Our group this week have been gathering the research that we have already collected in order to create monologues for our piece. the monologues are from the points of view of Amy Beechey and Florence Bonnett. We have also been developing a different style of monologue for the teacher Miss Young. We are looking at combining the issues of pay and the strict rules that the female teachers had to abide by, as a reason as to why most of the teachers would leave the profession and go into munitions work. In todays session, we have recorded monologues for both Amy Beechey and Florence Bonnett.

Although having recorded the monologues and listened to them back we feel that we can develop them further by using the letters that Amy had received from her sons and for Florence to have more information about her fiance who was fighting in the war at the time. I feel that it would be interesting to have the way that the Beechey boys sign of from their letters repeated over and over again, as way to represent the loss of all the men in Lincoln and by extension all the british soldiers. This relates back to an exercise that we did in class where a simple, polite action was repeated over and over again to the point where this endearing act almost become an act of torture and made me as an audience member feel uncomfortable. We do not want to make out audience feel uncomfortable, however, the act of signing off the letters was a form of love and comfort to the mothers and loved ones that were receiving them, to then repeat that act multiple times would be our way of creating an echo of the past and turning that act into a final farewell from the boys.

Next week we are planning to go to the Lincoln Archives and find the letters from the Beechey boys and use them to develop the monologues. We are also planning to look for any accounts of the working women from that time and to look for as much information as possible.