A Nottingham theatre company has written and produced a play about the extraordinary life of local performer Mark Preston - starring an actor who has appeared in Happy Valley and Downton Abbey. Mark, who performs as his alter ego Zandra, has helped to raise thousands of pounds for charities across Nottingham including Danielle's Flutterbyes, Broxtowe Women's Project and Haywood House.
Mark, who is from Eastwood, was nominated for a Pride of Britain Award for his charity work. By day, he works as a road repairer before transforming into Zandra by night to perform in clubs and bars across the city.
Mark credits drag with helping to save his life when he was in a dark place. He has been performing as Zandra for more than 20 years after his friends entered him in a lip-syncing competition. He has gone on to raise more than £370,000 for charity.
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Jayne Williams, participation director at New Perspectives Theatre group - which is behind the play about Mark - said: "At New Perspectives, we have a project called Open Pitch which is an invitation for anyone from East Midlands who has a great story to come and talk to us about it to see if we can do an artistic collaboration in order to tell their story.
"There are a lot of stories in communities that don't get on the stage or a page so Open Pitch is a way of finding those stories and connecting people. We saw Mark a lot on local telly and were intrigued by his story so we got in touch to ask him if he would want to have a chat with us."
Jayne did many recorded sessions of conversation with Mark in order to write the play. While Mark was open about his life story, he was adamant that he didn't want to play himself in the stage production, which meant looking for actors to play both parts.
Experienced actor Karl Haynes, who has appeared in Happy Valley and Downton Abbey, will play Mark in the production. Drag queen Suga Phoenix, 19, from Worksop, will play Zandra.
"Karl Haynes, who plays Mark, was my first choice of the perfect person to play Mark as they are a similar age and both working class so they have a complete understanding of those club nights that people go to after a hard week's graft to let loose," Jayne said. "I knew Karl would really embrace the opportunity to tell Mark's story - he really believes in community and the telling of stories that don't often get told."
She added: "We also have a young drag queen from Worksop performing in the play called Suga Phoenix who is just 19-years-old. She describes herself as a femme fatale and we saw her in one of Mark's shows and invited her to be in the show."
The show is set to take place at Squire Performing Arts Centre on Arboretum Street, Nottingham, on March 31 and April 1 with tickets on sale for £10. It's been nerve-wracking watching the play come to life and it has meant working closely with Mark to make sure every part of the play is accurate.
Jayne said: "As we have rehearsed, the play has evolved and we check with Mark at every stage. We did the first read-through for him because we needed to make sure he was OK with all of it before we went further. We smiled the whole way through and there was a little tear at one point. He absolutely loved it.
"It was great to know we had absolutely nailed the story that he wanted to tell. A lot of the play is based in 1999 so we did a lot of exercises in getting those memories back and sharing the comedy and drama of it. We are chuffed that Mark was pleased with it and he pops into rehearsals weekly to see it come to life.
"He was really impressed with the way that Karl has managed to walk in heels," she added.
Mark said: "It felt weird and dead daunting at first. We've been talking about it for months and when I saw it performed by Karl, I couldn't believe how he brought it to life. It was weird seeing my story on stage as it's a huge thing to have someone want to do a play about you.
"I got emotional at one point and started crying when they were talking about my grandmother. When Karl was performing, I could visualise her next to him which was amazing. It really brought home that there were a lot of memories there so it was very emotional."
Visit the Squires website to buy tickets for The Road to Zandra.
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