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Outside, looking in

Veteran gay activist Ted Brown, who came out before LGBT people had any rights in the UK, has dedicated his life to combating racism and homophobia since joining the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in 1970, after meeting a group of activists picketing The Boys in the Band in London’s West End. Ted Brown had been aware of his feelings for other boys at school when he was 11 or 12, but it was the discovery of a Tom of Finland book in a Popular Books store in New Cross, London, when he was 15 that convinced him this was not a phase. “I

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Answering the call of the dancefloor

He was playing Donna Summer records at his sister’s house parties when he was still at primary school, won a DJ contest when he was still a teenager in Italy, and has been spinning at Horse Meat Disco for more than a decade. Who better to DJ our preview party than Severino Panzetta? From the moment we started organising the preview night for We Raise Our Hands In The Sanctuary at The Albany this summer, our first choice to DJ the after-party was Severino Panzetta, the languidly approachable resident at Horse Meat Disco, the south London gay night that no less an authority than legendary

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Dancing to a different beat in Deptford: from Outdance to We Raise Our Hands

  Back in the late 1980s, the Albany used to host a weekly LGBT club night that attracted hundreds of revellers from the local community and beyond every Saturday. Former promoter Brendan Nash explains how it all came about. The Albany in Deptford has a fantastic tradition of developing LGBTQ work like our new show We Raise Our Hands In The Sanctuary, which tells a gay friendship story set in the 1980s London underground gay club scene. Around the same time they scheduled a week of research and development for this show as part of their Hatched new writing programme,

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Chanelling a sense of a character’s potent sexuality

Dean Graham, who plays club promoter Paul in We Raise Our Hands In The Sanctuary, talks about how his performance has evolved in the rehearsal room and on the stage. How did you prepare for the role of Paul? Well obviously, I did a lot of research that [writers and directors] Daniel and Martin passed over to me and I followed that. I was also really interested in notions of masculinity. I think that there’s a lot that you can take from your own life as a man and your relationship to your own father. I think it’s one of

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