On the 24th of July 1979 the cast of Bent, including stars Ian McKellen and Tom Bell, joined members of other West End productions in protesting increased VAT on theatre tickets. In August, McKellen wrote a piece for Plays and Players magazine:

"The march through London's West End on 24 July was a high-spirited and invigorating experience. At least 4,000 members of British Actors' Equity were on parade, representing every theatre in the country. I was under the Criterion Theatre's banner with the cast of Bent, who were reinforced by the box-office and stage staff and by our manager, Ian Albery. At a brief rally at the Opera House in Covent Garden, its director John Tooley welcomed us all; Trevor Nunn was there with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Peter Hall cabled his support from the National Theatre. Such unity of workers and employers, of commercial and subsidised theatres, was an example to other troubled industries. But then, we had an urgent case to present to the House of Commons, where the day ended as we lobbied our Members of Parliament."

y'all are absolutely free to use tumblr however you please but I want redditors to know that they could, hypothetically, start a sideblog about a particular topic, add moderators to it, turn on submissions (and asks), make an "about" page laying out rules and such, and create a good tagging system. If you want it to be a bit more familiar.

The top FOUR bands from this poll will go through! Good luck!

Podcast Jam!

The PBC’s 2024 Podcast Jam is a collaborative event running from early February to May for anyone interested in creating an audio drama, both prior creators and newcomers to podcasting. Inspired by game jam events, teams of writers, voice actors, editors and artists will collaborate to create the pilot episode of a fiction podcast from start to finish, with the last weekend of the event dedicated solely to recording and editing of the episodes.

We know that, while the barrier of entry for podcasting is low, it can still be intimidating to jump into a show alone without any experience in the field. Thus, we hope this event will encourage new folks to try their hand at creating in a relatively low-stress, community-based environment, alongside giving current podcasters a fun change of pace from their ongoing shows. Though only a pilot will be created for the jam, participants are welcome and encouraged to continue their show beyond the event if so desired (we would love to have some new shows to keep up with!)

Event Schedule:

Sign-ups: February 5th - March 23rd

Team Submission Form Deadline: March 30th

Team Announcements: April 6th

Project Withdraw Date: April 20th

Jam Weekend: May 3rd - May 6th

Episode Submission: May 6th

Public Episode Release: May 25th

Jam Closing Ceremony: June 1st

To join the event, please fill out the Participant Sign-Up here. The jam will be hosted through the Podcast Book Club Discord - if you are not already a member, you can join the server here. For existing members, be sure to grab the Jam Participant role from the role selection channel to gain access to the PodJam chats! Additionally, we've set up a sideblog, @podcastjam, that you can follow to keep up with the event here on Tumblr!

homestuck is funny because all the characters are EXPLICITLY based on different archetypes of Annoying Guys You Meet Online so they are, in fact, perfectly suited for socmed aus actually

did no one else see the problem with one of BitterVitter’s most recent comics lmao. if you dont know which one im talking about, youre lucky. i havent said this publicly but tbh i kinda hate Bitter and i dont give a shit who they used to be in the fandom. they’re drawing nonconsensual nudity and playing off the heroes’ obvious discomfort as some kind of joke. i wish i could unread Inspection Day.

if youre one of the ppl from btdfanart who reacted positively to it, i have no fucking idea how none of you saw a problem with that shit. there were so many holes in the reasoning as to why it had to be like that. okay, maybe they do need to check to make sure the bloons aren’t sneaking into the base. maybe they do need to search the heroes’ stuff. kind of makes sense. i guess it could be explained if they needed to search their clothes too. even if that’s a huge stretch. but riddle me this Bitter, WHY THE FUCK DO THEY ALL NEED TO BE NAKED TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM. when they all hate it so much. why not give them even a towel. or a shirt or something. AND WHY IS PSI, THE ONLY CANON CHILD, ALSO FORCED TO BE NAKED IN A ROOM FULL OF NAKED ADULT MONKEYS. there’s no fucking explanation or excuse for that.

if it was drawn by anyone but them, i’d say it was fetish art. but no, it’s just drawn for shock value. that’s all it is. sure there’s some of their lore sprinkled in here and there, but i didnt even retain that part of it, because i was too busy freaking out and nearly having a panic attack right there. i spent the whole day distracted because i felt so bad for those poor monkeys. it might seem like an overreaction, but ive been through some shit that would make something like that be a complete nightmare for me. benjamin was in actual genuine distress in the comic and i just felt so bad for him because i would feel the exact same. its all so fucking disgusting and i have no idea why everyone is treating this as smth funny and acceptable to post

ive blocked bittervitter on discord after this because i dont wanna talk to them and i dont wanna see their shit in case they draw smth equally cursed in the future. if you still dont see the issues with this comic, and youre still blinded by nostalgia enough to still support them, just go ahead and block me.

eating my popcorn watching all this drama go down irt the larian discord server

Fang Duobing has an ASMR channel on YouTube and Li Lianhua listen to him every night before going to sleep

That's it, that's the modern au

I hate thinking about Owen in Island of the Slaughtered thinking about him makes me so sad. Maybe it’s cause he’s primarily comic relief so it’s automatically jarring, but even just how much he loves his friends and his like earnestness the thought of my boy in these conditions is taxing on me.

I know this is a Noco-adjacent AU so there’s more focus on Cody’s reaction understandably, but I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Owen would react to Noah’s death, like he’d be so miserable! Pain and despair on the planet earth

the vanserras are so eurovision coded

I'm not That worried ab falling into controversy at some point cause "oh hy has problematic kinks" bc most ppl who actually read books bc they enjoy books are somewhat immune against cancel culture. like why should i care what the author was accused of this time every talented classic author is some kind of racist sexist asshole with a major in douchery. readers are least likely to care ab what the authors of their fav books are getting called out for on Twitter. and also generally have better reading comprehension and logical capabilities because books help u develop that.

ugh. Tr*mp drove through my town yesterday in his stupid motorcade and the town facebook group has taken a nosedive into the pits of hell. It was already there since there's never a shortage of posts complaining about homeless people, but now it's worse.

I once had a dream that I was a smooth rock geode getting sawed into paper-thin slices like a weird crunchy loaf of bread and I swear to christ it was the MOST blissfully relaxing experience I’ve had in my whole life. all the tensions in my body were GONE when I woke up. I recognize and comprehend that I am a living organism in this life and undergoing such a procedure would likely not actually be extremely relaxing on account of the, you know. but on god one fateful day I will be reincarnated as a colorful piece of rock and I WILL have a master craftsman divide and undo me exactly so tenderly and only then will my spirit be at rest. not a promise, but a threat

The Hallowoods is coming to the Book Club!

Beginning October 9th, we're introducing a new category of shows to the bookclub called Listener's Picks. These are shows that maintain a more centralized fanbase here on Tumblr, and will (hopefully!) encourage listeners to become more involved in show discussions with other fans, alongside introducing then to some lesser-known audio dramas we run in the bookclub.

We chose @hellofromthehallowoods as this first show due to the rather excellent timing of their upcoming break between seasons. For listeners, this is a great opportunity for you to get caught up with the show, or jump into a full relisten, right alongside other folks doing the same thing! Livescreaming, as William so aptly calls it, is welcome & encouraged over in the Discord server.

Any and all questions can be directed to our inbox, messages, or Finch @smallsies. Looking forward to walking through the black pines with y'all 🌲

Twitter sure is a mess huh

every trendy indie author marketing specialist: you should set up a reader discord! me: okay, sounds cool. what should it look like? what mistakes and pitfalls should i avoid? what will it cost me in time, labor, or money to moderate and maintain it? every trendy indie author marketing specialist: …you should set up a reader discord!!!