By Ann Kreitman, playwright and director

England’s Splendid Daughters was born out of a quest to understand my lesbian lineage. As queer people, we must seek out our own history because until very recently, no one could teach it to us. As I traced back my bloodline, I found a rich history of lesbians and queer women as caretakers for the community. From nuns, to ambulance drivers, to nurses, to blood donors, to organizers, there is something inherent in our care for each other.

As we round the second year marker of a deadly global pandemic, this story feels more and more relevant every day. We must figure out how to protect of each other, how to speak the truth, how to build community, and most of all, how to stay soft in a crushing world.

Inspired by their very memoirs, England’s Splendid Daughters is an attempt to capture what it felt like to be a queer ambulance driver in World War One. For an evening, you can step into their boots, spend time in the room with our ancestors, and hopefully take home some of their bravery.