Pen Friends: 1 war, 11 women, 200,000 words Krista Cowman and Bridget Foreman
Event details
In 1914, 11 girls leaving the Mount School in York invented the WhatsApp Group - a round robin notebook of letters that continued for decades, allowing us to eavesdrop on the lives of young Quaker women entering a world at war: fighting for suffrage, throwing themselves into social action and political activism.
Historian Krista Cowman and playwright Bridget Foreman introduce staged extracts from this unique correspondence.
Please note: The event will take place in the first-floor studio theatre which is only accessible by stairs.
Find out more about Riding Lights Theatre Company.
About the speakers
Dr Bridget Foreman is a playwright and Senior Lecturer in Playwriting at the University of York and Associate Director of Riding Lights Theatre Company. Her work has been presented in theatres and on tour across the UK and internationally. Her recent writing credits include His Last Report, a large-scale community play for York Theatre Royal / Riding Lights, The Bare Bones with York Theatre Royal, Cups on a String for Riding Lights (national tour 2024) My Place and Surprise Ending (Riding Lights) The Whispering House, Clay Fever (York Museums Trust) Everything is Possible - the York Suffragettes (York Theatre Royal / Pilot Theatre) Simeon's Watch (Riding Lights), In Fog and Falling Snow (co-written with Mike Kenny) for York Theatre Royal / Pilot Theatre, Airlock (Company of Angels / Theatre Café) Inheritance, (Riding Lights) Fantastic Acts and Monsieur de Coubertin’s Magnificent Opymlic Feat! (RLTC), In the Shadow of the Quarks (York Theatre Royal / Playhouse) Beyond Measure (York Theatre Royal / Back and Forth), Salaam Bethlehem (RLTC), Pinocchio (York Theatre Royal / Shysters / Full Body and the Voice), Black Market (RLTC), Calvary - a passion play for York Minster, which also toured Australia prior to a run in Brisbane, the premiere adaptation of the satirical novel Augustus Carp Esq, (Friargate Theatre) and the award-winning musical Dick Turpin for Riding Lights at Friargate Theatre. She is currently working on a musical adaptation of The Lamb Who Came for Dinner, and libretto for a new opera based on Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.
Krista Cowman is a historian of women's activism in Britain. She has published widely on the history of women's suffrage, the Women's Liberation movement, and women's neighbourhood campaigns in the post-war decades. She is currently Professor of History at the University of Leicester.
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