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Actress, performer and researcher, Dr Naomi Paxton explores the importance of theatre, performance and propaganda in the campaign for Votes for Women.
In 1908, the Actresses’ Franchise League was founded to support the suffrage movement. It staged suffrage events and readings, and its members wrote and produced plays in support of the cause. Eminent members included Cicely Hamilton, Ellen Terry, Elizabeth Robins, Edith Craig and Sybil Thorndike. By 1914 membership numbered over a thousand and the League was working nationally and internationally in support of the suffrage cause.
Dr Naomi Paxton has shared her passion for the work of the Actresses’ Franchise League at many events, including the National Theatre, Hay Festival and Latitude Festival and was one of the AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers for 2014-15. She is the editor of The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays (2013).