Britain’s East and South East Asian Network (besea.n) has sent a letter to the Government to ask it to officially recognise East and South East Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month in the UK, which will take place throughout September, for the second year running.

The open letter includes signatures from Marvel stars Gemma Chan and Benedict Wong, comedian Phil Wang and Harry Potter actor Katie Leung, along with well-known activists, educators and community organisers Patrick Vernon OBE, convenor of Windrush75 and Nova Reid, author of popular anti-racism book The Good Ally.

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The Bread & Roses Theatre, Clapham, has today announced the full program of productions for the 2022 Clapham Fringe Festival. With an eclectic, vibrant mix of early career producers, touring productions, stand up comedy and genre-bending new work, the festival promises to have something for all tastes. Asking bold questions, alongside more light-hearted material, the festival is a greatly varied curation of pieces, which complement each other in the breadth and variety of voices given a platform by the Off West End Award winning theatre.

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The 2022 Edinburgh International Festival has drawn to a close following 92 different productions featuring over 2,400 artists from around 45 different nationalities, returning to full theatres and concert halls with critical acclaim for the first time since 2019. The 2022 International Festival marks Fergus Linehan’s last as Festival Director following an eight-year tenure, before Nicola Benedetti takes up the role in October 2022. The 2023 International Festival will take place 4 – 27 August.

A Wee Journey by Farah Saleh & Oğuz Kaplangı.

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As one of the most influential world religions, Islam serves as a source of comfort for many. Dating back to the 7th century, the religion is practiced by an estimated two billion followers. Home to one of the UK’s largest Islamic communities, Birmingham celebrates the diversity of voices within this community. One of the five pillars of Islam; Salat – meaning the act of praying whilst facing the holy city of Mecca concerns itself with the five prayers that take place throughout the day, and delving deeper into this act, with a focus on the whispers/thoughts that may accompany this, Soul City Arts’ WASWASA – Whispers in Prayer respectfully showcases this in motion.

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The eight major producing venues behind EdFest.com– which comprise Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbellyand ZOO– collectively commented that soaring accommodation costs are the biggest risk to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s future. 1,965,961 tickets were collectively sold by the eight venues in 2019 while more than 1,486,746 are forecast to be sold this year.

A spokesperson for EdFest.com said: “It has been fantastic to be back at the first full Fringe since 2019 – to see the live performance industry come roaring back to life in this post-pandemic world. There has been a real appetite and energy for shared, live experiences in Edinburgh over the last few weeks and the quality of the programme has been incredible – yet, the forecast number of tickets we’ve collectively sold is down 25% compared to 2019 which is a major threat  for everyone involved in the festival.”

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Driven by the need to survive, avenues subversive to the norm may be sought in order to make ends meet, acting as that step closer to achieving whatever dream aspired to. An exploration of the world of sex work seen through the eyes of four women, hard-hitting drama Sold by Mama delves deeper into the lives and trials of these women seldom really listened to and often silenced.

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Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich have been unveiled as the shortlisted venues for this year’s UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre Award at the UK Theatre Awards, which returns on Sunday 23 October for the first time since 2019.

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Stage One and Perfect Pitch Musicals, are delighted to announce a partnership for the Bursary scheme, supporting emerging producers with a focus on developing new British musicals. In Autumn 2022, Stage One and Perfect Pitch are delighted to be working together to award outstanding emerging producers an increased level of financial support for both the producer and the project to allow meaningful development of new British musicals to take place.

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We’re at a time where the construct of gender has become a major focal point, an aspect societally quietly entrenched with in everything that we do, these fixed ideas and expectations defining who we are, or at least, attempt to. Exploring gender stereotypes and the feeling of not fitting in with these fixed descriptors, Scantily Glad Theatre present Something in the Water, a satirical, risqué, fun yet thought provoking look at ‘gender norms’.

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With the cost of living crisis a reality dominating the headlines and that many are confronted with, we’re in a time, post pandemic, where we’re examining societal structures and how communities have been impacted – previous conditions only exaggerated and brought to the fore within the past 2 years. Inspired by real life stories and very rightly highlighting working class voices of London in his work Block’dOff, Kieton Saunders-Browne presents a timely portrait of survival in increasingly tough times.

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