NUMBER 14, Heworth Green, has its place in York's social history. It was the safe house for the York Suffragettes, but the house was later demolished, replaced by flats, and there is no commemorative blue plaque to mark the campaigning endeavours of 1913 onwards.

However, the suffragettes' revolutionary deeds, fighting for equality, are to be the subject of a new community play, Everything Is Possible, to be mounted this summer by York Theatre Royal and Pilot at the heart of a 2017 programme with a focus on female writers, directors and stories.

Written by Bridget Foreman, co-writer of the 2015 community play In Fog And Falling at the National Railway Museum, the production will be directed by Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster and her Pilot counterpart, Katie Posner, for a run from June 20 to July 1.

"This year is the 100th anniversary of when women got the vote, though we're not doing this play for that reason," says Juliet. "It came out of having meetings about doing a season of women's works. For a long while, Katie and I have said so far all the community plays in York have been men's stories despite two thirds of the applicants to be involved being women.

"So we wanted to do either an all-female production or a play with a female theme, and when York actress Barbara Marten became involved as the professional artist for the production, she wondered if there was a local story about Suffragettes that could be told.

"This was all before the film Suffragette came out in 2015, and so Barbara started researching and found some interesting people with stories that should be told, looking through books that covered the Suffragette movement."

York Press:

York actress Barbara Marten

Next, Krista Cowman, a University of Lincoln lecturer who lives in York, came on board. "Krista's specialism is the Suffragette movement, particularly in the regions, and she's also been the consultant for the film, so we're delighted to be working with her," says Juliet.

"We decided the Suffragettes would be the perfect piece for the next community production, and Bridget Foreman was the perfect person to write it as she'd already done In Fog And Falling Snow."

Juliet had played a key role in the first York community show, co-directing Anthony Minghella's Two Planks And A Passion with Riding Lights artistic director Paul Burbridge in the round at York Theatre Royal in 2011 as a precursor to the 2012 York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens.

"We had a cast of 70, double cast to split the shows between them, as part of the Theatre Royal ensemble season, and there are some people who have done every community play since then, such as the 2012 Mystery Plays, Blood + Chocolate and In Fog And Falling Snow," she says.

Juliet and Bridget have held open auditions for Everything Is Possible, assembling a company of 150 – two thirds women, one third men – who will be delegated their roles in the coming weeks.

Foreman's play will open in 1913 when women across Britain, outraged by inequality and prejudices, began to rise up and demand change. "In York, a revolution is about to take place as an ordinary Heworth housewife risks her life and her family to join the fight," outlines the brochure synopsis.

"And she's not alone. Across the city, women run safe houses, organise meetings, smash windows and fire-bomb pillar boxes. It's dangerous, it's exhilarating, it's ground-breaking, and in 2017 the amazing story of York's Suffragettes will be told for the first time."

It is shaping up to be the Theatre Royal show of the year, staged outside York Minster and on the main-house stage this summer. Tickets can be booked on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk