THE lights are on in Northumbria University's Lipman Theatre, illuminating swathes of green and blue fishermen's netting. The women rehearsing for their show are all members of the Guild of Lillians, a new theatre group set up to give a platform for women's theatre in the North-East. Janine Birkett, 48, known as Jan, is wearing the typical uniform of a 19th century fishwife - a high collared, long sleeved dark blouse and a long, calico-type apron complete with sturdy shoes. She has just moved a shell above the mantelpiece for the third time.
"Jean's got an obsessive compulsive disorder," she says, explaining her character's fastidious nature. "In the old days it used to be known as fidgety, but now it's got a name to it."
"She's like Monica in Friends," laughs fellow Lillians' member Carol McGuigan. "Only more dressed down."
There's a great deal of light hearted earthy banter before the hard work begins, preparing for their performance of Get Up and Tie Your Fingers. It is a story which has clear ties to the North-East and contains strong female characters - an ideal production for their guild.
The aim of the guild has been to bring together the talented women of the region, the theatre producers, writers, directors, set designers and actors.
The group was formed by performer and director Fiona MacPherson, who is also a senior lecturer in performing arts at Northumbria University, and actresses Carol, from Byker, Jan, from Wallsend and Zoe Lambert of Newcastle.
It was Jan's idea to name the group a guild, a kind of sisterhood who could pool their talents and skills.
"We looked it up on Companies House and found there was already someone called The Guild so we thought of gilded lilies which led to a bit of a pun, the Guild of Lillians. It's quite funny because now we just say we're the Lillians - which makes us laugh and everyone you say it to laughs too - in a good way of course," says Jan, 48.
The women had been talking for years about setting up a production company which would allow women artists and the stories they portrayed to be pushed to the forefront.
"We'd seen a lot of plays where women's experiences were secondary to the story and we wanted to take those stories and give them a proper platform," says Fiona, 47.
An example, say the group, is the way in which women in the region don't always get the same artistic opportunities as their male counterparts.
"We know lots of talented women in the North-East who don't get half the opportunities, whereas we can showcase that talent," says Jan. "We find generally that the men's stories seem to be in the foreground and the woman are playing a supporting role to that.
"I wouldn't say it's sexist. I just think it's a fact of life that there are more parts for men and they can work until they're older without as much emphasis on what they look like."
Part of the reason for this could be that casting agents traditionally do not think of women playing some of the roles in their scripts, other than the archetypal mother or girlfriend roles.
"You can say 'what about that police officer there being a girl' and they've really never thought about it and they're like 'oh, I suppose so'," says Jan. "Or you get a character say, Lizzy, with 'drop dead gorgeous' written next to it whereas for a 45-year-old man it might say 'dark hair'.
"What we're interested in is good strong female characters. There will be male characters in our plays, but it's the foregrounding of women that we want to see."
Both Jan and Carol are seasoned performers and appeared in the film version of Billy Elliot, alongside the young Jamie Bell. Jan played Jamie's mum in a flashback scene and Carol was the librarian.
"He's a lovely lad," says Jan of Jamie, who has also featured in a radio series with her. "He had a really natural talent but he was quite modest about it too. No-one ever thought the film was going to be as successful as it was."
The Guild's first production is Get Up and Tie Your Fingers, the award-winning play by Berwick playwright Ann Coburn, which has provided an opportunity to involve 50 women. It is directed by Fiona, co-produced by Kay Hepplewhite, who works at the Sage, in Gateshead, and stars Carol, and Jan, and London actress Chloe Lang. The play has been re-worked to include an original score for women's voices by theatrical composer Karen Wimhurst, who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The production team has also made contact with modern day women in the fishing industry to record the sound of their voices and working environment as part of the soundscape of the piece.
When they were searching for a piece to perform, the women looked at what would be happening in the region at the time - the International Festival of Rivers and the Sea and Tall Ships race - and the story of Get Up and Tie My Fingers (the title refers to the practice of tying rags around your fingers to protect them from the gutting knife) seemed to fit perfectly.
It tells the story of three women in Eyemouth at the time of the 1881 fishing disaster. A total of 189 men lost their lives following a violent storm with many of their boats washed down the coast as far as South Shields. The play focuses on three women, their relationships - in particular the strong mother/daughter bond - and their struggle to cope with their losses.
"A lot of the play looks at loss and how different people deal with it," says Carol, who is also a writer and has seen the production before. "But it's also unusual because it's about the very tricky relationship between mother and daughter. The language is very beautiful."
THE Guild has also enlisted three women's choirs for each venue, which gives the piece a haunting edge. As a piece, it will be difficult to top but they are already looking ahead to their next project.
"What we hope for the future is that from every project we create we can plough some money and skills back into the Guild so that we can self-fund training, et cetera," says Jan. "We also hope to devise our own work so we can involve a much wider pool."
"The emphasis is on creating opportunities for women to showcase their talents as opposed to creating niche theatre," adds Fiona.
* Get Up and Tie Your Fingers is at The Sage, Gateshead, today at 2pm and 8pm. For more details on tickets contact 0191-443 4661.
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