Wollstonecraft Live!

Anna Birch

Wollstonecraft Live!

Anna Birch (Director)

Research output: Performances, compositions and other non-textual forms › Performance

Details

Fragments & Monuments performance and film company was established by Anna Birch and Dutch Scenographer Madelon Schwirtz (1995). By applying a unique approach to theatrical participation and social engagement Fragments & Monuments work with archives, libraries and museums to bring neglected biographies of women to life. Fragments & Monuments have gained notice on both the local and global stage for their performance and film work about the first British Feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).

http://wollstonecraftlive.com

International artist Taey Iohe created this site for Wollstonecraft Live! (2005) liminal.taey.com

Original language	English
Publication status	Published or Performed - 24 Sept 2005

Cite this

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title = "Wollstonecraft Live!",

abstract = "Fragments & Monuments performance and film company was established by Anna Birch and Dutch Scenographer Madelon Schwirtz (1995). By applying a unique approach to theatrical participation and social engagement Fragments & Monuments work with archives, libraries and museums to bring neglected biographies of women to life. Fragments & Monuments have gained notice on both the local and global stage for their performance and film work about the first British Feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).http://wollstonecraftlive.com International artist Taey Iohe created this site for Wollstonecraft Live! (2005) liminal.taey.com",

author = "Anna Birch",

note = "My research leads me to suggest that the combination of live performance, film and social engagement has the potential to produce a living monument. This innovative methodology has emerged since I discovered that eighteenth century feminist and human rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft lived and worked near me in Newington Green, East London. Mary Wollstonecraft is the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman published in 1792 where she advocates the possibility of a transformed future for humanity through her writing. She was born in 1759 and died giving birth to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein in 1797. My living monument to her includes a commissioned multimedia and site-specific play Wollstonecraft Live! produced on Newington Green, London, UK and a series of films, performance installations in galleries, outdoor screenings, book publishing and a specially curated museum exhibition. The historically inflected site of Newington Green impacted on the dramaturgy and scenography of my practice research. As a result of producing this living monument we were invited to curate an exhibition about Mary Wollstonecraft for Hackney Museum. This opportunity became a turning point when I discovered that the Hackney archive holds an original version of Wollstonecraft{\textquoteright}s book and as a response to this we produced an art book documenting the living monument to Wollstonecraft as a journey. Our book is now deposited next to Wollstonecraft{\textquoteright}s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in the Hackney archive to produce a dialogue between the 18th and 21st century. As I argue in my essay {\textquoteleft}Repetition and Performativity: Site-specific performance and Film as Living Monument{\textquoteright} in a collection edited with Professor Joanne Tompkins titled Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practice, this distributed practice questions the notion of {\textquoteleft}place{\textquoteright} in site-specific performance and casts this approach to performance as a {\textquoteleft}recycled, mediatised and distributed presence{\textquoteright} (Tompkins 2012: 13) I have applied my findings from the Wollstonecraft Live! project to the present-day performance of women{\textquoteright}s suffrage drama. Since 2010 this has led me to follow in the footsteps of Edith Craig, the lesbian, suffragette and theatre director daughter of famous English actress Ellen Terry. ",

year = "2005",

month = sep,

day = "24",

language = "English",

}

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T1 - Wollstonecraft Live!

A2 - Birch, Anna

N1 - My research leads me to suggest that the combination of live performance, film and social engagement has the potential to produce a living monument. This innovative methodology has emerged since I discovered that eighteenth century feminist and human rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft lived and worked near me in Newington Green, East London. Mary Wollstonecraft is the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman published in 1792 where she advocates the possibility of a transformed future for humanity through her writing. She was born in 1759 and died giving birth to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein in 1797. My living monument to her includes a commissioned multimedia and site-specific play Wollstonecraft Live! produced on Newington Green, London, UK and a series of films, performance installations in galleries, outdoor screenings, book publishing and a specially curated museum exhibition. The historically inflected site of Newington Green impacted on the dramaturgy and scenography of my practice research. As a result of producing this living monument we were invited to curate an exhibition about Mary Wollstonecraft for Hackney Museum. This opportunity became a turning point when I discovered that the Hackney archive holds an original version of Wollstonecraft’s book and as a response to this we produced an art book documenting the living monument to Wollstonecraft as a journey. Our book is now deposited next to Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in the Hackney archive to produce a dialogue between the 18th and 21st century. As I argue in my essay ‘Repetition and Performativity: Site-specific performance and Film as Living Monument’ in a collection edited with Professor Joanne Tompkins titled Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practice, this distributed practice questions the notion of ‘place’ in site-specific performance and casts this approach to performance as a ‘recycled, mediatised and distributed presence’ (Tompkins 2012: 13) I have applied my findings from the Wollstonecraft Live! project to the present-day performance of women’s suffrage drama. Since 2010 this has led me to follow in the footsteps of Edith Craig, the lesbian, suffragette and theatre director daughter of famous English actress Ellen Terry.

PY - 2005/9/24

Y1 - 2005/9/24

N2 - Fragments & Monuments performance and film company was established by Anna Birch and Dutch Scenographer Madelon Schwirtz (1995). By applying a unique approach to theatrical participation and social engagement Fragments & Monuments work with archives, libraries and museums to bring neglected biographies of women to life. Fragments & Monuments have gained notice on both the local and global stage for their performance and film work about the first British Feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).http://wollstonecraftlive.com International artist Taey Iohe created this site for Wollstonecraft Live! (2005) liminal.taey.com

AB - Fragments & Monuments performance and film company was established by Anna Birch and Dutch Scenographer Madelon Schwirtz (1995). By applying a unique approach to theatrical participation and social engagement Fragments & Monuments work with archives, libraries and museums to bring neglected biographies of women to life. Fragments & Monuments have gained notice on both the local and global stage for their performance and film work about the first British Feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).http://wollstonecraftlive.com International artist Taey Iohe created this site for Wollstonecraft Live! (2005) liminal.taey.com

UR - http://wollstonecraftlive.com

UR - http://fragmentsandmonuments.com

UR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVdUQFXdqUM

M3 - Performance

ER -

Wollstonecraft Live!

Details

Other files and links

Approaching Performance Through Mediation

Repetition and Performativity: Site-Specific Performance and Film as Living Monument

The Wollstonecraft Live Experience! First woman travel writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hackney to Everywhere

Living monuments, a practice research methodology

Research Forum, Fragments and Living Monuments: Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797 in the context of Artistic Research.

Drama Seminar, University of Birmingham Fragments and Living Monuments: Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797 in the context of Artistic Research

Cite this

Wollstonecraft Live!

Details

Other files and links

Research output

Approaching Performance Through Mediation

Repetition and Performativity: Site-Specific Performance and Film as Living Monument

The Wollstonecraft Live Experience! First woman travel writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hackney to Everywhere

Activities

Living monuments, a practice research methodology

Research Forum, Fragments and Living Monuments: Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797 in the context of Artistic Research.

Drama Seminar, University of Birmingham Fragments and Living Monuments: Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797 in the context of Artistic Research

Cite this