Modern Day Suffragette Is On The Map

A Lancashire women’s activist has won a coveted place on a prestigious map, celebrating history making women of modern Britain. Preston based actress and women’s rights campaigner, Claire Moore was voted one of the women of ‘Suffragette Spirit’ following a nationwide search for worthy contenders by Amnesty International..

Claire, who plays the onstage version of Preston’s first ever Suffragette, Edith Rigby, has been a staunch advocate of women’s rights for nearly thirty years, writing and touring her plays, internationally, with her theatre company Certain Curtain Theatre. Claire founded the company in 1989, with the aim of producing dynamic, original dramas, tackling difficult subjects, particularly domestic violence and touring them to community spaces across the UK.

“I didn’t expect such an honour,”says Claire, who is currently rehearsing her role as Edith Rigby, in ‘Woman On Fire’, which will begin its national tour at the end of April.

“I’ve worked under the radar for many years, too wrapped up in my work, to consider such things! But it is a great honour to be voted onto the map by people who know my work! Thank you!”

As well as her theatre work, Claire also created the ‘Dead Women Walking March’ an annual event, every IDEVAW (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) in November to commemorate the many women killed by men they know, over the previous year.

“This is very important to me,” Claire adds. “It is vital that we are constantly reminded of this shocking waste of women’s lives and that they are not forgotten. I will continue my work come what may, for as long as I can.”

Writer and director of ‘Woman On Fire’ John Woudberg adds, “Claire thoroughly deserves every honour that comes her way. She is a woman of great spirit and tremendous courage which she brings to the part of Edith Rigby and Claire would certainly have been one of the first suffragettes, in 1903 - Edith would be proud of her!”