Visibility

Abstract

This chapter explores how members of the Actresses' Franchise League displayed their support for the suffrage movement in public space, and how such displays were an important and highly visible public and private strategy that encouraged collective action and activism and saw League members campaign directly on the streets, particularly through processions and the selling of suffrage newspapers. The plays and articles that emerged as part of this visibility give a new perspective on how actresses interacted with the public and how they reflected upon it themselves, and this chapter looks in detail at how interactions between the public and suffragists were absorbed into the performative strategies of the campaign, both on stage and in print. This chapter also details the way the theatrical newspaper the Era represented the campaign and the League to its readership.