Twitter @anna_birch1
Professor Anna Birch FRSA has lived in Stoke Newington for over 30 years, in the late 1990’s she learnt that Mary Wollstonecraft lived and worked on Newington Green in the 18th century. As a theatre, director, researcher and activist she has made work to celebrate both the life and legacy of Wollstonecraft. She writes about her ‘living monuments’ practice and has curated exhibitions, published books, screened films inside and outside, commissioned writers and artists and collaborated with Hackney Museum, Walking Women, Clissold House, N16, Portavillion, Gillett Square, Rio Cinema, Glasgow Women’s Library, New Unity @Newington Green, Mildmay Community Centre, Newington Green Action Group, Imece Women’s Centre, Air Gallery, NYC, Queen Mary University and GraceGraceGrace plus countless creatives to celebrate our extraordinary transhistorical neighbour.
Anna is a founder member of the Mary on the Green Campaign maryonthegreen.org and a member of the Centenary Action Group (CAG) Chaired by Dr Helen Pankhurst
Fresh back from directing Mrs Noah by April de Angelis for XR Rebellion arts and culture team…..God is very, very angry and sends an almighty flood! Famous actors from stage and screen play God, Mrs Noah and Noah in this hilarious specially written climate change play. Mrs Noah fights back: Its’s about extinction! @Guardian Noah wants to escape the flood but Mrs Noah won’t get on the boat without her girlfriends. A comic take on a medieval mystery play in the age of climate breakdown by April de Angelis
Date: Monday 15 April. Time: 6 pm. Where: Parliament Square
CAST includes God: Ade Adepitan Paralympic athlete, Presenter, Journalist, Children’s author and Mrs Noah: Naomi Paxton Naomi Paxton is a performer and researcher, specialising in the contribution of theatre professionals to the Votes for Women campaign. Ada Campe is an award-winning comic and variety artiste. ”Resembles an unhinged super-villain” Diva Magazine “Made me laugh more than anyone on the circuit for years. Genius” Sandi Toksvig
Don’t miss Wollstonecraft Live!
Written by Kaethe Fine. Conceived by Anna Birch and Kaethe Fine
First Produced by Fragments & Monuments performance and film company, Newington Green, Stoke Newington, September 2005
Saturday 29th September 7 pm in the atmospheric Unitarian Meeting House where Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) meditated and prayed in Pew 19.
Fragments & Monuments performance and film company continues to be fascinated by the contribution made by Wollstonecraft in her extraordinary, short life. We have produced open air cinema screenings, museum displays, gallery exhibitions, conferences, book publishing and websites in her name. Since our first outing, recognition for Wollstonecraft has grown exponentially. Grabbing some of this magic we are bringing our multi-media event back to Newington Green with a specially commissioned musical score and updated script.
On Sunday 13th May her Scottish suffrage film MARCH (30mins) screens in London: http://www.arthousecrouchend.co.uk/programme/?programme_id=4595742
She is delighted to be invited to Chair this Stoke Newington Lit Fest event: www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com
Join artist Tamsyn Challenger, academic Dr. Hannah Dawson and director and activist Anna Birch to discuss the pioneering spirit of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97). How has her influence shaped their professional lives and does her example as writer, philosopher and human rights activist still resonate in this centenary year for women’s suffrage? Includes performances by artists Rachael House and Jemima Burrill.
Part of ‘Wollstonecraft Presents’, a new arts commissioning platform inspired by the life and work of Mary Wollstonecraft – http://www.wollstonecraftpresents.com
NEWS FLASH: In October 2017 Anna is invited keynote and facilitator for the AHRC Research Network Memory, Music and Movement, Cape Breton University, Canada. Her piece ‘Mary Wollstonecraft Trail Blazer to Parliament ‘ will be published in Women’s Voices and Parliament (eds) John Vice (Hansard, House of Lords) and Maggie Inchley (2018). She was keynote and facilitator for Recovering Women’s Past: New Epistemologies, New Ventures University of Edinburgh, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities (IASH) and Institut Francais Ecosse (2016) and for International Women’s Day, March 2017 she presented ‘The Wollstonecraft Live Experience!’ at Mary Wollstonecraft: Life work and Legacy conference University of Hull and Hull City of Culture.
Anna’s expertise is in combining her scholarly research and professional expertise as a theatre and film director. Moving beyond the theatre building she has created a ‘living monuments’ dramaturgical method to both search out and reveal hidden and often neglected feminist biographies and histories. She researched her method through site-specific performance and films about the life of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) to show how this use of multimedia provides an essential link to the performativity of feminist achievements through history. She applies this template to her current research focus on women’s suffrage drama: ‘Staging Suffragettes’ with Professor Katharine Cockin (University of Hull, UK) https://vimeo.com/99813842. Her large-scale public performance March of Women (2015) and the short film MARCH (37 minutes) https://vimeo.com/149630321 pw: March documents this public facing and socially engaged work.
She is co-editor, with Professor Joanne Tompkins, of Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practice (2012), where the chapter ‘Repetition and performativity: site-specific performance and film as living monument’ sets out this practice research case study. She guest-edited an issue of Contemporary Theatre Review; also with Tompkins, on ‘Site-Specificity and Mobility’ (2012). As co-convener of the Performance as Research Working Group (International Federation of Theatre Research, 2010-2013) she co-edited with Bruce Barton and Melanie Dreyer-Lude of Mediating Practice(s): Performance as Research and/in/through Mediation, Experiments and Intensities Series Volume 3, Winchester University Press, www.experimentsandintensities.com ISBN 978-1-906113-12-4. She is co- editor with Professor Katharine Cockin Performance-Research-History: Pageants and Pioneers from Hrotsvit to Women’s Suffrage Drama (pending).
MARCH (2016) was screened at the House of Commons for Women’s History Month and UTOPIA festival, Somerset House, London, UK http://www.walkingartistsnetwork.org/walking-women-at-somerset-house/
The Women’s History network annual Community History Project prize (sponsored by The History Press) Highly Commended March of Women http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-2016-womens-history-network-community-prize-winners/2016
Artistic Director Fragments & Monuments performance and film company www.fragmentsandmonuments.com
Anna’s profile Practice Research
@anna_birch1 #marchofwomen Instagram annabirch1
Photograph credit Cora Ogborn James http://www.corajames.co.uk
A N N A B I R C H Director and Producer CV
Anna’s first productions of plays by April de Angelis and Marina Carr made her early career in developing, directing and producing new writing notable. She trained as a director with Pascal Lecoq, Laboratory of Movement studying space and rhythm through scenography, Nancy Duguid, Jules Wright and Max Stafford-Clark and was the first winner of the Gerald Chapman Award at the Royal Court Theatre, London, UK.
2015
MARCH documentary film (running time 30 mins).
Film-maker: Marissa Keating
Artistic Director Anna Birch
2015
March of Women large scale public art and performance project co-produced by Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow Women’s Library and Fragments & Monuments performance and film company.
2013
Inaugural Mary Wollstonecraft Annual Lecture, invited presenter with Caitlin Moran and Suzanne Moore, Stoke Newington Literary Festival, Assembly Rooms, London N16.
2011
A Pageant of Great Women DVD, Fragments & Monuments ISBN 978-0-9568008-1-7. Centenary conference and celebrations marking the founding of the Pioneer Players theatre society, University of Hull, Hull, UK.
Mary on the Green: Celebrating Mary Wollstonecraft, participatory event with artist Taey Iohe, The Gallery, Stoke Newington Literary Festival, Stoke Newington Public Library, London N16
2010
Liz and Di by Di Sherlock, documentary screening, London College of Fashion, London, UK.
Wollstonecraft Live! Portavillion Inside / Outside Cinema – specially curated projection for pre-Olympic Cultural Event, Gillett Square, East London, UK.
2009
Liz and Di by Di Sherlock, Guest Director (adapted by Anna Birch) for BA (Hons) Costume, Make – Up and Technical Effects, London College of Fashion, Cochrane Theatre, London, UK.
2009
Fragments & Monuments films on www.youtube.com .
2008
Hamlet, Guest Director site-specific, Shoreditch Town Hall for Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK.
2007
The Wollstonecraft Live Experience! outdoor documentary film screening and live music picnic, Newington Green, Islington, London, UK.
Sighting / Citing History through Performance: The Wollstonecraft Live Experience! curated installation Modes of Spectating Conference Ruskin Gallery, Anglia University, UK.
Wollstonecraft Live! a multimedia history of Mary Wollstonecraft Britain’s first feminist. A.I.R. Gallery, New York, USA.
What is She? by Charlotte Smith (18th century writer) Guest Director, The Capital Centre, Royal Shakespeare Company, international conference on the playwright, Warwick University, Warwick, UK.
2005
Wollstonecraft Live! written by Kaethe Fine, conceived by Anna Birch and Kaethe Fine, multimedia, site-specific performance in Unitarian Chapel and on Newington Green, Islington, London, UK.
2002
Di’s Midsummer Night Party, documentary screening, Cochrane Theatre, Royal College of Art and OMSK, London, UK.
2002
Celebrate Jeanetta Cochrane! Keyworx presentation at Theatre, Gender and Beyond, Cochrane Theatre, London, UK.
2002
Birch, A, Gender and Performance Pack: Education pack for Sphinx Theatre Company, London, UK.
2001
Di’s Midsummer Night Party outdoor screening of site-specific performance documentary, Stoke Newington Festival. Directors of Photography: Lucy Bristow and Matt Fox, Clissold House, Stoke Newington, London N16, UK.
2000
Di’s Midsummer Night Party, exterior and interior site-specific performance, Stoke Newington Festival, Scenographer Madelon Schwirtz, Choreographer Sheila Ghelani, Clissold House, Stoke Newington, London N16, UK.