Rubie, Nina Scott and Polly Rowley-Sams as The Musical Spores / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Nina (they/them) is a political theatre maker, musician, performer and educator based in Glasgow. Their work is celebratory, immersive and collaborative, exploring different creative tools for social change.
Nina is Director, Co-Writer & ensemble performer of Be More Mushroom, a raucous, educational musical for kids and grown ups exploring what fungi can teach us about identity, power and society. Be More Mushroom was developed as part of a residency at St. Margaret's House with Dan de la Motte and a group of queer performers, musicians and mycologists. It was recently performed at Queer Nature: After Hours at Kew Gardens and will be developed further in 2024. Alongside the show is multiple workshops for all ages creatively engaging with Queer Theory and Fungi.
Nina has been interviewed about Be More Mushroom for Mushroom People 2 (Fall 2024). You can buy this gorgeous magazine for mycophiles here.
Nina is an experienced educator and facilitator. They currently lecture on the BA Theatre for Social Change course at Rose Bruford Drama School, teaching Creative Campaigning and Producing in Practice. Nina regularly works in Catalonia with ULEX, co-designing and delivering courses for activists across Europe including: 'Theatre of the Oppressed' (Nov 2023) 'Integral Activist Training' (Oct 2024, 2023 & 2022) and 'Creative Tools for Social Change' (April 2022).
Alongside Emer Mary Morris, 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-produced, 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. The script of 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, Independent Association of Festivals Award, 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.
A core part of Nina's practice is singing and song-making and they are a long standing member of queer choral collective F*Choir. They sing and play bass in Rubie.
 '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 & facilitation methodology is games & exercises taken from Theatre of the Oppressed (TO).
Over the past ten years 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 Kolkata to resist the Trans Bill, teaching refugees & migrants ESOL & exploring queer identities.
Nina regularly delivers Theatre of the Oppressed workshop trainings with ULEX (activist training in Catalunya) and lecturers at Rose Bruford, Queen Mary, Roehampton and UEL. They trained with Jana Sanskriti, STOP Theatre, Cardboard Citizens & Reboot the Roots.