Rubie, Nina Scott and Polly Rowley-Sams as The Musical Spores / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Dan de la Motte and Nina Scott as Shaggy Ink Caps / Photo by Sonia Visual Storytelling
Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Rubie, Nina Scott and Polly Rowley-Sams as The Musical Spores / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
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.
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Nina is Producer, Director and Co-Writer 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 started as Nina's Applied Theatre MA dissertation and 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. Nina also produced the educational strand of the project, a series of workshops which explored the relationship between queer theory and fungi. All performances and workshops were sold out and received unanimously positive feedback from audience and participants. This project has a big life ahead of it so watch this space!
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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). Nina often runs Theatre of the Oppressed trainings in community and academic settings. 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nina loves to teach singing and song-making. They are a long standing member of queer choral collective F*Choir.
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Milla Harding as Mum and Amiot Hills as Kid / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Polly Rowley-Sams as Spore / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Dan de la Motte as Chanterelle / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Milla Harding as Stinky Squid / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Rubie, Nina Scott and Polly Rowley-Sams as The Musical Spores / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Dan de la Motte as Cordycep and Amiot Hils as Kid / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Dan de la Motte as The Judge / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Nina Scott as Spore and Polly Rowley-Sams as Spore / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Milla Harding as Bleeding Tooth Fungus / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
Milla Harding, Dan de la Motte and Amiot Hills as The Buttons / Photo by Tegid Cartwright
BE MORE MUSHROOM (NOV 2022-MARCH 2023)
Be More Mushroom is a raucous, educational musical for kids and grown ups about what fungi can teach us about ourselves and the world around us.
Directed and Produced by Nina Scott and written by Nina Scott and Dan de la Motte.
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Funded by Arts Council England
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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 was conceived by Nina Scott and created 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.
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The Team:
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Conceived, Produced and Directed by: Nina Scott
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Written by: Nina Scott and Dan de la Motte
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Performers: Milla Harding, Amiot Hills and Dan de la Motte
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Musical Spores: Polly Rowley-Sams, Rubie, Nina Scott
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Assistant Producer and Assistant Director: Dan de la Motte
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Set and Costume Designer: Emily Rees-Haynes
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Clowning Support: Ella the Great
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Lighting Design: Matt Mead
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Social Media Support: Vida Adamczewski
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Illustrator: Katie Gulson
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Dramaturgy Support: Sam Bainbridge
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Photos: Tegid Cartwright
Song List:
Spores Like Us: Lyrics and Music by Polly Rowley-Sams
That’s just the way it is: Lyrics by Nina Scott and Dan de la Motte, Music by Nina Scott and Rubie
Meet the Mycelium: Lyrics and Music by Polly Rowley-Sams and Rubie
Welcome to Chanterelle's: Lyrics and Music by Nina Scott
The Sound of You: Music by Nina Scott, Rubie and Polly Rowley-Sams
Birth of the Earth: Music by Rubie and Polly Rowley-Sams
Truffle Song: Lyrics by Dan de la Motte, Music by Rubie
Zombie Ant Blues: Music by Rubie
Split Gill Song: Lyrics by Nina Scott, Music by Rubie
I am not an I: Lyrics and Music by Nina Scott
What does it mean to be more mushroom?: Lyrics and Music by the ensemble (with additional lyrics by Polly Rowley-Sams)
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