Interview: ‘We Used To Be Girl Scouts’, Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective
Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Kate from Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective about their piece, We Used To Be Girl Scouts.
Tell us a bit about you and your career so far..
My name is Kate, I am an emerging director & theatremaker based in Edinburgh and I am making my Fringe directorial debut with a new show called “We Used to be Girl Scouts”. I am also the co-artistic director of Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective, a queer and women-led theatre company based in Edinburgh and London. I have been super fortunate to work with such great artists on this project, and I’m super excited for it to go up in August!
What is your show about?
“We Used to be Girl Scouts” is a new play by the brilliant Emery Schaffer, that tackles girlhood in all its strange and wonderful forms. Our show follows three 14-year-olds, Drew, Sasha, and Mary. Drew thinks she’s pregnant. Sasha loves her female best friend. And Mary’s home life is a dark pit of despair. Finding themselves crushed under the unbearable weight that is teenagerdom, they take to the woods to start anew. A triptych of the pain, joy, and big feelings that make up adolescent girlhood, this is the show we wish we had all those years ago.
What was the inspiration for the show and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?
“We Used to be Girl Scouts” emerged from a series of questions about growing up. What made up our own girlhood? And when did we finally reach that point when you go from ‘girl’ to ‘woman’? From there, we began to explore these ideas in the rehearsal room, and after several drafts, our show was born. It has been so exciting to see this story take shape and work with such creative artists, I can’t wait for others to see what we’ve managed to create.
What made you want to take We Used To Be Girl Scouts to the Fringe?
This is Hey Thanks! second year at the Fringe! We took our show “Kitchen Underwear” last year as our company’s debut production and were named one of Playbill's "Edinburgh-Based Companies to Watch". We are so excited to return this year with not one but two shows produced by our company! We Used to be Girl Scouts is in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier, and is the culmination of a year’s work of the MFA Acting for Stage and Screen students, and MFA Directing students. Our other show is the dark comedy “Yes We’re Related” in collaboration with Purple Door Productions. We can’t wait to be back at the festival this year and connect with other Fringe productions.
Apart from seeing your show, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?
Be sure to explore beyond the Fringe when visiting! Edinburgh is such a lovely city year-round and getting out of the festival madness can also be great!
Why should people book We Used To Be Girl Scouts?
If you want a show that’ll make you laugh, cry, is a lil gay AND just feels like a bug hug, this is the show for you
When and where can people see your show?
We Used to be Girl Scouts
August 4th-24th (even dates)
16:40 at theSpace
