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Francesca Beard © Carlos Cazurro
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Francesca Beard was born in Malaysia and grew up in the 1970s in Penang, an idyllic island paradise. She is a writer, performer and workshop leader. Beard has toured at home and around the world as a solo artist, in various poetry collectives and with her solo show “Chinese Whispers”.
She represents British literature for the British Council all over the world and was Lead Artist for Speechless, a three-year programme in the whole of East Asia, which culminated in an appearance in the Royal Festival Hall by aspiring poets from Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Her children’s show Animal Olympics, developed in collaboration with the Chinese Arts Center and the Soho Theatre, was premiered at the Imagine Children’s Festival on the South Bank before going on tour around Britain and throughout the world. She has written plays for BBC Radio 4 and in 2008 was involved with the Royal Court Theatre as one of the UK’s most exciting young writers.
Publications:
White Open Spaces, Oberon Books Ltd, 2006
The Dictionary of Lost and Found Ideas: An Anthology by the First Story Group at Saint Gabriel's College, First Story Limited, 2018