I was nominated and selected as one of 25 women to have a statue made to redress the imbalance of male to female statues (there are more statues of goats than women) and to celebrate 100 years of suffrage as part of the Put Her Forward project.
So first came the phone call, voice message and emails, made/sent, all of which was exciting, and a honour but also bizarre, as it’s a statue, mini at 35cm, made of sandstone and it’s going to be a 3D image of me. I saw an example of what it could look like and that night I lost sleep. I was honoured to be nominated and then selected but it couldn’t be a statue of me. Director of Rattle Snake, Charlotte Bennett nominated me, saying she wanted me to have a statue because I always accept awards/honours on behalf of the women Open Clasp work with. I thought about people seeing me standing there, mini and wondering who I was, and I thought, me alone won’t inspire, as people don’t know me, they know the company but it’s hard to separate as what I do is who I am and I’m the Artistic Director and playwright with Open Clasp so this statue couldn’t be one without the other.
My understanding of what the role a statue plays relates to the days before TV. They told a story, people gathered and heard of great or interesting events or of struggles and fights against oppression. So, I thought about my story, one that is intertwined with Open Clasp two decades of collaborating with women and girls to make the best theatre we can, women from the North of England and theatre that is now international. 20 years of working with women, in rooms, prison, community centres and schools, women coming together talking about life, experts in their own experiences, conversing, debating and agreeing on a strategy for change.
Open Clasp is political, the process to create and the theatre on stage aims to make change happen, on many levels: to the individual involved in the process, audiences, the service providers, decision makers, community that the women come from and the general public. We create stories told from a female gaze, a view of the world from this perspective, contributing, insightful and thought provoking. Open Clasp reach is national and now international, we have interest in the scripts from Brazil, states in America and Europe. There is potential for the work to be translated and accessed to the African continent and beyond. It’s a great story and one that couldn’t be told without the women who trusted the company to tell their stories.
So, I lay awake the night of the phone calls/emails thinking what is the look I need that would help tell this story. I have described myself as an activist, since I was 16/17. I was one of five children, the youngest and only girl. When I was 17 my dad burnt all my clothes; I was punk and lesbian. At 18 I was on a Youth Opportunities Programme and met political people. It was the time of the Falkland War and three of my older brothers were there, all under 25, I learnt after it was over they spent time one looking for the other to see if they had survived. At 19 I was awarded a full-time job as a supervisor on a Youth Training Programme in Salford, Manchester. Here I met feminists and women who had travelled from Greenham Common. They talked about the peace camp and asked for women to join, so I did, I hitch hiked down the motorway, me and a friend. I lived at the camp for just under a year. I lived at Blue Gate, and for me, at that moment the gate was young and working class, all of us 20/21. I was involved in non-violent direct action, and I learnt not to be afraid, though at times I was. I learnt about a bigger world, different viewpoints, from Northern Ireland to the First Nations, reservations containing uranium and of course the miners’ strike. Women came sat at the fire, we debated and connected, in solidarity with all struggles against oppression.
After Greenham I protested against Clause 28, Apartheid, Poll Tax, it was a challenging time for everyone, as it is today. Then in 1992 I met and fell in love with a Geordie, and in 1993, I moved to the West End of Newcastle with my two-year-old son. In 1995 I was accepted on a degree course at Northumbria University (I’d left school at 16, trained to be a shorthand typist, studying at a CSE level) and I was one of five women who set up Open Clasp for a final year project. I gained a first class honours in Drama and in 1998 I co-founded the company (during the early years I also did a MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, gaining a distinction). Two decades later Open Clasp won the Edinburgh festival, flew to New York, performed off-Broadway and to women in prison whilst there, came home, toured nationally in 2016 sharing a panel with Baroness Corston in the Houses of Parliament and in 2017 won the Space Commission, streaming the show online to 27,000 people around the world. We have gained recognition for process to create and productions made. I owe a lot to the North East, gaining the MBE last year, and now this statue, feels like I’m giving something back, helping to shine a light on the talent and the voice of those from the North East.
So back to the sleepless night, how do I capture that story in the statue? I thought, I need to channel revolution, I can’t look like a middle-aged straight woman at a wedding, as I’m not straight and not at a wedding. So, I chose my black doc martin boots, leather jacket, black dress, a rainbow flag and held a placard with Open Clasp Changing the World One Play at a Time painted on it, created by Open Clasp’s Administrator. I’ve seen the statue, well, the 3D photo and I believe it tells my/our story.
Now today it’s being unveiled and the venue/place for this has been hard on my head; where? I chose the prison, as we’ve just worked with the young women in there and we are strongly connected for the next four years, but the short notice was difficult, so I contacted Newcastle City Council’s Head of Culture and Tourism and long-term supporter of Open Clasp, Andrew Rothwell and he’s helping and so is Councilor Joyce McCarty. It’s going ahead on the 6th September 1.30pm at The Castle, Newcastle.
The next thing to think about is where does it rest? Well maybe like me it doesn’t. I’m taking it Lesvos for the women’s festival, I’m going to take it up Sappho’s face to unveil and let her sit there for a while. I’m going to take her on tour with don’t forget the birds and it might even fly to New York, if my piggy bank can manage it. At the office we’re talking about where else it could visit and I’m fighting against being uneasy because it’s mini me, but for me it’s the story of Open Clasp, it’s about celebrating activism, it’s all of us stepping together and at the time of writing this I feel proud…though it’s still a little bizarre.
