...a small grainy figure comes onto the track and is trampled underfoot.
In very exciting news, I have been selected as next semester's dramaturg for the production of Her Naked Skin, a play about the British militant suffrage movement. I started my research yesterday and I thought I'd share with you my first historical figure, Emily Wilding Davison.
Emily was a woman who was constantly getting in trouble for her performative actions that were protesting the lack of the vote for women. In 1909, Emily attempted to present a petition for women's votes at Parliament and was thrown out. In 1910, she threw a hammer through the Division Lobby window and was banned from Parliament premises. At the 1911 census, she hid in a broom closet in the house of commons, so that she could record it as her place of residence that day, declaring her right to exist in that space.
In 1913, Emily raced onto the derby track in front of the King's horse. No one is really certain why she did this. Some think it was an act of suicide so that the suffragettes would have a martyr and be considered a real movement. But Emily had a return ticket in her purse and plans with friends the following day. Some people think she was attempting to forcibly stop the King's horse to demonstrate the way women were being held back. And a third group believes she was trying to throw her suffragette scarf on the horse so that it would be wearing the purple and green colors when it crossed the finish line.
Whatever her motive was, Emily was trampled underfoot, went into a coma, and died four days later. And with her death, Her Naked Skin begins. Never surrender. Never give up the fight.
Emily was a woman who was constantly getting in trouble for her performative actions that were protesting the lack of the vote for women. In 1909, Emily attempted to present a petition for women's votes at Parliament and was thrown out. In 1910, she threw a hammer through the Division Lobby window and was banned from Parliament premises. At the 1911 census, she hid in a broom closet in the house of commons, so that she could record it as her place of residence that day, declaring her right to exist in that space.
In 1913, Emily raced onto the derby track in front of the King's horse. No one is really certain why she did this. Some think it was an act of suicide so that the suffragettes would have a martyr and be considered a real movement. But Emily had a return ticket in her purse and plans with friends the following day. Some people think she was attempting to forcibly stop the King's horse to demonstrate the way women were being held back. And a third group believes she was trying to throw her suffragette scarf on the horse so that it would be wearing the purple and green colors when it crossed the finish line.
Whatever her motive was, Emily was trampled underfoot, went into a coma, and died four days later. And with her death, Her Naked Skin begins. Never surrender. Never give up the fight.
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