Women of War – Page 2

The Final Edit

Phoebe Wall-Palmer / April 28, 2013May 13, 2013 / Women of War

The days leading up to the final performance were filled with the final changes to the piece and the last bits of sewing to create the patchwork material stretching from one end of the weighing room to the other.

We added a couple of sections to the beginning of the piece, mainly in the transitions, to fill dead space and hopefully become a familiar face to the audience throughout. A couple of the other groups want to use a rotation system for the audience. However, because their pieces may vary in length the audience may find that they have to wait a little while for the next piece. The audience reconvene in the first half of the weighing room, so our sub-group will set up an area in the corner where we will be applying make-up and brushing each others hair, as if we are getting ready for an evening out. But the most prominent addition will applying tea to our legs and drawing a line, using eyeliner, to create the effect of stockings. Goodman explains:

Women such as Helen Johnson and her friends wanted to look their best when they went out on a Saturday night… “There were no tights, prior to the war everyone wore stockings… we used to enlist the help of our best friend who would apply this [Leg Tan] with a sponge or cotton wool, then there was a delicate operation of putting a pencil mark down the back of the leg for the seam.” ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 66.))

By physically helping each other to apply the eyeliner, we wanted to demonstrate togetherness and sisterhood, connoting the women pulling together when they’re husbands were away. In addition, we want to show a contrast between our femininity and the masculine war theme, where two members of the group are acting as Officers. This juxtaposition should not only be aesthetically pleasing but will create the feeling of war from different perspectives. We will also set the scene by playing war-time songs, which will also be a reoccurring addition throughout.

When the rotation finishes our group will join the Officers at the front of the weighing room. We hope that the assembly of the us all together will paint a picture of the past, and shows a united front in the same light as when the first and second World Wars originally started. At this point we will then lead the audience into the next section, becoming the transition.

The ‘factory scene’ is our main piece and we are aiming to emphasise the change in women’s roles when war began. As explained in my previous post, Becoming a Woman of War, we will be contrasting our femininity with the bleak setting in the room, and the sound of machinery. However, where we position our audience in our scene has been an issue. We decided to use a long bench, found in the first section of the weighing room, and place it in the kitchen area of our space. We can only sit 4 or 5 members of audience in there and the rest will be at the entrance to the space. Though this is not ideal if the audience is large, we hope that all the different angles that the audience view our scene will make it a unique experience for each audience member.

The last time the audience see us will be outside, where the ‘Restoration Group’ is showing the audience aspects of the building, one being the service hatch where gingerbread and alcoholic drinks were originally served. From here we will be serving the home-made gingerbread. The juxtaposition of past and present in one space should hopefully highlight the rich history of the site, and the taste of gingerbread will heighten the warmth and community feeling that our whole group is trying to celebrate.

If these changes are achieved and are successful then we hope the performance will provoke the taste of the past still existing within the walls of the Grandstand.

Filling the Dead, Finding the Beauty.

Emily Holt / April 27, 2013May 12, 2013 / Women of War

“I got to see a place which seemed to me empty, silent and uncared for.” ((Pinchbeck, M (2005) NottDance 2005 Toolkit. Dance4: Nottingham)) ,
To fill these empty corners and walls, the floor and the doorways doesn’t seem enough. As many of the group experienced on their ‘drifts’ people do not always look up. Why is this? I found myself asking when I, myself, went on a drift and discovered beautiful architecture that existed above the shop windows of Lincoln high street, for the first time. With such a mass of people walking around and never looking up in everyday life, it would be interesting to see whether this behavior changes in a performance environment.
The long piece of cloth, inspired by The Riddlers Jacket by John Newling, that the group have been sewing since the very start of our project at the Grandstand site has now reached almost the full length of the weighing room. With the image of ‘looking up’ in mind, the group have decided to hang the cloth from the ceiling using horse hair twine. In trial this looked like bunting which links in quite nicely with the community feel. Because it is on the ceiling, however, the question remains as to whether the audience will look up during the performance.
“How might its dimensions, the configuration of its architectural elements – walls,floors, surfaces – and existing spatial arrangements inform the placement and
dispersal of both performance and audience? Do they limit or broaden
performative potential? Do they facilitate the provision of close-up, shifting focus,
multi-focus?” ((Pearson, M (2011) Arts and Humanities Research Council Toolkit: Landscape and Environment)) this question, asked by Pearson, evokes thoughts about the multi-focus of our piece. As a group we want the cloth to lead the audience through the center of the room and into the factory in which the Women of War are still working on the ‘make do and mend’ patchwork ‘ airplane wings’. By having a centre of focus leading into us, it eradicates any dead space between the other happenings and ours. The spatial arrangement of the cloth and the Women of War piece does allow for a shifting of focus from the ceiling of the building all the way down the drains of the urinals. This gives us the opportunity to capture the whole building and frame it with our performance, hopefully giving the audience a chance to absorb its floors, and its potential, all at once.

Proxemics: ‘Taking a peek at the Women of War’

Sophie Jane Bullivant / April 24, 2013May 7, 2013 / Women of War

During the last session at the site, the Women of War group decided to alter the proxemics of the audience to the performers. Since our piece is set in the kitchen/washroom and has limited space, the group decided it would be more appropriate to keep the audience partitioned from the acting space. We recently visited The Museum of Lincolnshire Life, inspiring the idea of an audience viewing our piece as a form of an exhibition, which will create a different experience for the audience, as opposed to the rest of the performance. Furthermore, the journey that the audience will take through the site is largely participatory and the audience are controlled by a narrative. However, our piece is now designed to be seen ‘in passing’, and cordoned off by twine, to resemble a museum display. Mike Pearson states:

Both proxemics, interpersonal distances from performer to performer and performer to spectator, and haptics, the touch of self and other, may become part of the expressive repertoire of performers and of the dramaturgical fabric of performance ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.)).

In reflection of Pearson, the Women of War group have recognised the effectiveness of framing the piece, by only allowing the audience in the alcove entrance of the room. Therefore, this creates either a highly intimate viewing point, if there is a large audience watching at the same time, or contrastingly, an isolated, reflective space for a single audience member. The literal framing of our piece also emphasises our cloth installation as a “theatrical vignette” ((Pinchbeck, Michael (2013) ‘Safe Bet’, seminar, Site- Specific Performance, Lincoln: University of Lincoln, 17 April.)), as apposed to the view during the journey of the performance, where it hangs above their heads. Instead, the installation in the framed ‘exhibition’ space can be viewed much more intimately, and its connection to our factory scene can be recognised.

We are Strangers to These Walls.

Emily Holt / April 20, 2013May 12, 2013 / Women of War

Offering the audience juxtaposing views of the Grand Stand has been the groups aim throughout. With the senses of smell and taste being tantalised with food and drink in such a damp and dirty environment and people being brought into a space that is so dead, we already offer contrasting views of the space. To take this further the group needed to attain a specific space with the Grandstands weighing room to work with. Since we wanted to create a ‘factory’ environment, using our sewing machines to exhibit the work of the women in Lincoln during WWII, we needed a space that was mechanic, cold and quite harsh. The room that the group were instantly drawn to was the bathroom. With its exposed urinals, singular shower cubicle and revealed boiler it created the effect that we needed. On further inspection there are open pipes, holes in the walls and uneven surfaces which work well to juxtapose the bustling factory environment, created with the piece, with the abandoned building that the group are actually working in and with.
Coming to the Grandstand, the group made sure to remember that they are actually strangers to the space, and pondered on the question as to how long they would remain in that status. Being strangers, it could be difficult to really understand the space and its design, uses and history without really thorough research. For the Women at War group this was not so much of an issue. The toilet space had an obvious use, it was a bathroom, somewhere to relieve oneself, to powder the nose and even to taken a shower after a race. It was apparent that the facilities (especially the shower) were not regularly in use, the cobwebs and dirt had built up over time. However, although we were familiar with the uses of the space, we were still strangers to it. We therefore wanted to play with it in a juxtaposing way. Placing lipstick, perfume and toiletries around, their scent alongside the smell of freshly brewed tea, so that the “Scents mingle and intertwine” (( Curious (2003) On The Scent, Online: http://www.placelessness.com/project/1121/on-the-scent/ (accessed: 19th April 2013 )) as we wanted to offer a new viewpoint and use of the space. “The strangers’ perspective may result in the space itself appearing strange to the spectators as the visiting artist offers up new understandings of the location and practices within the site” ((Govan, Emma et al (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London and New York: Routledge)) Our new understanding of this masculine place full of decay and rot as a feminine one, full of tea and productivity, will hopefully provide that strange and confusing atmosphere for the audience to take pleasure in, finding meaning from the semiotic of giving, and taking away the tea.

Becoming a Woman of War

Phoebe Wall-Palmer / April 16, 2013May 11, 2013 / Women of War

‘The movement of many men into the military and women into occupations previously undertaken by men is seen variously as bringing about permanent changes in gender roles, as illustrating the rigidity of gender relations, and as a significant element in individuals’ personal narratives of their own lives.’ ((Noakes, Lucy (2007) ‘Demobolising the Military woman: Constructions of Class and Gender in Britain after the First World War’, Gender and History, XIX (1), April pp. 143-162.))

The women of war were depicted across the country in propaganda posters, showing strength, bravery and fearlessness. In many ways, this portrayal was just. Fashion seemed to change from pretty to practical allowing women to throw themselves into the work place, from factories to the fields. However this generalisation does not take into account the importance of femininity: ‘A bright slash of lipstick, softly waved hair and a lingering trace of perfume could be seen to represent the persistence of the feminine in a masculinised world of war, a sparky message of defiance, a feisty semaphore of hope.’ ((Gardiner, Juliet (2004) Wartime Britain 1939-1935, London: Headline Book Publishing, p. 578.)) Clearly femininity was regarded to be highly morale boosting, possibly because it represented normality and familiarity in a country turned on its head, but more simply because it was something beautiful in a place of destruction. ‘Wartime discourse was complicit with the idea that a beautiful face was a brave face.’ ((Ibid, p. 579)) In addition, cosmetics were never rationed (although they were in very short supply anyway) ‘because the government recognized their morale-boosting properties for a female population who had few other opportunities to express their femininity and individuality.’ ((Ibid.))

Taking this into consideration, we feel that it’s necessary to present typical wartime fashions, such as the red lipstick and 1940’s style tea dresses. Our sub-group has two sections that will show a juxtaposition of femininity within a masculinised setting. Our first section starts the audience’s journey around the piece. We are serving tea and cake to the members of the audience- a stereotypically feminine role, but it will hopefully connote a feeling of community and a picture of the past. Our second section shows the transition of women into the war environment. For many, this period was of great change: ‘During the war, for the duration, new sets of beliefs about women, their capabilities and responsibilities emerged.’ ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 15.)) This was the start of women being able to show not only men, but also themselves, what they were capable of. So, at the end of the weighing room we will set up a sewing factory style scene, involving a repetitive series of moves between the four of us in the scene. There will be two sewing machines set up- we hope that the mechanical and repetitive sound of these, in addition to the industrial feel to this section of the room will juxtapose with our costumes and we also plan to have classic war-time songs, such as Judy Garland, in the background.

The sewing itself is a significant aspect to our piece- the need to ‘Make Do and Mend’ was of great importance when clothes rationing was put into place in both the first and second world war. ‘Helen Johnson, aged ten when war broke out, remembered how: ‘because of clothes rationing we had to make do and mend. So we would beg old dresses from our mothers or aunts and try to renovate them to make them fit.’’ ((Ibid, p. 102.)) As a group we want to translate this idea by collecting clothes that have been donated to us, or our own clothes that we don’t wear anymore, to make a patchwork piece of material that stretches through the weighing room, suspended from the ceiling. During the piece we will be adding more and more to the material. Visually we were inspired by John Newlings’ Where a Place Becomes a Site: Values– Newling suspended a jacket covered in question marks, such like the infamous Riddler’s Jacket from Batman, from the ceiling of Nottingham’s Broadmarsh shopping centre and asked the public what they most value in their everyday life. The patchwork style will also be echoed in our own costumes, as we will be making pinnies in the same style.

Another layer to this is that we found, from The Lincolnshire Archives, that women would help to sew linen to the wings of aeroplanes during the war. This also helped with the visual aspect of the material being suspended from the ceiling, showing a sense of grandeur, and connoting the women’s work being high above us in the sky.

In summation, there is definitely an importance in celebrating women’s femininity within a masculine world, and what war meant for women. ‘Women were already beginning to enter the workforce in greater numbers before the war. But what might have been gradual and quiet progress into many previously all-male preserves was thrown centre stage with the direction of female labour into key areas.’ ((Harris, Carol (2000) Women at War 1939-1945: The Home Front, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd, p. 62.)) This shows that war was a catalyst for the change of gender roles in society. Within our piece we want to put forward that women ‘had the opportunity to colonise male space, to achieve their potential in the public domain, to achieve self-determination and perhaps, in some cases, to challenge inequality.’ ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 103.)) But fundamentally, we all want to make do and mend the Grand Stand.