Factory Girls
Written by Sharon King-Campbell
Reading Directed by Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Produced by SKC Originals
Cast:
BEULAH - Alexis Koetting
MARY - Willow Kean
BEATRICE - Jillian Rees-Brown
ELLEN - Bridget Wareham
ANN - Robyn Vivian
LAURA - Kiersten Noel
NADIYA - Alison Woolridge
JANE - Allison Clarke
EDIE - Melissa Williams
ABIGAIL - Willa Small
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Synopsis:
In 1916, a representative from the Imperial Munitions Board announced to a gathering of women at Massey Hall in downtown Toronto that women were to be recruited to munitions factories. The intention from the Board and from the Canadian government was to dilute the masculine labour force with unskilled female labourers in order to allow the largest possible number of able-bodied men to enlist for deployment overseas. Hundreds of women from a wide array of backgrounds answered the call, efficiently and effectively building weapons, aircraft and ships for the war effort. Factory Girls explores the lives and motives of ten such women who take up employment in a fictional factory in Toronto. Members of the leisure class join working girls as they navigate a newfound sense of freedom and agency against a background of increasingly violent nationalism, imperialism and xenophobia.
As the pressures of war build and what is normal becomes increasingly strange, aspects of absurdity pop up in both the lives of these women and in the telling of their stories. Factory Girls explores the question of what it means to make a bomb in the context of these women’s diverse economic, social and ideological backgrounds.
About the playwright:
Sharon King-Campbell (she/her) is a theatre and literary artist based in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Persistence Theatre's audiences may recognize her from Women Playing Hamlet, The Mirror, or Original, and she was a committee member for the 2021 'Votes for Women 100' season, where she worked on the Ladies Reading Room series.
Sharon was the 2017 recipient of the Rhonda Payne Award, and is a four-time winner of the Arts and Letters Awards in fiction, dramatic script, and poetry. Her plays Original and Give Me Back have reached audiences throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and mainland Canada, and the Canadian premiere of Dayboil was the winner of 6 Robert Merritt Awards. Her collection of poetry, This Is How It Is, was published in 2021, and Dayboil in 2024, both with Breakwater Books.
Factory Girls was her MA thesis, and has previously received support from Canadian Play Thing, Playwrights' Atlantic Resource Centre, and Women's Work Festival. Sharon is thrilled to be working with Persistence again to push her 'go big or go home' play one step closer to the stage. Sharon holds a BFA and a MA from Memorial University, where she is currently pursuing her PhD.
Written by Sharon King-Campbell
Reading Directed by Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Produced by SKC Originals
Cast:
BEULAH - Alexis Koetting
MARY - Willow Kean
BEATRICE - Jillian Rees-Brown
ELLEN - Bridget Wareham
ANN - Robyn Vivian
LAURA - Kiersten Noel
NADIYA - Alison Woolridge
JANE - Allison Clarke
EDIE - Melissa Williams
ABIGAIL - Willa Small
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Synopsis:
In 1916, a representative from the Imperial Munitions Board announced to a gathering of women at Massey Hall in downtown Toronto that women were to be recruited to munitions factories. The intention from the Board and from the Canadian government was to dilute the masculine labour force with unskilled female labourers in order to allow the largest possible number of able-bodied men to enlist for deployment overseas. Hundreds of women from a wide array of backgrounds answered the call, efficiently and effectively building weapons, aircraft and ships for the war effort. Factory Girls explores the lives and motives of ten such women who take up employment in a fictional factory in Toronto. Members of the leisure class join working girls as they navigate a newfound sense of freedom and agency against a background of increasingly violent nationalism, imperialism and xenophobia.
As the pressures of war build and what is normal becomes increasingly strange, aspects of absurdity pop up in both the lives of these women and in the telling of their stories. Factory Girls explores the question of what it means to make a bomb in the context of these women’s diverse economic, social and ideological backgrounds.
About the playwright:
Sharon King-Campbell (she/her) is a theatre and literary artist based in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Persistence Theatre's audiences may recognize her from Women Playing Hamlet, The Mirror, or Original, and she was a committee member for the 2021 'Votes for Women 100' season, where she worked on the Ladies Reading Room series.
Sharon was the 2017 recipient of the Rhonda Payne Award, and is a four-time winner of the Arts and Letters Awards in fiction, dramatic script, and poetry. Her plays Original and Give Me Back have reached audiences throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and mainland Canada, and the Canadian premiere of Dayboil was the winner of 6 Robert Merritt Awards. Her collection of poetry, This Is How It Is, was published in 2021, and Dayboil in 2024, both with Breakwater Books.
Factory Girls was her MA thesis, and has previously received support from Canadian Play Thing, Playwrights' Atlantic Resource Centre, and Women's Work Festival. Sharon is thrilled to be working with Persistence again to push her 'go big or go home' play one step closer to the stage. Sharon holds a BFA and a MA from Memorial University, where she is currently pursuing her PhD.
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