How to Survive a Poison Apple

Mindy Dillard is a very talented singer with a Broadway-calibre voice.  She is also an eating disorder survivor.  This is the story of her eating disorder and how it impacted her and those around her.

Mindy starts the show by picking up the book “You are a beautiful Princess  – Instruction #1 Making yourself Perfect”. This is the start of the instructions on the how’s and why’s of having an eating disorder in order to satisfy the world and the voices in her head.  This is a very personal story that Dillard said that she had to share with people as it is important.

A mixture of stories and songs, that take you on the journey that Dillard lived and helps us understand why it happened, how it happened and how she survived.  This show is engaging at times and lets us see a side to this disease that we not have seen before. Using the instruction manual we see the pressures that society places on young women and the ridiculous hoops that they are expected to jump through to be pretty, to be a good girl, to be thin, to be a Princess. 

The show is a bit silent and awkward in places.  She has to retune her guitar every time she plays it, which did get annoying. However Dillard is easy to watch on stage, is incredibly honest in sharing her story and as I said has an amazing voice.

Performances will partially benefit the Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders.

Mindy Dillard reminds us that we are all worth loving…and we have been all along.