Overview

Jessica Swale's Blue Stockings is the empowering and surprising story of four young women fighting for their right to a university education in a world that assumed women belonged at home. First produced professionally at Shakespeare's Globe in 2013, and a sell-out success, it is now regularly performed by theatre groups in the UK and beyond, and widely studied by GCSE Drama students. This Page to Stage guide, written by the playwright, who also directed the first production at RADA, along with her assistant director Lois Jeary, is packed with contextual information, scene-by-scene and character breakdowns, and personal insights into the world of the play and the real lives that inspired it. An invaluable resource for those studying and staging the play, it takes you through the entire production process, considering each of the elements in turn, from sound and music to design and rehearsals. You'll also find notes from the original rehearsal process, extracts from working diaries, and interviews with key members of the creative team. Throughout, there are hints and tips on staging, and helpful games and exercises to bring the play to life on the stage and in the classroom. Highly accessible and uniquely authoritative, it is the indispensible guide for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play. 'Extremely helpful… offers great detail, whilst also offering space to explore and be creative… this is a book that many will pick up and use as an exemplar of how to prepare any play, not just Blue Stockings' — Drama Magazine 'Very accessible… the suggested games and exercises are excellent… you certainly need this book if you're teaching and / or directing Blue Stockings. There's also plenty here for the students themselves to read and reflect on' — Ink Pellet 'For anyone working on or studying the play, this book is invaluable' — Word Matters - Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama

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9781848426238

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Reviews

'Extremely helpful... offers great detail, whilst also offering space to explore and be creative... this is a book that many will pick up and use as an exemplar of how to prepare any play, not just Blue Stockings' * Drama Magazine * 'Very accessible... the suggested games and exercises are excellent... you certainly need this book if you're teaching and / or directing Blue Stockings. There's also plenty here for the students themselves to read and reflect on' * Ink Pellet * 'For anyone working on or studying the play, this book is invaluable' * Word Matters - Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama *

Hurrah for Blue Stockings, a play that gets the boisterous Globe audience cheering for the cause of women's education and muttering darkly at those who oppose it; a play that unashamedly lectures its audience on the importance of the arts while examining the trials and tribulations of four brilliant, passionate young women who are desperate to become scientists. And hurrah for a play that places women's lives centre stage... It is tremendous fun, friendly in its feminism and it deserves to be popular. --Times Higher Educational Supplement; Jessica Swale's Blue Stockings could become the academic equivalent of Call the Midwife with its story of female students fighting for academic equality in the Cambridge of the late-19th century... Touching and entertaining, Swale tells the story with both wit and a hint of righteous indignation. --Telegraph; It's a meaty subject and Swale brings wit and intelligence to it... The play, which is feminist and political yet hardly tub-thumping, still has the power to absorb as it probes issues that remain pertinent today. --Evening Standard; Thoughtful and provocative... thoroughly researched and grippingly dramatised. --The Stage; Emotionally and politically charged... a lively and eye-opening piece about the battle for equality in education... One of the many pleasures of this play is that its heroines are intellectuals yet it's a crowd-pleaser too... Cracking... leaves you astonished at the prejudices these educational pioneers had to overcome... This is a vital period of British educational history... You certainly don't need to have been to Cambridge, or indeed any university, to engage with the theme of education as a cornerstone of freedom. --Guardian

Author Information

Jessica Swale is a writer and director, and the Artistic Director of Red Handed Theatre Company. Her first play, Blue Stockings, premiered at Shakespeare's Globe and won her a nomination for Most Promising Playwright in the Evening Standard Awards 2013. Other plays include Nell Gwynn and Thomas Tallis (both Shakespeare's Globe); All's Will That Ends Will (Bremer Shakespeare Company); adaptations of Far from the Madding Crowd, Sense and Sensibility (Watermill Theatre), The Secret Garden (Grosvenor Park) and The Jungle Book (UK tour 2017 & 2018); and an original play, The Mission, about illegal adoptions in the 1920s. She has directed a number of award-winning productions for Red Handed, which is dedicated to creating new work and rediscovering forgotten plays. Recent productions include The Rivals starring Celia Imrie, the London premiere of Palace of the End by Judith Thompson, and the first major revival of Hannah Cowley's The Belle's Stratagem, which won her a nomination for Best Director at the Evening Standard Awards. Other direction includes Bedlam (Shakespeare's Globe); Sleuth (Watermill); Fallen Angels (Salisbury Playhouse); Winter (TNL, Canada); The Busy Body, Someone to Watch Over Me (Southwark), The School for Scandal (Park Theatre); and productions at RADA and LAMDA. She was Max Stafford-Clark's Associate Director at Out of Joint from 2007–2010. She is an associate artist with Youth Bridge Global, an international NGO which uses theatre as a tool for promoting social change in war-torn and developing nations. She has written three titles in Nick Hern Books' popular Drama Games series: Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops, Drama Games for Devising, and Drama Games for Rehearsals.

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