Latest news with #TracyEdwards
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sailor attacks musical about her life after actors hijack ending with trans protest
Britain's greatest female sailor has criticised a musical based on her life story after the cast members used their platform to stage a pro-trans fundraiser. Tracy Edwards made history in 1989 when she captained the Maiden, leading the first all-female yacht crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race. But she has criticised the musical based on the race, called Maiden Voyage, after cast members used a curtain call to fundraise for a charity that supports transgender inclusion in women's sports on the night she attended. Ms Edwards has been public with her opposition to the inclusion of transgender women – biological males – in women's competitions and changing rooms. They allegedly chose the night Ms Edwards was in the audience for the show, running at the Southwark Play House, to make a public plea for funds. Footage from the night show that one performer urged the audience on Aug 12 to give to Pride Sports, the 'LGBTIQ+ inclusion charity working to make sports a welcoming place for everyone'. This charity publicly opposed moves to ban transgender women from female competitions, including the FA's new rules barring trans players from women and girls' football leagues. Some members of the cast were said to be uncomfortable with Ms Edwards' positions on women's rights sport and her opposition to gender ideology – the belief that self-identification rather than biological sex defines womanhood. This led to some trouble behind the scenes in the days before a group of cast members made their on-stage appeal, and there were concerns about a potential protest or 'nastiness'. Ms Edwards said: 'They had not done it before, or on other dates. It was for my benefit.' She added: 'They are in a little bubble, and I don't think they think for themselves. They are not activists, they are sheep. 'The irony of spending 90 minutes singing and dancing in celebration of women fighting for their rights in sport, only to trample all over those rights at the end, is off the scale.' Ms Edwards is concerned that, because it took place after a show about her life, her name has effectively been used to fundraise for a cause without her permission. She had no official affiliation with the musical and played no part in its production, but was invited to advise on some factual points about her voyage, work she called 'a favour'. It is understood that producers have assured Ms Edwards that, should any future fundraising occur, all proceeds will be given to her own charity, The Maiden Factor Foundation. This funds girls' educational programmes around the world. This also seeks to inspire young girls, in the spirit of the all-female Maiden voyage of 1989, which came second in its class overall. The voyage was encouraged by King Hussein I of Jordan, who had met Ms Edwards during a chance encounter on a yacht. Heather Binning, the founder of the gender-critical Women's Rights Network, said: 'Tracy Edwards is an icon for women who proved her mettle in the male dominated world of sailing with an all-woman crew – astonishing many, and celebrated by many more. 'To use and exploit that achievement is an insult to women everywhere, and particularly to Tracy herself. 'To try to score woke points by making a statement in support of a so-called 'trans' project is quite beyond belief.'
The Guardian
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Maiden Voyage review – women's round-the-world sailing musical runs aground
This intrepid tale of a sailing team atop the high seas spumes with good intentions. It is an against-the-odds story of the first all-female crew to attempt an ocean race – the Round the World Whitbread race of 1989-1990 – even as a sexist press scoffs at them. Skipper, Tracy (based on Tracy Edwards, played by Chelsea Halfpenny), leads the eight-strong team, singing all the while. The production's sails are raised in an opening scene featuring a projection of waves (good work by video designer Jack Baxter), the set itself the boat's helm. But the endeavour quickly runs aground. The problems are multifold: the songs composed by Carmel Dean contain plenty of harmonising but they are hollering in volume, blandly hymnal, often unmelodious bar the odd, tuneful number such as Approaching Australia. Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein are strained and expositional, as is her book. Characters speak in unconvincing ways. 'I really need a scoop,' a journalist tells the team as he interviews them. 'We've been at this for six months and no one wants to back a female team,' Tracy tells her friend, Jo (Naomi Alade), as if she doesn't know this fact. The songs repeatedly, needlessly, remind us that these are women at sea. Alade is a strong singer but some others wobble. Under the direction of Tara Overfield Wilkinson, the action on the yacht feels beached, from interpersonal tensions, too briefly brushed across, to the drama of the competition. At the team's most treacherous flashpoints in the water, the ensemble do little more than sway or pull at rigging. It's way too tame, you never feel the danger. Characters remain frustratingly unknown and actors appear wooden, perhaps as a result. The team is differentiated by little more than their accents and nationalities (nine in total, we are told). Even Tracy seems barely coloured in, with Halfpenny wearing a one-size-fits-all look of concern through the show. Her friendship with King Hussein of Jordan (Shahaf Ifhar) and his patronage is under-explained too. He bestows a Yoda-like wisdom but what does he know about competitive yachting? There is reductiveness in his portrayal: thickly accented, he speaks of 'my people' and compares Tracy's endeavour to Bedouin life. Meanwhile, the cartoonishly drawn all-male press who brand the team as 'tarts' and 'cows', sound like they have had elocution lessons from the Artful Dodger – and borrowed some of his wardrobe too. The cast changes into swimming costumes to celebrate the team's triumphant moment in the contest. It is based in fact but rather than emanating empowerment, it is discomforting, with sexist newspaper headlines projected behind them. All of it is off-kilter, over-simplified, and rather too premature a production to stage. At Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London, until 23 August
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What will the next decade bring? Redding Rancheria deciding what the future holds
The Redding Rancheria might be best known in the region for its role as the operator of the Win-River Resort & Casino. Over the last several years, the Native American tribe has increasingly become more involved in the region's health care delivery system and political scene. And it has prevailed in a long held and sometimes controversial bid to relocate its existing casino to a property along the Sacramento River just south of Redding, where a hotel, gambling and entertainment complex is now planned. Opponents in 2020 tried unsuccessfully to block the casino development in the area known as Strawberry Fields. In February, other opponents filed a lawsuit demanding that the Shasta County Board of Supervisors set aside/and or rescind its decision last year to approve a 30-year contract for the county to provide fire, law enforcement, traffic control and road maintenance services once the complex is built. As of March 11, a groundbreaking date had not been set. Filed by California Land Stewardship Council, the lawsuit says the contract approved by the board was illegal and its financial terms "constitute waste of public funds." Redding Rancheria CEO Tracy Edwards said at the time that the group's lawsuit is a "political stunt" and a "possibly misguided attempt to delay our casino relocation project." Most of the allegations in the lawsuit, Edwards said, are "demonstrably false." The Rancheria intends to build a 69,541-square-foot casino, nine-story, 250-room hotel, restaurants, a conference center, an event center, convention center and a 132,000-square-foot regional retail center on a portion of the 232 acres of undeveloped land the tribe owns near the Costco store that opened in late 2022. Win-River's current hotel has 84 rooms, while its casino covers about 60,000 square feet on Highway 273 between Clear Creek and Canyon roads. More: Why Redding Rancheria's plan to expand, relocate Win-River Casino has caused a divide What will the next decade bring? That's the topic to be explored as the Native American tribe this week holds its Soaring Forward Strategic Planning Conference on Wednesday and Thursday at Win-River. Redding Rancheria approved to build at Strawberry Fields off Interstate 5 About 150 people, including tribal leadership, members of the tribe and invited community leaders will attend the planning event, which is designed to help guide the Redding Rancheria's focus during the next 10 years. The strategy-setting session was last held in 2014, with the results published in 2015. Said Redding Rancheria COO Stacey Carmen via email: "There are many efforts/programs that we see today, the biggest being the groundbreaking of our Health Village on March 17." The Redding Rancheria intends for its upcoming $232 million Tribal Health Village in Shasta County to be a place where people can see their cardiologist or dermatologist, get an acupuncture treatment, learn to cook healthy meals, work out in the pool or treat themselves to a spa day. The 185,000-square-foot complex could open in about two years, said Glen Hayward, executive director of Redding Rancheria Tribal Health Systems. This week's goal-setting session, Carmen said, "is one of many that will occur and the end result will be our published Strategic Plan for 2025-2035." Michele Chandler covers public safety, dining and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@ Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding Rancheria holds once-a-decade planning conference this week
