Reading Six - 8th September 2020 Her Will by Christopher St John (1914) At the Gates by Alice Chapin (1909) Readers: Caroline Cooke, Stephanie Fayerman, Emma Fenney, Sarah Ford, Lucy Frederick, Kathryn Martin, Charlotte Moore, Jamie Newall, Bob Sinfield, Alison Skilbeck, Lucy Stevens, Genevieve Swallow
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Reading Five - 25th August 2020 Honour Thy Father by H. M. Harwood (1912) Criminals by George Middleton (1915) Readers: Rob Bond, John Fleming, Mark Huckett, Charlotte Moore, Jamie Newall, Alice Robinson, Maggie Saunders, Lucy Stevens, Genevieve Swallow Reading Four - 18th August 2020 The Reforming of Augustus by Irene Rutherford McLeod (1910) In the Workhouse by Margaret Wynne Nevinson (1911) Readers: Jemma Churchill, Caroline Cooke, Maroussia Frank, Lucy Frederick, Sajeela Kershi, Kathryn Martin, Maggie Saunders, Genevieve Swallow, Annie Walker, Sarah-Louise Young Reading Three - 11th August 2020 Jack and Jill and a Friend by Cicely Hamilton (1911) Votes for Children by Ernest Hutchinson (1913) Readers: Rob Bond, Kudzanayi Chiwawa, John Fleming, Maroussia Frank, Lucy Frederick, Mark Huckett, Charlotte Moore, Jamie Newall, Bob Sinfield, Lucy Stevens, Genevieve Swallow, Velma Von Bon Bon, Annie Walker Reading Two - 4th August 2020 A Woman's Influence by Gertrude Jennings (1909) Might is Right by Netta Syrett (1909) Readers: Rob Bond, Jemma Churchill, Stephanie Fayerman, John Fleming, Charlotte Moore, Maggie Saunders, Lucy Stevens, Genevieve Swallow, Annie Walker, Ben Wendel, Velma Von Bon Bon, Sarah-Louise Young Reading One - 27th July 2020 An Anti-Suffrage Monologue by Marie Jenney Howe (1913) arranged for six voices Home Again aka Home Coming aka Twenty Years by Cicely Hamilton (1910) Readers: Charlotte Moore, Maggie Saunders, Lucy Stevens, Genevieve Swallow, Velma Von Bon Bon, Annie Walker Part of the joy of research is finding surprises in archives, newspapers, autobiographies and ephemera.
Often these stories don't fit the narrative of whatever writing task is at hand at that moment and so get forgotten, but since 2017 I've been thrilled to give many of them a wider audience on BBC Radio 3's Time Traveller series - broadcast every morning just after 10am as part of the live Essential Classics programme on Radio 3 and then subsequently collated into themes for the Time Traveller podcast. Through this series I've been able to tell over twenty stories from the past about magic, art, sport, theatre, music, dance, and of course the suffrage campaign. In the first few months of 2012 I worked as a dresser on South Downs/The Browning Version at the Comedy Theatre in London. I was in the second year of my PhD, and also putting together the manuscript of The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays. Working in wardrobe on West End shows is intense - you're in eight shows a week and often also more for laundry calls, understudy runs, and maintenance sessions. It's also great fun - I've worked in wardrobe on nearly 30 West End shows since 1998 and been fortunate to work with and for some incredibly lovely and talented people on stage and off.
It was on that show that the idea of a suffrage themed 'top trumps' style game first came to me. I thought it would be a great way to introduce some of the amazing campaigners I was finding in my research - and talking about constantly! - to new audiences in an accessible and fun way. My friend Greg who was then the deputy head of the wardrobe dept and is now a tailor was super encouraging of the idea and I mocked up a set to see if it would work. It did. Since that day I've been going on and on about this idea, keen to make it happen but not knowing how to do so. But finally - in 2018 it has! It was totally worth the wait. Suffra-Greats! is a reality. Want to see a preview of Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck in London before it goes to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August? You can!
Here are the dates and details of all the July previews: My second edited collection with Methuen Drama is being published on the 2nd July! It contains twelve pieces in all - a wide variety of material written by female and male suffragist writers between 1908-1914.
Spanning different styles and genres, the pieces explore many issues that interested feminist and suffragist campaigners such as the value of women's work, domestic and economic inequality, visibility in public space, direct action and its consequences, sexual double standards, and the influence of the media on public opinion. This collection builds on my first volume of plays, published in 2013. If you get both you will have an impressive collection of playable, accessible and fascinating plays that speak to us directly about how the suffrage movement represented itself on the stage and through the medium of performance. Here's a little bit about each of the plays to whet your appetites! |
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