Photo by Sonia Visual Storytelling
Photo by Sonia Visual Storytelling
Nina (they/them) is a political theatre maker and educator based in London. Their work is celebratory, immersive and collaborative, exploring different creative tools for social change.
Nina is Artistic Director of 'Be More Mushroom', their theatre project which explores the many intersections of queer theory and fungi and asks: 'what can mushrooms teach us about identity, society and power?'. Be More Mushroom is being developed as part of an artists residency at St. Margaret's House with Dan de la Motte and a group of queer mycologists, performers and musicians. You can buy tickets for Be More Mushroom here. Nina has also designed three corresponding workshops: Introduction to Queer Theory and Queer Fungi, Make Music Like Mushrooms and Make Theatre Like Fungi.
Nina is an experienced educator and facilitator. They regularly work with ULEX, recently delivering 'Integral Activist Training' and Creative Tools for Social Change' in Catalonia for 50 activists in Europe (2022). They're also an accomplished producer, recently programming and producing Rebel Soul's Queer Takeover Day at Shambala (August 2022), a series of workshops exploring what it means to 'queer', why it's important and how to practically implement 'queering'.
Nina often runs creative trainings in community, educational and arts settings in Theatre of the Oppressed. They trained with Jana Sanskriti, Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed and have lectured at Queen Mary's, Roehampton, UEL and Rose Bruford. They produced and delivered Theatre of the Oppressed for Housing Justice and Theatre of the Oppressed for Renters Rights (Concrete Action and London Renters Union 2019-2021) using theatre to teach eviction resistance and housing rights.
Nina was Artistic Director of You Should see the Other Guy Theatre (2014-2022), a London based grassroots collective made up of queer and women artists which worked on and off stage to tackle housing injustice. Nina has co-written and directed YSSTOG's Land of the Three Towers (Camden People's Theatre 2015-2019), a series of verbatim musicals which were performed on London housing estates. The plays share different methods of resisting gentrification and regeneration. Land of the Three Towers: Vol I has been published in Radical Housing: Art Struggle and Care (ed, Ana Valencia, 2021) which can be downloaded and ordered here.
Nina's baby (pun intended) is Womb with a View (WINNER Best Festival Venue, IAF 2017, WINNER Shambala micro-venues competition 2016), an immersive venue which gives birth to new ideas and an interactive performance which gives birth to YOU. The womb sets out to queer narratives of wombs, childbirth and parenthood. In 2021 Nina received Developing Your Creative Practice Funding to develop Womb with a View, exploring queering trans healthcare and telling the story of birth through cabaret, song and silliness.
Nina has designed celebrated costumes for award winning companies including Kill the Beast's He Had Hairy Hands (WINNER Peter Brook Festival Award, WINNER Manchester Theatre Awards, BBC Top Pick of the Fringe) and The Boy Who kicked Pigs.
Nina loves to teach singing and song-making. They are a long standing member of queer choral collective F*Choir and sing in Kate and Nina Scott, a band with their identical twin sister.
 'Politics Swap' Workshop @ Borealis Festival of Experimental Music, 2020 Photo Credits: Johanne Karlsrud/Borealis and Thor Brødreskift/Borealis |  'Politics Swap' Workshop @ Borealis Festival of Experimental Music, 2020 Photo Credits: Johanne Karlsrud/Borealis and Thor Brødreskift/Borealis |
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 'Politics Swap' Workshop @ Borealis Festival of Experimental Music, 2020 Photo Credits: Johanne Karlsrud/Borealis and Thor Brødreskift/Borealis |
THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
Core to Nina's theatre making methodology is games, exercised and techniques taken from Theatre of the Oppressed (TO).
Nina has used TO in a variety of arts education contexts including: training renters in their housing rights, working with the Trans Sex Worker Union in Kalkutta, West Bengal to resist the Trans Bill and implementing it as a radical tool to teach English as a Second Language. In 2021 they delivering Theatre of the Oppressed trainings for Molly's Masquerade at St. Margaret's House, using TO to explore historical and contemporary queer identities.
Nina regularly delivers Theatre of the Oppressed workshop trainings with ULEX and guest lecturered at Rose Bruford, Queen Mary, Roehampton and UEL. They have designed and delivered their own training sessions collaborating with London Renters Union, Concrete Action and Eviction Resistance Network to creatively teach about housing rights.