FESTIVAL OF PERFORMANCE 3 0 M AY - 1 0 J U N E

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Welcome to the first ever Knotty Festival produced by Home Live Art. Happening across a wide-range of locations in Hastings and Bexhill (including a theatre, a hidden garden, an arts centre, a gallery space and a party bar) Knotty presents a unique and adventurous programme of performance from some of the most bold and original artists working in the UK today. From a subversive re-enactment of the New Testament to Afrofuturism and the cult of Grace Jones the artists in this festival are not only asking us to question the world we live in right now but are actively trying to create a space that reimagines and redefines our future. So whether you’ve experienced this work before, or if you’d like to take a risk and try something new, we hope you come along and join us for a ride you won’t forget. Katy Baird Artistic Director, Home Live Art Home Live Art produce live events across Hastings, the South East and beyond. From the large scale spectacular to the intimate encounter, we bring audiences and artists together to create extraordinary shared experiences. homeliveart.com

KATY BAIRD & THE ASTROTHOT

Thursday 30 May - White Rock Theatre DOUBLE BILL: 7-7.30pm: The Astrothot / 8-9pm: Katy Baird Tickets: £5 / £3 conc from homeliveart.com (limited number available on the door)

A week before the official festival opens, we invite you to join us for a warm-up event presenting two unique and radical performances exploring what it means to find your place in the world when you just don’t fit in. I am the future. A strong-beaked bird named after Barack Obama and a new pink river dolphin are among the new species recorded by the WWF Network. And now a ‘Deerbra’. Life as a hybrid animal (half zebra half deer) is complex yet could tell us much about the future of our species. A participatory performancecome-school trip featuring groundbreaking biological science and pop music. Workshy This remarkable debut performance work from Katy Baird takes a brutally truthful look at her twenty-year career working within the service industry. From getting you high to supersizing your whopper meal, Katy feels she has done everything she can to make the public happy!

Workshy is a powerful and honest portrayal of the relationship between work, class and aspiration.

Festival Launch Join us from 7pm in the Circle Bar inside the White Rock Theatre for an informal drinks reception to launch the Festival and meet the Knotty team. This is a free event. NIGHTCLUBBING POST PUNK / POST FEAR / POST PANIC Rachael Young and her badass band of super-humans embrace Afrofuturism and the cult of Grace Jones in NIGHTCLUBBING; an explosive new performance bringing visceral live music and intergalactic visions to start a revolution. 1981: 2015: Grace Jones releases Three women are refused her landmark album entry into a London ‘Nightclubbing’; her body is nightclub; their bodies are brown and soft. brown and soft. WE are those women, we zoom through galaxies and solar systems, traveling through time, preparing for our moment to land… IT’S NOW! People of colour to the front, women to the front, LGBTQIA++ to the front!

FESTIVAL LAUNCH & RACHAEL YOUNG

Thursday 6 June - White Rock Theatre, Sussex Studio 7-8pm: Festival launch / 8-9pm: NIGHTCLUBBING Tickets: NIGHTCLUBBING £10 / £8 conc. from homeliveart.com (limited number available on the door)

Friday 7 June and Sat 8 June - Bohemia Walled Gardens 1pm, 3pm & 5pm (duration: 45min) Tickets: ÂŁ10/8 concs. from homeliveart.com (Limited to 15 tickets per show, tickets available online only)

Wild Longings is a luscious, immersive garden tour sown with songs and stories of transformation, connecting the audience with the natural world around them. Encounter the enchanting tour-guide Helen Paris and her passionate ode to the trans tree Fortingall Yew, get hands-on tips from raconteur gardener Leslie Hill and let chanteuse Claudia Barton beguile you with a fantasia of song inspired by the many botanical delights.

CURIOUS

Rooted with a desire to provide succour to each other and the environment this unique walking tour and performance is an emotional and sensuous horticultural journey that celebrates inclusivity, interconnectivity and survival.

Friday 7 June - Printworks From 8pm - late Tickets: £8/6 concs. from homeliveart.com / £10 on the door Lucy McCormick & Salty joint ticket - £15

Hastings’ iconic queer performance party is back! Salty is an inclusive space for LGBTQI+ folk and their allies to come together, dance, have fun, and enjoy some unforgettable queer performance. This special Knotty Edition will present daring drag, fishy desires, experimental vocals and iconic dance routines with live performances from Oozing Gloop, Edythe Woolley, Pink Suits, Adam Frost and more.

QUEER PERFORMANCE PARTY

Salty

Friday 7 June - White Rock Theatre, Sussex Studio 7.30pm - 8.30pm Tickets: £10 / £8 from homeliveart.com LucyMcCormick & Salty joint ticket - £15

Lucy McCormick Following her smash-hit sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Soho Theatre, post-popular prodigy Lucy McCormick and her Girl Squad finally bring their provocative, subversive cabaret retelling of the greatest story of all time to Hastings!

TRIPLE THREAT

Casting herself in all the main roles, Lucy attempts to reconnect to her own moral conscience by re-enacting the New Testament via a nu-wave holy trinity of dance, power ballads and absurdist art.

‘Joyously depraved’ Time Out ‘Lucy McCormick has the moves of Beyonce, the lungs of Christina Aguilera and the morals of a punk iconoclast’ The Scotsman

Saturday 8 June - Jerwood Gallery 6.30-7.30pm Tickets: £10/8 from homeliveart.com (Limited capacity, tickets available online only)

Taking the form of a dinner party, this performance seeks to encourage us to think about the countries around the world where LGBTQI+ rights are under threat. “Despite its cheerful international image, my native country, Brazil, remains the number one country for trans murders—a most shameful indictment indeed. When I lived there, I myself experienced abuse daily. In order to survive, I had to leave the country. But what of those who cannot afford to? Or those more courageous or resilient than myself, who resist the system while refusing to leave? The Pink Supper is dedicated to them.” - Nando Messias Join Nando as they attempt to promote an understanding of these rights through the shared experience of sitting around a table, breaking bread and witnessing performance.

THE (ALMOST) PINK SUPPER

Nando Messias

DE LA WARR TAKEOVER & CLOSING

Sunday 9 June - De La Warr Pavilion As I live and Breathe: 1-4pm Performances Tickets: Free entry, no ticket required

As I live and breathe A free programme of unique performance encounters unfolding over the course of one afternoon throughout the iconic De La Warr Pavilion. Five performances will take place from 1-4pm across the building giving the audience the opportunity to follow their own path and spend as much or as little time with each artist as they wish. Knotty Closing Party 7pm-1am - The Fountain Join us on Sunday night at The Fountain on Queens for this free event to celebrate the end of the first ever Knotty Festival. Bring your dancing shoes!

VENUES 1. White Rock Theatre - White Rock, Hastings TN34 1JX w: whiterocktheatre.org.uk t: 01424 462288 2. Printworks - 14 Claremont, Hastings TN34 1HA w: theprintworkshastings.co.uk t: 01424 425532 3. Jerwood Gallery - Rock-A-Nore Rd, Hastings TN34 3DW w: jerwoodgallery.org t: 01424 728377 4. De La Warr Pavilion - Marina, Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 1DP w: dlwp.com t: 01424 229111 5. Bohemia Walled Garden - Bohemia Road, Hastings, TN34 1EX 6. The Fountain - 93 Queen’s Road, Hastings, TN34 1RL w: fountainhastings.co.uk t: 01424 424455 6 1

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ST LEONARDS WARRIOR SQUARE WEST ST LEONARDS

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The Knotty Team: Katy Baird, Dicky Eton, Emmy Minton, Dan Mathews, Jon Tyrrell, Alice Denny and Ben Browton. Design - They Them Studio We would like to thank all our brilliant partner organisations and their incredible staff members for helping us make this festival possible.

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SCHEDULE THURSDAY 30TH MAY White Rock Theatre Join us for a special free pre-festival warm up event to get us in the mood. 7-7.30pm - I am The Future / 8-9pm - Workshy Double Bill: Katy Baird: Workshy / Toni Lewis: I am the future

THURSDAY 6TH JUNE White Rock Theatre 7-8pm Festival launch in circle bar 8-9pm Rachael Young: NIGHTCLUBBING

FRIDAY 7TH JUNE Bohemia Walled Garden 1-2pm & 3-4pm & 5-6pm Curious: Wild Longings

White Rock Theatre 7.30-8.30pm Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat

Printworks 8pm-1am Salty: Queer Performance Party

SATURDAY 8TH JUNE Jerwood Gallery 7-8.30pm Nando Messias: The [Almost] Pink Supper

SUNDAY 9TH JUNE De La Warr Pavilion 1-4pm Performances 4-5pm Gathering (meet the artists) Home Live Art Takeover: six interactive performances will happen throughout the gallery As I Live and Breathe

The Fountain 9pm-late Knotty Closing Party Home Live Writing: Wrap around live writing project with Diana and Bojana and writers group.