Stimulus Idea

The lecture we had on the history of WW1 was very inspiring and I immediately thought of many possible ideas I could take my solo physical theatre performance down. I thought specifically about the women, the children and that family's involvement in the war, not just the soldiers physically involved. During the twentieth century, women of the whole world became indispensable in the war efforts. In many countries the need for female participation in the First World War was seen as almost necessary, as unprecedented numbers of men were wounded and killed.

They were given the opportunity to help as nurses, teachers, textiles makers, coal miners and clothing, but the largest area in which the women worked was in the munitions factories. Munitions factories were there to produce supplies for the men on the front including tailoring, metal trades, chemical and explosives, food trades, hosiery and woollen and worsted industries. Sure they weren't physically at the front line taking down soldiers, but they were left to keep the nation from crumbling. 

I thought the factory working could be a great foundation to build my solo on. Of course my performance doesn't necessarily have to have a naturalistic plot but the actions taken out within a factory - using machines, the repetition, that hand movements - could add to a potential piece of theatre focusing on the women during the war, not just the men.