TERM 2
Suffragette City : Betty takes a break
During the second term, I got the opportunity to work on a professional production, joining the design team of Ross/O'Neill on a project commissioned by the National Trust.
The project was to design an immersive event where the audience could experience some of the realities of being a militant suffragette in the 1900's ,for the 100th anniversary of votes for women in London.
The concept
We decided to created an immersive experience where the audience will be taken through 3 distinctive spaces that we would recreate based on archive documents.
In these spaces, they would meet actors, that would draft them for militant missions (as there were in the 1900's) around the neighbourhood and will end up being arrested, put in jail and questioned as the militant suffragette did.
The narrative of the experience and the guidelines for the mission were based on Lillan Ball's testimony, in which, after being arrested and questioned she testified and gave information about her experience with the Suffragettes' militant movement.
Lillian Ball's Testimony
Double-Click to Read
Mission Tree inspired by Lillian's experience and the police reports on Suffragettes' activities
The spaces
We found a location in Piccadilly Circus, which was one of the main hub for the Suffragettes' militant actions. Indeed in 1913, a vast majority of the shopfronts on Regent Street and Piccadilly Street were methodically smashed with painted rocks in a sign of protest. Sylvia Pankhurst, the movement leader, called to social disobedience, arguing that women's situation was unbearable, and until it changed, they would make everyone's situation's unbearable (braking windows, blowing up postboxes,...)
We replaced all of the smashed windows on the neighbourhood map (hammer = smashed window)
The venue was the former Pavillon. It was completely disused and frankly scary at first sight, I really wondered how we were going to pull it off. But Harry and Helen, who have a lot of experience in environment design, didn't seem worry.
We tried to render on Photoshop what the space might look like for the meeting with the clients (National Trust and National Archive)
The work
We started to draw up (very long) lists of tasks for what had to be done in each space, building, painting, prop making/sourcing- wise.
Space Dressing
We then started, in parallel with the building team, to dress up the space, using patterns we had found in archive pictures or on the suffragettes' propaganda bills.
Archive documents that inspired the space dressing
Prop Making
Documents that inspired the prop making
Final Outcome
A couple days before the show everything was coming together, and the actors came into the space to make it come alive.
The final narrative of the event was : The audience got a letter signed by Emily Pankhurst; convoking them to the venue, they had to go through a ticketing venue, down a staircase and through a green door, where they would enter the 1913 Suffragette's HQ. A suffragette would be welcoming them, explaining them their cause, then send them to the superior mother that would send them off on their first mission (posting out an unmarked package or chalking slogans in the streets). When they came back they were send out to a second mission : smashing windows. They were given painted rocks and told to wait in front of a building where a contact would reach out to them saying : Do you think it will rain today? and they had to reply : As heavy as rocks. But the contact was a snitch and would bring them straight down to the police station, where they would be put in a cell without other militant before going into questioning. They then were bailed out and had to go back with a report to the superior mother.
TimeOut video
Personal Reflection
I was very surprised and pleased to see how much the audience would participate, share opinions, link the right to vote with current equality issues, and stick together. It was very heartwarming to realised that the design of an experience could lead to opening up a dialogue about current issues.
This experience was very beneficial to me, in regards to my plan to put together my own immersive event for Betty's project. Of course the scale and budget we very different, but it taught me what pitfalls to look out for, what has to be accomplished and when,...