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.
BE MORE MUSHROOM (NOV 2022-MARCH 2023)
Artistic Director: Nina Scott
Collaborator, Co-Writer and Performer: Dan de la Motte
Musical Spores: Polly Rowley-Sams, Rubie
Performers: Amiot Hills, Mills Harding
Designer: Emily Rees-Haynes
Movement Support: Ella the Great
Social Media Support: Vida Adamczewski
Illustrator: Katie Gulson
Producer: Sam Bainbridge
Kid does not 'fit in’ to Mum's pristine garden. Where everything has its place. Where there’s no room for anything peculiar. Like Kid. And like the giant yellow Chanterelle mushroom that appears one afternoon behind the washing line emitting bubbles, disco lights and... is that... a compilation of queer pop hits remixed to a satisfying techno beat?
When Mum goes on a mission of mushroom destruction Kid must befriend the musical spores, ride the mycelial network under the garden and visit 'Chanterelle’s’: a place with no Morel's (that's a mushroom joke) where the floors are sticky, the clientele is icky and the top class cabaret performances leave Kid with more questions than answers.
You are invited to, Be More Mushroom, a raucous, musical extravaganza for kids and grown ups that will immerse you in the fungal queerdom - a world that's all around you, you just don't know it yet!
Be More Mushroom is created by Nina Scott in collaboration with Dan de la Motte and a group of queer mycologists, performers, artists and musicians. This was made possible by funding from Arts Council England and support from St. Margaret's House as part of their Artist in Residence Programme.
BUY TICKETS FOR OUR PERFORMANCES ON MARCH 25TH AND 26TH