Thursday 30 August 2018

#Peterloo NOW MUST GO SEE #LondonTheatre #Liberty , #Deptford #Heritage #Festival 1-28 February 2019 Press Release

3rdInternational Deptford Heritage festival 1-28 February 2019                                                   

 Liberty  by Ray Barron-Woolford: Press Release.

The Deptford Heritage Festival 1-28 February 2019 

Festival will celebrate life of Deptford residents Christopher Marlowe , Robert Browning , Lord Nelson , Olaudan  Equiano, Kath Duncan, The MacMillan Sisters , and bring together Schools . Community Groups, Churches, Musicians, local talented residents  and Artists in Londons biggest Heritage Festival in the centre of the global LGBTQ history Month  , that celebrates and remembers its areas cultural diversity, Inspired people who have shaped its and the Nations  history at a time in which Gentrification for many Londoners is seeing their Heritage and Identity erased. with many events across 28 days as well as staging for the first time #Liberty 14-28 February 2019  with best of British Actor and production talent ,about Deptford Civil rights activist in the year we celebrate 100 years of Women, we dont again forget  Kath Duncan who established the LGBTQ  Civil Rights movement in 1930s Britain via the streets of Deptford , took on the power of King, Parliament and the entire legal system to lay the ground work for The National Council Civil Liberties that we call today LIBERTY. 

In the year when we celebrate 100 years of women’s activism, it seems only just that the world also has time to focus on and hail the lives of working-class heroes. It is regrettable that although we teach our children about our kings, Queens and tyrants, we erase from history those who have fought for and won the freedoms we all enjoy today. One such woman is Kath Duncan, probably the most important Scottish and UK civil rights activist of the past 100 years. Until this book and play, LIBERTY, Duncan has been left in the shadows because she was raised by a single widowed mum, was poor and totally un-politically correct.   When she died in 1954, she was a Communist; a member of a party feared and loathed by the elite in 50’s Britain. However, her friends included  Clementine and Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, who wanted her to be in the Labour government if he had won in 1945. Sadly, ill health stopped her standing as a Labour MP, although in 1931 she was the first woman to stand for parliament as a Communist candidate, in Greenwich in South East London, and indeed, one of the first women to stand for parliamentary office at all. 

Liberty, by activist, broadcaster and writer, Ray Barron Woolford who also has a biography of Kath Duncan, The Last Queen of Scotland, about to be published and which goes into film production shortly with Inside Film, after 4 years research, tells the extraordinary story of Kath Duncan in 1930s Britain. Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on 4th July 1888, she befriended Clementine Churchill and became Winston Churchill’s agent in the Dundee by-election of 1917, securing a staggering 87% of the vote for him. This seat, without her further help, he lost just 5 years later. Duncan arrived in Hackney in 1924 to become a member of the Pankhurst’s suffragette team of women activists that founded the British Communist party and in 1926 Duncan was a key member on the General Strike Committee, insuring NO trams or buses moved. She would later be an integral member of the Communist group who lead the protest to stop Mosely’s black shirts from marching down Cable Street.

In 1930, Kath and her husband, Sandy, established a radical Household in Deptford that was recorded in  police notes as a  “ house of revolutionaries and deviants”  due to the fact the house became the first known LGBTQ centre  and was the haunt of every radical   political activist of the age.

During the 30s, Kath led protests against the rise of fascism ; utility companies ripping off the poor; gentrification; poverty ; the hunger marches ; the Spanish  Civil War; treatment of Indian workers seeking the right to establish a Union; the Indo-China War and welfare reform.

No other woman in the past 100 years has been as much involved or successful , or so active at leadership level, across so many huge campaigns throughout her short life. Her being jailed twice, led to the ground work and establishment of The National Council Of Civil Liberties we call LIBERTY today.

#Liberty the play, from the book that has been getting rave reviews, it will be staged with big name cast as part of the third Deptford International Festival in February 2019, commemorating LGBTQ history month, and will be staged at the Deptford  Zion Baptist Hall in Deptford, a building Duncan probably knew well . This heritage setting takes the audience back to the period and tells the important, but little known, story of how the UK LGBTQ and Civil Rights movement was established in 1930s Britain, it does seem extrodinary how few brits are aware how OUR civil rights movement was fought and Won , but will no probably more about USA and India than our own. 

The Red Blouse Theatre  Company which was founded by workers in 1930s Britain to take theatre to the streets and working clubs across the UK , as a way of informing the poor about what was going on as well as mobilising them to get active in the wider Labour movement ,has been reformed to stage this amazing production. It is hoped after the popularity of period drams and commercial success of Hamiltonand Les Miserables, Kath Duncan’s  story will follow in their footsteps .After all, many view the politics of today as being not much different from the 1930s , so the timing could not be better and it screams out a UK tour, longer London run and must event for every Pride event in 2019-2020 .

A new music score has been written with great songs: a reflective duet between Kath and Sandy, “Carry the Flag “; a tango inspired love song, “Forbidden Love “;to be released as a Single Valentines Day.. a  gay anthem of our times between the two key homosexual characters, whose arrest led the decision for Kath to take on King , Parliament and entire legal system through the courts to win the civil rights we ALL enjoy today. In addition, the song  “ She’s Trouble “ is a barbershop style song set  within the Governor’s office in Holloway Prison, after thousands marched on the prison demanding Duncan’s release and Parliament was forced, thanks to Labour leader, George Lansbury, to debate Kath Duncan’s arrest and the civil rights movement for the first time in the House of Commons.

Liberty ,  ( Full Profile www.KathDuncan.Com) Although a period drama, this play and production aims to be like no other and will include film, music and drama that will take its audience back to the 1930s. An immersive piece, with the audience dressed in 1930’s clothes, with no raised stage, will make those attending feel like members of the cast.
The Production will be Directed by the highly acclaimed  American Director and Film Maker Jessica Rose McVay who has worked at the UK finest Theatres, as well as Internationally and as Assistant Director on New Yorks Broadway 
Emily Carding who will play Kath Duncan ,has established herself as the  multi award winning must go see , Actors Actor winning rave reviews for her talent from the Daily Telegraph to The Socialist Worker 
Alex Reid  who will play the Communist leader and Invergordon Mutineer Fred Copeman may be better known to his substantial followers as a winner of Celebrity Big Brother, but he is a fine actor having secure roles from Holly Oaks to the film Killer Bitch .

Amy  Whitrod Brown Will be taking on the little played  Labour Party Leader George Lansbury 

Ana Luiza Ulsig   Will play Sandy Duncan the husband of Kath and the Prison Governor. Ana has been a big star in Brazil and wanted to be in this production after the first Brazilian Women leader was removed in a coup without any evidence and with a Facist President set to Win in fresh elections, any believes this play is a play off OUR times.

It is rare to have a Period drama telling a true story with real Characters with so many Women in the lead Characters and for such a Gender Fluid, Gay, Lesbian cast and Production team, to come together to take ownership of this important period and event in OUR history and bring Kath Duncan out of the Shadows to walk with the Stars.

Rona Topaz Will be this productions Musical Director and will also play Mama in the cast.

James Ruston and Giorgio Borghes  are both Deptford based Actors and Singers who will play the very Gay Characters whose 5 jail terms a total 12 years  jail period , for no other reason than looking Gay in 1930s Britain, that lead two the events that are portrayed in this production 





Kath Duncan has a new Twitter account for people wanting to keep informed about this stage and film production and to keep up to date on issues surrounding working class women’s history :- @KathDuncan5  @blouseRed @Deptford

The Book of the Play Liberty can be bought on Amazon , Kindle etc.
Ray Barron-Woolfords Biography  of Kath Duncan  The Last Queen Of Scotland will be published by Austin MacCauley New York in 2019 whilst  the film of the same name goes into production next month with  www.InsideFilm.Org  


Full details  and advance tickets for this sell-out  production, officially performed as a Charity Gala on Valentine’s day 14 February 2019 for a limited 2 week run,  can be purchased for £15 , the Celebrity Gala night Opening Valentines Day 14 February 2019 tickets for this performance only are £25 on the website www.KathDuncan.com  

Profits from this Community Festival will Fund School Holiday Clubs in Deptford feeding and keeping kids fed and save during the School Holidays. the past 4 years these projects have had NO State or Council funding and are dependent for survival on local community fund raising. 



This is the direct link to buy your tickets for #Liberty and the Deptford Heritage Festival Festival 1-28 February 2019 and festival 1-28 February 2019 


TICKETSOURCE.CO.UK
Buy tickets for Deptford Heritage Festival 's forthcoming events. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/deptford-heritage-festival
Twitter:                          @BlouseRed @DeptfordHeritageFestival

Telephone (Festival Office): 0203 632 196

Website:                                Full listings and Info . ( t-shirts  & Mugs )                         www.KathDuncan.Com

A long overdue biography of Kath Duncan, The Last Queen of Scotland, has been written by Ray Barron-Woolford and will be published by New York Publisher Austin McCauley early in 2019.

www.InsideFilm.org are about to start production of a film about Kath Duncan’s life based on Ray Barron-Woolford’s play and biography. You should contact them direct if you want to get involved.

Contact us to sponsor the festival or the play part or full . To be a friend of the festival with listing and free guest pass is £250 per year per Company . Organisation.
To donate-support the aims and projects the festival support by local Charity We Care . account sort Code 089298 Account Number 65659328 bic code OPBK GB22 International code GB10 OPBK 0892 9965 6593 28. Receipt – Invoice by request . 


TICKETSOURCE.CO.UK
Buy tickets for Deptford Heritage Festival 's forthcoming events. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!


This the link to buy the book #Liberty that makes a wonderful Christmas, Birthday, Thank you gift if you include a theatre ticket, which also gives YOU Free entry to all the Deptford Heritage Festival events except the Deptford History tour Bus 





Media enquiries text; 07871187162 

Festival Co-Ordinator 
Ray Barron-Woolford

Wednesday 29 August 2018

#Liberty the extraordinary Kath Duncan civil rights play . Tickets NOW on sale



Delighted tickets on sale NOW for Liberty and the Deptford Heritage Festival which make fantastic gifts as well as insuring a wonderful time at the theatre with tickets also giving you access to huge range of wonderful Deptford Heritage Festival events.
Click on the link to BUY your tickets.






I am so pleased people are supporting the call for Kath Duncan in the year we celebrate 100 years of #Women #Activism to be recognised as the National #WorkingClass #Hero she was. i just hope YOU come see this extraordinary production with the most diverse and talented cast to be found on any stage..hear her story, get a ticket .https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/deptford-heritage-festival
THELONDONECONOMIC.COM
The International Deptford Heritage Festival will pay homage to Kath Duncan 100 years on from key civil and LGBTQ rights battles with a production of the play Liberty. Red Blouse Theatre, a local radical theatre




www.ticketsource.co.uk/deptford-heritage-festival

Saturday 11 August 2018

Ray Woolford holding Government & DWP to account on RT news.

At last minute was invited to do one of my regular news interviews on RT today main 8pm news show ,as gov enters a fresh row about #FoodBankdata collection & it’s clear welfare policy agenda Not one of care & support , but punishment ,cuts and criminalisation .its a short clip I hope I got my point across and changed minds in age of hate ,bigotry & ignorance .What do you think ?

kath Duncan play #Liberty to be performed as part #LGBTQhistorymonth at Deptford Heritage Festival 1-29 February 2019 Press release/Tickets

Liberty  by Ray Barron-Woolford: Press Release.

In the year when we celebrate 100 years of women’s activism, it seems only just that the world also has time to focus on and hail the lives of working-class heroes. It is regrettable that although we teach our children about our kings, queens and tyrants, we erase from history those who have fought for and won the freedoms we all enjoy today. One such woman is Kath Duncan, probably the most important Scottish and UK civil rights activist of the past 100 years. Until this book and play,LIBERTY, Duncan has beenleft in the shadows because she was raised by a single widowed mum, was poor and totally un-politically correct.   When she died in 1954, she was a Communist; a member of a party feared and loathed by the elite in 50’s Britain. However, her friends included  Clementine and Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, who wanted her to be in the Labour government if he had won in 1945. Sadly, ill health stopped her standing as a Labour MP, although in 1931 she was the first woman to stand for parliament as a Communist candidate, in Greenwich in South East London, and indeed, one of the first women to stand for parliamentary office at all. 

Liberty, by activist, broadcaster and writer, Ray Barron Woolford who also has a biography of Kath Duncan, The Last Queen of Scotland, about to be published after 4 years research, tells the extraordinary story of Kath Duncan in 1930s Britain. Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on 4th July 1888, she befriended Clementine Churchill and became Winston Churchill’s agent in the Dundee by-election of 1917, securing a staggering 87% of the vote for him. This seat, without her further help, he lost just 5 years later. Duncan arrived in Hackney in 1924 to become a member of the Pankhurst’s suffragette team of women activists that founded the British Communist party and in 1926 Duncan was a key member on the General Strike Committee, insuring NO trams or buses moved. She would later be an integral member of the Communist group who lead the protest to stop Mosely’s black shirts from marching down Cable Street.

In 1930, Kath and her husband, Sandy, established a radical Household in Deptford that was recorded in  police notes as a  “ house of revolutionaries and deviants”  due to the fact the house became the first known LGBTQ centre  and was the haunt of every radical   political activist of the age.

During the 30s, Kath led protests against the rise of fascism ; utility companies ripping off the poor; gentrification; poverty ; the hunger marches ; the Spanish  Civil War; treatment of Indian workers seeking the right to establish a Union; the Indo-China War and welfare reform.

No other woman in the past 100 years has been as much involved, or so active at leadership level, across so many huge campaigns throughout her short life. Her being jailed twice, led to the ground work and establishment of The National Council Of Civil Liberties we call LIBERTY today.

#Liberty the play, from the book that has been getting rave reviews, is set to be bought to London as part of the third Deptford International Festival in February 2019,commemorating LGBTQ history month, and will be staged at the Deptford  Zion Baptist Hall in Deptford, a building Duncan probably knew well . This heritage setting takes the audience back to the period and tells the important, but little known, story of how the UK LGBTQ and Civil Rights movement was established in 1930s Britain.

The Red Blouse Theatre  Company which was founded by workers in 1930s Britain to take theatre to the streets and working clubs across the UK , as a way of informing the poor about what was going on as well as mobilising them to get active in the wider Labour movement ,has been reformed to stage this amazing production. It is hoped after the popularity of period drams and commercial success of Hamiltonand Les Miserables, Kath Duncan’s  story will follow in their footsteps .After all, many view the politics of today as being not much different from the 1930s , so the timing could not be better 

A new music score has been written with great songs: a reflective duet between Kath and Sandy, “Carry the Flag “; a tango inspired love song, “Forbidden Love “; a  gay anthem of our times between the two key homosexual characters, whose arrest led the decision for Kath to take on King , Parliament and entire legal system through the courts to win the civil rights we ALL enjoy today. In addition, the song  “ She’s Trouble “ is a barbershop style song set  within the Governor’s office in Holloway Prison, after thousands marched on the prison demanding Duncan’s release and Parliament was forced, thanks to Labour leader, George Lansbury, to debate Kath Duncan’s arrest and the civil rights movement for the first time in the House of Commons.

Libertyhas an open casting , whereby anyone who wants to be in this production can audition if they feel they have the talent to deliver the story that engages and moves the audience ,  on September 7 11am-2pm at The Zion Baptist Chapel New Cross Road Deptford  ( Next to Prince Albert Pub ) . Although a period drama, this play and production aims to be like no other and will include film, music and drama that will take its audience back to the 1930s. An immersive piece, with the audience dressed in 1930’s clothes, with no raised stage, will make those attending feel like members of the cast. However, the recreation of The Battle of Deptford Broadway makes this play NOT suitable for people under 12 years old.

Actors wanting to be part of this unique production will be cast based on how well they deliver their script, not by gender, colour, faith or physicality.

The producers will ask each actor to sing a short song that best reflects their vocal range and to read a short part of the script of the play.

All parts will be remunerated at Equity rates, and the production will include two weeks prior rehearsal in Deptford and a national cast press launch in September-October 2018 

Libertythe book and play is on sale NOW and Ray Barron- Woolford’s much anticipated biography of Kath Duncan, TheLast Queen of Scotland,is about to be published by New York based publisher Austin Macaulay  .

The producers are looking to hear from film operatives and professionals able to video this production or to live- stream the piece to audiences around the world as part of LGBT history month, Pride etc. 


Kath Duncan has a new Twitter account for people wanting to keep informed about this stage and film production and to keep up to date on issues surrounding working class women’s history :-   @KathDuncan5  and this production will be staged by @RedBlouseTheatre  and the festival twitter account is @DeptfordHeritageFestival  



Full details  and advance tickets for this sell-out  production, officially performed as a Charity Gala on Valentine’s day 14 February 2019 for a limited 2 week run,  can be purchased for £15 on the website www.KathDuncan.com  Gala charity night tickets are £25 each . All tickets give you free access to ALL Deptford Heritage Festival events.

www.ticketsource.co.uk/ticketshop/GHDLG";

Copies of Liberty can be read on ALL formats on Amazon , Kindle etc 




Media enquiries text; 07871187162 


Monday 6 August 2018

School holiday poverty and food bank food shortages

Whilst working in Liverpool today, got last minute call to go on LBC radio lunch time show to talk about kids going hungry in school holidays and food banks running out of food. 
I am never told how long i am going to be able to speak, so when i hear those magic words. * Ray whats you thoughts on this * i just go for it. i was able to state how can it be right that a Government that thinks kids need free meals during term time , should starve kids during school holidays? . I was also ablee to highlight the cuts impact in which youth clubs and community centres have been closed, Councils and schools are failing to hand over buildings during school holidays to community projects happy to run holiday clubs for free, but need a building to operate, so the issue is much larger than kids hungry and food banks running out of food.
I highlighted number of empty buildings across UK , the problem food banks and out reach projects have in not just finding space to operate, but storage for fresh fruit and fresh fish and meat and dairy, is it really acceptable our kids only netbeans and slice of bread? . before being cut from the airwaves i was able to high light Tory Minster Esther McVay who is to spend £280,000 carrying out a report to discover if Welfare reform is effecting food bank use..This is no joke or April fool , think what we could do with this cash? . I pointed out she could get the information for free, but just nipping into her local #foodbank or having a chat at the pub, or her nearest bus stop.. sadly i think this was more than enough for LBC right wing presenter, but they keep having me on the station , so i must be doing something right and Martha my neighbour across the road whose 86 and only listens to LBC tells me i talk a lot of sense and all her friends listen out for me. 
You can always support my work, by buying my book #FoodBankBritain on sale as ebook or paper back online .
Today i also got back my freedom of information requests on the number of people in social and council housing evicted these days , it makes shocking reading as i start writing this for , The London Economic who publish my articles these days. hope to have it published next week.