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.
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HE HAD HAIRY HANDS (2016)
Writer: Kill the Beast
Performers: David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Ollie Jones, Zoe Roberts
Director: Clem Garritty
Lighting Designer: Elliot Griggs
Animator: Alex Purcell
Model Box Design: Clem Garritty & Bryan Woltjen
Sound Design: Ed Borgnis & David Cumming
Costume Design: Nina Scott & Rachel Schofield Owen
Music: Ben Osborn & Kill the Beast
WINNER - Best Studio Production, Manchester Theatre Awards
WINNER - Peter Brooke Award
"The grotesque performance style and production design gives the whole production a feel and aesthetic that is unique and sets itself ahead of many other theatre shows on at the Fringe. Kill The Beast have absolute bags of ingenuity and this ludicrously inventive show cements them as one theatre company who are destined for huge things". **** Broadway Baby
"Where the company really stand out is in the fine-tuned detail of their aesthetic. Each scene has the comic rigour of a perfectly crafted sketch, yet these delicious scraps of narrative also manage to stitch seamlessly into a full-length show. The tone, look and plot are all remarkably consistent, executed with a boldness and wit that more established companies would kill for" - Whats on Stage
"He Had Hairy Hands is a gloriously dark show riddled with wit and real theatrical cleverness, all topped off with beautiful animation and costumes". **** Play to See
"This 1970s supernatural murder mystery oozes with fast-paced, highly visual jokes, deliciously gruesome details and tasteful quantities of green slime. The quick rotation of characters, costumes and accents makes for a jam-packed show" **** The Skinny
"This year, the black and white expressionist world they created for Boy Who Kicked Pigs has snapped into nicotine-stained 70’s colour. The projected backdrops, animated by Alex Purcell from hand-constructed box-sets created by Brian Woltjen and Clem Garritty, are as beautiful and witty as ever, as are the horrific costumes from Nina Scott and Rachel Owen" **** Exeunt Magazine
"Painted with grotesque beauty" - Festmag
"Kill the Beast goes the extra mile in this fast-paced comedy thriller. Everything down to the last detail is thoroughly well thought out – from the costumes to the makeup to the props, all flecked with grime and mould to create the sinister netherworld of a town under siege by a crazed killer" **** A Younger Theatre