Plymouth’s Laureate of Words, Laura Horton, has been walking the Plymouth’s Powerful Women trail on the Visit Plymouth app, discovering stories of powerful women from the city’s past. She will be using these stories, as well as stories from the community, as inspiration for a play titled ‘In Her Footsteps.’
Laura is currently responding to the commission title ‘In her footsteps: exploring the stories of Plymouth’s Powerful Women’ by writing a one-act play. Theatre Royal will premier the play as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science in November, featuring up to six actors from the University of Plymouth’s performing arts department.
As the laureateship and the festival is about sharing the stories of the city’s community, Laura and Literature Works have released a call out for stories about powerful women who have an impact on the lives of people in Plymouth. These can be personal stories or stories about known figures from the city’s past. The stories can showcase impact on a large or small scale.
Laura would like to hear from anyone in the city who has a story to share about how a powerful woman (or women) have impacted on their lives. This could be someone in your family or a public figure, it could be someone from the present, distant or recent past. Laura is looking for stories of up to 200 words and you’d be welcome to share a photo.
The definition of powerful is really down to you. It could be women who have been influential in the community of Plymouth; women who have been inspired by those in the past to continue their work in society; or it could be strong women who have positively impacted on people’s lives, in big and small ways. Please be aware that Laura may use the stories collected to inspire her writing.
You can find out more information about this project on the Literature Works website here. If you have a story to share, please send it by email to info@literatureworks.org.uk marked ‘Plymouth’s Powerful Women’ by no later than 5pm on Monday 27th September 2021.