Introducing - The Mighty Heart Theatre

Love my hair and face and thunder calves.

I don’t love anything about myself.

I like being small but I want to be much thinner.

Compassion, compassion.

I love that I am smart. I love my brain.

Hello, we are Mighty Heart Theatre & these are some of the quotes taken from our anonymous surveys (of which we had over 100 responses) which have gone towards creating When I Feel Like Crap I Google Kim Kardashian Fat .

To give you a bit of context… last year over dinner a girlfriend of mine said “when I feel like crap I google Kim Kardashian fat” …after which my jaw hit the floor, I paused in awkward silence, laughed it off & then got out my phone & wrote it in my notes app. I knew that it was going to be a trigger for a new piece of work. I did not know what/how/when. Fast forward 4 months & we have complied a mountain of material from interviewing self-identifying women & conducting anonymous surveys!!

Creating this work has been a huge eye opener both as performers but most importantly as women. To quote one of our anonymous surveys “women are cruel sometimes. Women can be cruel”. Within this piece of theatre we do not claim to hold the answers, instead we’d like to share the stories & open up a conversation about the pressure of unattainable perfectionism & how this has seeped in to our culture.

We are also testing ourselves as performers. Certain aspects of the piece will unfold on the night with new material being used each performance to keep the work alive & to give a voice to as many of the stories as possible. It will be different every night! This as you can imagine is a flippin scary prospect as performers! Will it work? Who knows but we’re going to have fun trying it out!

We are so proud that we are presenting this work as part of Wonder Women Festival 2015. Without the urgency & deadline of this festival it’s quite likely that this piece would still not have been created yet! Our verbatim theatre performance (*verbatim theatre is a type of documentary theatre in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic) explores what it means to be a woman in a world obsessed with body image & celebrity culture & the effect this is having on our self-esteem & lives.

Please join us to celebrate the festival & raise a glass to our own Wonder Women. We proudly present this performance as part of Wonder Women 2015 with support from Unity Theatre Trust & Arts Council England.

Performances take place at Gullivers NQ on Oldham Street M4 on Monday 30^th & Tuesday 31^st March both at 8PM. 

Tickets are £4.95 and can be bought via WeGotTickets here: https://www.wegottickets.com/ 

*trigger warning: content includes stories on disordered eating. 

@theatremighty www.facebook.com/mightyhearttheatre

STILL WE RISE Exhibition (9 - 22nd March) & performance (14 March 12pm - 2pm)

STILL WE RISE

Exhibition (9 - 22nd March) & performance (14 March 12pm - 2pm)

People's History Museum, Manchester

Last week a Channel 4 undercover investigation evidenced the state sanctioned abuse of women in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre. These are issues that asylum seeking women have been speaking out about for years.

Over the past year SHUT DOWN YARL’S WOOD demonstrations led by Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) and Manchester Migrant Solidarity (MISOL) with Safety4Sisters have taken over some of the main squares in Manchester, as women fight to get their voices heard.

Come and hear directly from women who have experienced the horrors of Yarl’s Wood, and their ongoing fight for justice and sanctuary.

Reserve your place for the performance on 14 March using Eventbrite

Exhibition curated by Jenny White of Warp & Weft

Part of the Wonder Women Radical Manchester programme

WOMEN’S CYCLING PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

To help mark International Women’s Day 2015, we want to collect photographs of women across Manchester telling us about their achievements and why they ride their bikes.

This is an interactive friendly competition open to all women across Greater Manchester –

We want photographs of everyone – so whether you have just learnt to ride; you enjoy occasional riding with family or friends in parks and green places; your bike is your transport; you like to explore the world from the saddle; you enjoy speeding on steaming tarmac; or love bumping about on dirt tracks in the wild forest – we would like your photograph!

No creative photographic experience necessary – it’s the statement and location that’s going to potentially win you some great prizes.

Have a look at the website for plenty more information about how to submit & get started. www.mcrwomenbike.org.uk

Please s p r e a d the word to any networks or individuals you might know who would be interested in getting involved.

Final exhibition, bike party & prize giving to be held after Critical Mass on March 27^th at Popup Bikes, Manchester. 

Update - Suffragette Legacy; How does the History of Feminism Inspire Current Thinking in Manchester?

A quick update to let you know that we are finalising the programme and booking procedures for our forthcoming conference on Saturday 8 March 2014.

All information will be available through this blog, including links to our venue, People's History Museum, and the programme.

If you don't want to miss anything, sign up to follow this blog via email - sign up box is in the left hand column

Venue: People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER

Directions: http://www.phm.org.uk/visit-us/how-to-find-us/

Fee: £25/£15 (concessions for students or unwaged). Bursaries will be announced at the same time as the full programme. 

Twitter: @WonderWomenMcr @SuffragEvent

Wonder Women: http://www.creativetourist.com/festivals-and-events/wonderwomen/

Blog: http://wonderwomenmcr.blogspot.co.uk/