" LOUD HAILERS!"........

Here ( BELOW) are 4 Chester Youth Theatre STARS...all talented teenagers....with a great sense of fun...and already showing a dedication to theatre.... that's intoxicating ...and quite frankly... moving 

In my play " LOUD HAILERS!", they each played several parts...

On the left, E played Lillian, a Suffragette on her first March......H was part of our Suffragette Chorus and also a  cheekily affectionate  grandson.... AND also playing the most efficient Butler ever ....N was in the Chorus...and was a teenage granddaughter too....and E, also a grand daughter PLUS member of the Suffragette Chorus. 

AND I'm certainly NOT forgetting E ( not pictured unfortunately) .....who played Jack, loyal brother of Suffragette Felicea, and a strong supporter of the Suffragettes. 

IT WAS A JOY TO WORK WITH THEM ALL! 

HERE'S THE STORY OF HOW I CAME TO WRITE THE PLAY! 

Last  January, the Directors of CTC's Youth Theatre, asked me if I'd like to write a play about Suffragettes. I love that particular period,...so I was delighted to have this chance...

As a starting point, J and P told me of an incident in Chester in 1912...Scottish Suffragette Mary Phillips came here to join a Suffragette March...her intention being to "flour -bomb" PM Herbert Henry Asquith....as he arrived at Chester Town Hall. 

SO...I needed to discover more.

 I spent a couple of mornings in Chester Records Office...discovering news reports of the incident...and as I wandered home, I peered into Carluccio...and spied Ann, who  took part in my 1st play last year, " Mirror Images".

 I joined Ann...(I probably downed a hot choc) ....and I mentioned what I'd just been up to. She was very enthusiastic...because like me, she thought it great to tell a local story..... about something so important in women's history......and particularly to tell it with the help of Cestrians......young AND old!... in fact, Cestrians ages 15 -75!

So there it began.

For several weeks, I immersed m'self in researching that part of our History.  

I learned lots....the more I read/noted ...from the net, books, photographs, paintings, rhymes, songs, fashions, ...the more pleasurable I found the whole experience...the politics, aspects of society, family life, and  particularly women's  lives at the start of the twentieth century...

And of course I thought about my own family....my grandparents, mother, father, my aunts...and needless to say, I wished they were all "still available for this conversation!" . 

Then I wrote the play... introduced the script to J and P....the teenagers... and adult actors who were interested and off we went....... 

It was a very happy,  fulfilling time indeed! ... 

ABOVE: Here's a session with J and P after rehearsing....cast and directors making suggestions...adding their voice to the presentation...

And BELOW: A lively moment during rehearsing... !!

More pictures soon.