the development of the show.

The show played to standing ovations and excellent reviews:

CRITIC'S CHOICE, TIME OUT **** Time Out "Terrific... the singing rich and moving; the script witty and perverse" www.timeout.com/london/theatre/event/253899/boy-in-a-dress

**** What's On The Fringe "A truly heart-wrenching story that is told in a beautifully innovative way... The first performance in a long time which made me feel a virginal wonderment that theatre is supposed to offer up". www.whatsonthefringe.com/boy-in-a-dress-review

**** The Public Reviews "La JohnJoseph's performance is a tour de force" www.thepublicreviews.com/boy-in-a-dress-the-ovalhouse-london

**** A Younger Theatre "Brimming with poetic wit, charm and beauty... precise and excellent direction... An immensely moving glimpse into another human's life"

La JohnJoseph was also invited to blog about the show for the Independent and for What's On Stage: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/20/blurring-the-gender-line-when-... www.whatsonstage.com/interviews/theatre/london/E8831328886166/La+JohnJos...

Why We Need Your Help

The Stand is generously covering the costs of the venue and some marketing; however, performances at the Edinburgh Festival are not eligible for Arts Council funding or funding from most of the major private arts foundations, so we are responsible for covering production and accommodation costs from other sources. These costs are relatively low, as the physical production exists, and the cast are wholly committed to the continued life of the show, so will work for expenses only, but we are also committed to keeping ticket prices low, to make the show accessible to as diverse an audience as possible, so we cannot rely on box office income. Consequently, we are seeking a seeking your support to cover the physical costs of the show. 

We are seeking £3000 to: 

• stage Boy In A Dress at the Stand Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival, with a view to a UK and international tour and major London run
• undertake outreach work among Edinburgh's queer and economically underprivileged young people, to encourage the development of more culturally inclusive attitudes to what has traditionally been Festival mostly attended by straight, white, upper middle class, through an open-access workshop programme, running alongside the production, delivered in conjunction with queer youth charity LGBT Youth and economic cultural inclusion lobbyists Voice UK
• have somewhere to live while we do this! Your support, on whatever level you could afford, would mean so much to us. Many thanks for reading! 

Love,

La JohnJoseph, Sarah Chew and the Boy In A Dress team x

(media credits: Theatre archive film filmed and edited by acapmeda www.acapmedia.co.uk; Appeal video edited by Fleur Poad; Photos by Ami Nouvel)