Episode 159: Summer Camp for Broken People - Emily Beecher

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2023 SERIES
TRIGGER WARNING: EPISODE HAS REFERENCES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT, POST NATAL PSYCHOSIS.
Elaine and Louise chat with Emily Beecher about her Edinburgh Festival show Summer Camp for Broken People. The origins of the show in reaction to a SA that happened to Emily and her subsequent breakdown and stay at the priory.
We chat about the process of writing the piece and the discussions Emily had with many different focus groups, the misogyny around what a survivor “should look like”.
We discuss being a single mum in our industry, why representation is vital and the ups and downs and the joy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

SUMMER CAMP FOR BROKEN PEOPLE
A dark comedy about rape, losing your mind and finding yourself. After a violent sexual assault, a 40-something single mum thinks she's fine, until an unexpected email sends her spiralling into a serious mental health crisis. This semi-autobiographical solo show is based on diary entries, letters and essays written during time in a psychiatric hospital. This new show by Emily Beecher shines a light into the darkest of places. It's a bold, brave show about how mental illness infects our lives and our capacity for pain.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/summer-camp-for-broken-people
EMILY BEECHER
Emily Beecher is a creative, writer, producer, story consultant and proud single mama to her gregarious daughter. She is the creator and Founding Mother of The Good Enough Mums Club - a musical that grew out of her experience with severe postnatal depression and postnatal psychosis. At the prompting of her therapist, Beecher began to journal her experiences while juggling the demands of a newborn. During 2014 The Good Enough Mums Club played to sold-out audiences and four-star reviews and was covered extensively in the media. Emily was interviewed for The Guardian, The Independent, Evening Standard, Woman's Hour, and she appeared on ABC breakfast television in Australia. She was also a keynote speaker at the Brit Mums conference, where she led a writing class for mums. Emily has written for The Guardian, ‘alive’ and ‘blush’ magazines (Canada) and has consulted on several commercials, video games, film scripts and the ‘Patient Zero’ comic book series. She wrote a regular column, Tantrums & Tinder, about dating as a single mother for Motherlode magazine. As a content producer, Emily’s had the pleasure of working with clients such as Proctor & Gamble, Hasbro, Kelloggs, Universal, Nintendo, Nickelodeon, Mattel, Somerset House, Warner Brothers, the English National Ballet, and the Labour Party. Short films Emily has co-produced, co-written, and performed in have been shown in London, Paris, Berlin, Vancouver, Cannes, Tokyo, Mexico and Bolivia. For four years she worked at The Walt Disney Company as a marketing and events manager for Healthy Living. Here she created and launched campaigns such as Healthily Ever After and the Finding Dory Inspired Family Swim Sessions which were rolled out to 450 pools across the country. She also worked on the Disney & PHE Change4Life 10 Minute Shake Up campaign as well as the Incredibles 24 Hour Challenge.
Emily holds a postgraduate diploma in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and an MA in Creative Writing and Publishing (Distinction) from the University of Lincoln and The Guardian.
Website - https://emilybeecher.com/
OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk
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Resources
Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK
ArtsMinds - BAPAM
Freelancers Make Theatre Work
Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK
Switchboard LGBT+ - GA