{"per_page":30,"page":1,"total_entries":7,"feed_entries":"[{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-05-24T12:41:07+01:00\",\"title\":\"Protests at Lancaster's Miss England Beauty Contest - Stopping the traffic?\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-2007832138846621462\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-05-24T12:41:07+01:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/05/protests-at-lancasters-miss-england.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":366324,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"When NLP hypnotherapist Mark Darlington organised a beauty pageant for for young, single women without children in Lancaster, he picked the wrong town. Lancaster women mounted a hilarious protest outside the Grand Theatre on Friday, during the Miss Morecambe & Lancaster pageant, with a giant banner and sashes bearing titles such as \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcMiss Behavin\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122, \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcMiss Chief\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 and the like (and in the case of the man supporting the demo \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcMissTer\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122).  A joke flier bearing a picture of pageant organiser Mark Darlington posed much as a pageant winner might, in a Mr England sash, was much in evidence. It\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s safe to say the image was photo-shopped as that union-jack pouch didn\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122t seem to meet with approval from pageant organisers.  Security was high, with three bouncers on the door, and the Grand\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s manager popping in and out like a cuckoo clock to check on the protest. Younger women attending the event came outside to complain to protesters that leaflets handed out to them were being taken off them by security men as they entered. They weren\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122t being taken from men, or older women. Just young women. Security said they had instructions from the Grand Theatre management, but would not explain why young women alone were being singled out in this way. The manager of the Grand also would not explain why the younger women in the audience were alone in being threatened. Perhaps the women planning to march in this Saturday's 'Slutwalk' protest in the city centre could come up with a reason. Protesters were much in evidence outside the Grand but people actually attending the contest were very thin on the ground; the handful of competitors, mums and bfs who trickled in would barely have filled a portakabin, let alone the Grand.  The Miss England regional heats are largely run in the North West by hypnotherapist and weight-loss coach, entrepreneur Mark Darlington of MDC Events Ltd, based in Deeside, near Wrexham, also known as Mark Jones. Looking at the handful of MDC websites (eg http://www.miss-bolton.co.uk/) for the various Miss England NW heats Mark Darlington organises, it\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s difficult to assess what is going on with the pageant.  There are few sponsors in evidence and a photographer featured on the Miss Burnley website no longer appears to be trading.  Bizarrely, several Miss England NW websites display tweets from \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dc@MissEnglandNW  to comedian Sarah Millican such as:  \\\"@SarahMillican75 Loved Chester last night, thank you! See you in June\\\".  A quick look through Millican\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s tweets shows no reference whatever to the Miss England pageants, though she was in Chester testing out a TV pilot on the day, and will be trying out her Edinburgh show there in June. It\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s not clear why unsolicited fanmail from Mark Darlington\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s business twitter to Sarah Millican is featured on a Miss England website. One might almost think he was trying to give an impression that they were connected in some way, although it doesn't feature on his personal twitter. Round the corner on the same evening the Dukes Theatre was hosting a youth streetdance festival. At 7pm about twenty teenage girls and boys stopped the traffic on Moor Lane with a big, choreographed outdoor piece that drew crowds along the pavements and had everyone clapping along. Without wasting a fortune on hair, nails, eyelashes, nose jobs, shoes and fake tans, they had worked hard to put on a great, witty show, often self-parodying. You couldn\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122t imagine anyone bullying them.  It\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s time the Grand got the 21st century too.  Teenagers stopping the traffic for art and to lift the public spirits is better than teenagers being trafficked for sponsorship. As North West businesses seem to agree. See Also: Warning! Beauty pageants many be damaging your health.   and This week at the Grand: Girl Traffic Photo of Mark Darlington from: naturaltherapyforall.com  'the better way to find a therapist'\",\"published_at\":\"2011-05-24T09:57:00+01:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-05-16T16:44:25+01:00\",\"title\":\"This week at the Grand: Girl Traffic\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-2543301890357806565\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-05-16T16:44:25+01:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-week-at-grand-girl-traffic.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":360656,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"Sneaking into the Grand Theatre this Friday is the 'local heat' of the Miss England pageant. You won't find the Miss Morecambe & Lancaster competition listed on the Grand's website. You aren't invited! This pageant is a private treat whereby a certain type of 'sponsor' can buy access to young female hopefuls.  Sponsors get tickets, can be judges and buy options on use of the 'winners' (age 17-24). There are many side titles in each heat, so plenty to go around. According to the organisers, MDC Events Ltd, an amount which \\\"may be more affordable than you might imagine\\\" could buy a pageant queen or two laid on for your corporate events. MDC Events get the pay for supplying the girls / young women. These get their travel expences, from the sponsor.  And a hotel room.  Nice.   It's just a bit of harmless fun? Some say this is all just a bit of harmless fun - or even a celebration of female beauty. However any beauty that isn't aged 17-24 and a size 14 or less, or happens to be married, or have children, or have a title other than 'Miss' (for example Dr.), is excluded under the rules. Contestants must be young, thin, unattached and without status.  Organisers have justified competitions by claiming that characteristics other than appearance score points - but the contestants' photos are presented for voting on the Miss Morecambe & Lancaster website without any information about them - in fact a well-presented corpse could actually win a title! Compete for the meat. It's easier to exploit people if you can eliminate their human characteristics and focus on the anatomical; skin colour, breasts, noses, foreskins etc. This pageant is organised so that various anatomical portions of the 'contestants' can get special titles from individual sponsors too. Mouth, hair, legs, torso... It's a bit like those pictures of animal carcasses you see in butchers with the different joints mapped out.  Trafficking women's bodies is big business: The all-parliamentary committee on human trafficking estimates that around 12,000 women (a Conservative estimate) have been trafficked into the UK and imprisoned and enslaved against their will. Each of these women was deceived into thinking that she was on the way to decent jobs and opportunities.  Slavery has always been a profitable business. In this case it is so because many thousands of UK men regularly pay to sexually abuse kidnapped women who live lives of terror and torture hidden within our society. This is a growing market profiting from grooming men into rape.  It may seem a stretch, but the creeping 'beauty' pageantry sneaking back into clubs, commerce and even universities, is part of the cultural processes that foster dehumanisation of women, and degradation and brutalisation of men, under cover of supposed 'opportunity' for both.  It's a visible marker of the slippage of women's status in a society in which 75% of people living in poverty are women and in which women's average incomes, already lower than men's, are falling faster.  It's also a marker of increasing unhappiness in our society.  Pageants are heavily backed by the advertising, beauty, fashion and diet industries, all of which have a vested interest in lowering self-esteem generally, in repackaging women as commodities for sale, rather than as acting drivers of their own lives and fortunes, and in grooming bigotry as an alternative to self-fulfillment. Shame on you Grand Theatre, using young girls this way to pay your bills.  Virtual-Lancaster has approached the Grand Theatre for comments and they have, so far, declined. See also: Warning: Beauty Pageants May be Damaging Your Health \",\"published_at\":\"2011-05-16T11:08:00+01:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-05-11T12:45:38+01:00\",\"title\":\"The Original Tribute to The Blues Brothers Come To The UK\",\"guid\":\"http://www.shropshirelive.com/?p=16160\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-05-11T12:45:38+01:00\",\"url\":\"http://www.shropshirelive.com/2011/05/11/the-original-tribute-to-the-blues-brothers-come-to-the-uk/\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":357004,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"After several smash-hit years on the international touring circuit, for the first time since 2001, the legendary Original Tribute to The Blues Brothers is back by popular demand on UK tour! \",\"published_at\":\"2011-05-11T11:43:56+01:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":623,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-04-13T14:40:39+01:00\",\"title\":\"Footlights takes on Daphne Du Maurier\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-7667410265073371878\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-04-13T14:40:39+01:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/04/footlights-takes-on-daphne-du-maurier.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":338478,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"The Grand will be dreaming of Manderlay all week as Lancaster Footlights presents Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. In  the play, based on the novel first published in 1938 that made du  Maurier one of the most popular writers of her time, Maxim de Winter  marries a woman half his age only a year after the death of his first  wife - the beautiful and accomplished Rebecca. Maxim's  naive young bride is overwhelmed by her new responsibilities and soon  discovers that her predecessor still has a strange hold over everyone,  especially the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who despises her for  taking the adored Rebecca's place. Behind the beautiful gates of Manderley, the darkness of the past taints the present and threatens the future ... As well as the novel, Rebecca  Daphne du Maurier successfully adapted it into a play, first presented  in 1940, starring Celia Johnson and Owen Nares as the De Winters and  Margaret Rutherford as Mrs. Danvers. It was adapted into an Oscar  winning film by Alfred Hitchcock (also in 1940) and several times on  television. This production of Rebecca is the latest work of Lancaster Footlights,  a thriving amateur drama group which approaches its  work very  \\\"professionally.\\\" They first started performing in the 1920's,  and  purchased the Grand Theatre in 1950 to save it from demolition. Ever   since that time, the group has devoted its time and effort  between  theatrical productions, and the continuous work involved in  running,  maintaining and restoring an historic building. They currently   produce five plays per season, including a traditional Christmas   pantomime which is specifically aimed family enjoyment, in addition to   one-act plays and a Youth Theatre production. \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u00a2 Lancaster Footlights presents Rebecca at the Grand Theatre, Lancaster until Saturday 16th April 7.30 pm.  Tickets \\u00c2\\u00a38.50/\\u00c2\\u00a37.50. Box Office: 01524 64695 or Book Online. Web: www.lancastergrand.co.uk\",\"published_at\":\"2011-04-13T12:50:00+01:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-04-12T20:39:08+01:00\",\"title\":\"Folights takes on Daphne Du Maurier\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-721590981688239509\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-04-12T20:39:08+01:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/04/folights-takes-on-daphne-du-maurier.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":337853,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"The Grand will be dreaming of Manderlay all week as Lancaster Footlights presents Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. In the play, based on the novel first published in 1938 that made du Maurier one of the most popular writers of her time, Maxim de Winter marries a woman half his age only a year after the death of his first wife - the beautiful and accomplished Rebecca. Maxim's naive young bride is overwhelmed by her new responsibilities and soon discovers that her predecessor still has a strange hold over everyone, especially the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who despises her for taking the adored Rebecca's place. Behind the beautiful gates of Manderley, the darkness of the past taints the present and threatens the future ... As well as the novel, Rebecca Daphne du Maurier successfully adapted it into a play, first presented in 1940, starring Celia Johnson and Owen Nares as the De Winters and Margaret Rutherford as Mrs. Danvers. It was adapted into an Oscar winning film by Alfred Hitchcock (also in 1940) and several times on television. This production of Rebecca is the latest work of Lancaster Footlights, a thriving amateur drama group which approaches its  work very \\\"professionally.\\\" They first started performing in the 1920's,  and purchased the Grand Theatre in 1950 to save it from demolition. Ever  since that time, the group has devoted its time and effort  between theatrical productions, and the continuous work involved in  running, maintaining and restoring an historic building. They currently  produce five plays per season, including a traditional Christmas  pantomime which is specifically aimed family enjoyment, in addition to  one-act plays and a Youth Theatre production. \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u00a2 Lancaster Footlights presents Rebecca at the Grand Theatre, Lancaster until Saturday 16th April 7.30 pm.  Tickets \\u00c2\\u00a38.50/\\u00c2\\u00a37.50. Box Office: 01524 64695 or Book Online. Web: www.lancastergrand.co.uk\",\"published_at\":\"2011-04-12T20:02:00+01:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-03-17T22:48:16+00:00\",\"title\":\"In Review: Cabaret\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-9126803741792952292\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-03-17T22:48:16+00:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":319857,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"The cast of Cabaret, this year's joint musical show from students of Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Lancaster Girls' Grammar School. Photo: John Charles Taylor (www.jctaylor.co.uk)Liza Minelli and Michael York are a very, very hard act to follow. But the actors in the Lancaster Girls\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 Grammar School and Lancaster Royal Grammar School production of Cabaret, directed by Timothy Hall, do not disappoint. And while there is all the glitz of the seedy, anything-goes Berlin Kit Kat Klub, complete with glamorous Kit Kat dancers, live music from the joint school orchestra (with musical director David Prescott), and those wonderful songs, the insidious Nazism of late 1920s Berlin is not subordinated, and the tone of the production is overall a dark one. When young American writer Clifford Bradshaw (the very well-cast Ben Ashbridge) arrives in Berlin, a place to live is found for him, he is pointed in the direction of the Kit Kat Klub, and the next day Sally Bowles (Eleanor Boyle) has moved herself and her suitcases into his room. This sets the scene for the political events which, similarly, spiral out of control. While the early part of the production felt just a little wooden (this was the first night), soon it began to give and flow, and we sit back and enjoy Sally and Clifford\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcPerfectly marvellous\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122.  Of course, this happiness is not to last. The older Herr Schultz (Jamie Ranson) and Fraulein Schneider (Divolka Ganesh), Clifford\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s landlady, enjoy their engagement party, and these are touching and sensitive performances. But Fraulein Schneider breaks it off the next day, realising that her fianc\\u00c3\\u00a9\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s Jewishness, which yesterday had been irrelevant, was to be so no longer. The choreography of the engagement party is very good here, with Ernst Ludwig (Ruaidhri Johnston), whose swastika has only just become apparent \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u201c and shockingly so, both to Clifford and the theatre audience - circling menacingly and uncomfortably round the rest of the guests.  Young Sam Porteous\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 beautiful solo rendition of \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcTomorrow belongs to me\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 is taken up by other characters, and the end of Act 1, with its dominance of Nazi salutes, is chilling. Sleepwalking is used as a metaphor, hedonism preventing so many from seeing what is really going on, and the production concludes with the Kit Kat MC taking off his Kit Kat costume to reveal his pyjamas. The choreography overall is in fact excellent, in particular at the Kit Kat Klub, where flirting and more are the order of the day, and where there are a lot of people on stage a lot of the time. And so is the use of the stage. With the need to alternate frequently between the Kit Kat Klub and Clifford\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s room, the front of the stage comes into play a lot. But rather than being clunky and full of irrelevant diversions, this device is used adroitly and well: people move (in greater and lesser states of sobriety) to and from the Kit Kat Klub, in ones and twos, with witty snippets of talk, and an increasing use of swastika armbands. This is very competent production is also graced with some fine performances. Jason Whittle, as the seedy and ambiguous MC, is a natural, and the famous \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcTwo ladies\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122, sung by Jason Whittle, Sophie Allen and Daisy Whalley, is one of the highlights of the production. Olivia Clark\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s Fraulein Kost, a tenant in the house who pays her rent with the assistance of a series of sailors, has attitude and conviction. Ben Ashbridge both looks and sounds like the idealistic young writer who is left sadder and wiser by his brief love affair with Sally and with Berlin.  And Eleanor Boyle\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s rendition of \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u02dcCabaret\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 at the end is well worth the wait.  Jane Sunderland Still to run: Friday March 18th, Saturday March 19th (7.00 p.m.) Tickets: \\u00c2\\u00a39.00/\\u00c2\\u00a36.00 Venue: Lancaster Grand Theatre, St, Leonardgate, Lancaster LA1 1NL Box office: 01524 64695 http://www.lancastergrand.co.uk\",\"published_at\":\"2011-03-17T18:54:00+00:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}},{\"feed_entry\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-03-08T16:54:49+00:00\",\"title\":\"Life is a 'Cabaret' for Grammar School students\",\"guid\":\"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79367181454779028.post-1700986515400956071\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-03-08T16:54:49+00:00\",\"url\":\"http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/03/life-is-cabaret-for-grammar-school.html\",\"lng\":null,\"id\":312441,\"feed_owner_type\":\"HyperlocalSite\",\"summary\":\"The cast of Cabaret, this year's joint musical show from students of Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Lancaster Girls' Grammar School. Photo: John Charles Taylor (www.jctaylor.co.uk)Students from Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Lancaster Girls\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 Grammar School are taking on the grim but compelling play Cabaret for their joint theatre production at Lancaster's Grand Theatre later this month. Cabaret is set in 1930s Berlin, as the Nazis rise to power, in the seedy Kit Kat Klub. The musical tells the story of the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with a young American writer and promises to be an extravagant evening\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s entertainment, with some standout musical performances of many show-stopping hits, including the MC\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s Willkommen, and Sally Bowles\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122 powerful solo Cabaret. A sub-plot of the play involves the doomed romance between German  boarding house owner Fr\\u00c3\\u00a4ulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr  Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of  Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for  the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the  show. Based  on John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which in turn was adapted from the novel Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, the 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions. The annual Lancaster Royal Grammar School-Lancaster Girls Grammar School joint musical productions are always very popular and this year\\u00e2\\u20ac\\u2122s show promises to be no exception. Cabaret takes place at the Grand Theatre Lancaster from Wednesday 16th to Saturday 19th March at 7pm. \\u00e2\\u20ac\\u00a2 Tickets for Cabaret are available for \\u00c2\\u00a39 (concessions/children \\u00c2\\u00a36) from the Grand Theatre box office (01524 64695) and the school offices at LRGS (01524 580600) and LGGS (01524 32010). \",\"published_at\":\"2011-03-08T14:55:00+00:00\",\"feed_owner_id\":410,\"lat\":null}}]"}