Persistent and Nasty

Today Elaine chats with dancer, performer, choreographer Charlotte McLean about her career, the power of dance and the everything that surrounds menstrual health and the womb and Charlotte’s new work Futuristic Folktales. Which was co-created by an exciting multi-disciplinary creative team including Helen McIntosh, Nelly Kelly, Malin Lewis, Astro Scheidegger, Orrow Bell, Alison Brown, Emma Jones, and Rob Evans, Futuristic Folktales is a collaboration-driven show that aims to disrupt, and refresh expected formats of performance through radical and emotive explorations of reproductive justice and injustice, body politics, bodily autonomy, and identity.

Futuristic Folktales

Futuristic Folktales tells the momentous story of the first womb - an environment where life and death intimately coexist. Humbly attempting to unify humanity through the infinite narrative of birth, the show experiments with contemporary, breaking, and Scottish Highland dance to probe questions of tradition, preservation, myth, and identity. The performers share their unique perspectives, as Orrow and Astro intimately birth and unbirth each other. Inviting audiences to feel resistance as the performance imitates the hostile, terse environment of the womb, the show seeks to further dance as a form of political protest - otherwise, why dance?

Charlotte Mclean's work amalgamates dance theatre, improvisation, voice work, imagination, self-celebration, radical listening and joy. Charlotte is a contemporary dance artist from Arbroath, Scotland and a London Contemporary Dance School graduate. She has performed and worked internationally with Curious Seed, Eva Recacha, Pink Mama Theatre, Hannes Langolf, Jack Webb, Vanessa Cook and Barrowland Ballet amongst many others. Charlotte is co-founder of BADBODYCHAOSCODE (fka The Yonis) with Haley Jayne Gash and founder of sibling company Die Berner Band. Both are contemporary movement bands. They have been commissioned to perform at Edinburgh and Camden Fringe Festivals, Brainchild Festival, V&A London, The Place, TANZhAUS Bern and Dampfzentrale and have been featured in Dazed and Confused Magazine. The bands have toured in the UK, Poland, France, Germany, Switzerland and New York City.

Charlotte began her dancing career with Highland, a traditional Scottish form of movement and taught this from a young age. She has always been passionate about teaching and sharing. She has taught at London Contemporary Dance School; Scottish Dance Theatre; Dance Base Edinburgh, TanzBüro Basel and now teaches at Barbara Bortoli Ballet School. She also worked at The Royal Ballet School for two years as Associate Centre Assistant.

Website: iamcharlottemclean.com

Instagram: @iamcharlottemclean

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Resources

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A surprise extra episode this week.

Elaine chats with writer Claire S Duffy. We chat everything from screen writing, Old Hollywood, first dates and her book event on the 13th April 2024 at St Enoch Centre Glasgow for her series Shadow City. Where Claire will be joined by actress Kirsty Strain for a Q&A.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-author-cs-duffy-tickets-868880824937

Claire S Duffy

CS Duffy is an indie author from Glasgow, Scotland. She was a screenwriter for over a decade until she caught herself cycling past a production company giving it the finger and decided she didn’t like who the film industry was turning her into. She quit, got a job at a day-care in Stockholm, Sweden, and wrote her first novel while her class of one year olds napped. She has worked in an oil refinery in Ohio and was once almost arrested for carrying a full-sized oar on the London tube. When she’s not writing, she can be found trying (and failing) to learn trapeze, volunteering at her local hospital or nipping to Paris for the weekend because it’s the only place on earth worth online dating.

Linktree: csduffywriter

Instagram: @csduffywriter

TikTok: @csduffywriter

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OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

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We’re back and it’s a special episode we have for you. It’s our first live podcast panel event. Which was in collaboration with Short Circuit. We are over the moon with this collab as it’s allowed us the bring you

The Women In Film: Braking Barriers and Changing Narratives panel discussion with three incredible women. Nikki Parrott, Raisah Ahmed and Sarah Grant.

Statement on the future of Short Circuit shortcircuit.scot/delivery-statement

Nikki Parrott

Tigerlily Productions is a multi-award-winning independent production company with a reputation for tackling powerful subject matter with sensitivity and artistry. Their output covers scripted and non- scripted documentaries, arts and music, history and current affairs across a range of media. In 2018, Tigerlily Two in Scotland was formed with the purpose of exploring new talent and stories outside London, and to be a prominent co-producer for international projects and teams. It is run

out of Glasgow and headed by Nikki as Managing Director.

In their first three years, they co-produced two feature documentaries POLY STYRENE I AM A CLICHÉ, which won two BIFAs including best documentary, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? which premiered

at Sundance, and produced HONG KONG MIX TAPE, which premiered at Glasgow Film Festival this year and Hot Docs Toronto.

WBSITE

RAISAH AHMED

Raisah Ahmed is a Screenwriter and Director who works across film and television. She has been working with Producer Zorana Piggott and Film4 on a feature project called Half-Moon Camp which looks at the journey of Indian Muslim Soldiers in WW1 as well as developing Safar a cross generational female road trip film with Zorana. Other credits include directing on CBBC’s Sparks, Princess Mirror-Belle and Molly & Mack, BBC3’s The Break and writing on BBC The Social’s phone drama Control, CBBC’s Molly & Mack and the recently announced WB Discovery animated series ’Toad and Friends'. She has been part of the writers room for Season 1 and 2 of Ch4 Series ‘We Are Lady Parts’ and often consults on tv and film projects with a focus on Muslim and South Asian characters. She is currently developing the adaptation of Martin Sixsmith’s ‘Ayesha’s Gift’ for television with Freedom Scripted, on which she’s also an EP. She is also developing ’Nur’ a 6 part original romcom for television with Channel X Hopscotch. As well as writing and directing, Raisah also sits on the BAFTA Scotland Committee, the board of the Scottish Youth Film Foundation and Bijli Productions, and chairs the Glasgow Film Festival Industry Advisory Group.

WEBSITE:www.raisahahmed.com

SARAH GRANT

Sarah is a writer, director and performer based in Glasgow. She has a number of BAFTA qualifying shorts under her belt, and has created short-form work for BBC The Social and BBC Short Stuff, gaining tens of millions of views across digital and social media. She is moving towards writing and directing long form for film and television, shadowing Jack Clough as part of the BBC Comedy Bursary, and other programmes such as Young Films Residency, BAFTA Flare, the EIFF Talent Lab,

and UKTV Comedy 50:50 pilot initiative. She also has work in development with BBC Studios, Candle and Bell, and Northbridge Media. Sarah is committed to creating body positive, sex positive and inclusive female-led stories that are honest, feminist and fearless.

WEBSITE: www.sarahgrantcreative.com

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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WE WILL BE BACK IN 2024 UNTIL THEN #STAYNASTY

In our last episode of the year. Elaine and Louise chat about the growth of Persistent and Nasty their individual achievements and what they’re looking forward to for 2024.

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OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

Email – [email protected]

Instagram - @persistentandnasty

Twitter - @PersistentNasty

Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

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Today Elaine and Louise chat with the brilliant artist Jordy Joans. We chat Jordy’s path into the industry, music, drag, wring your own material, the struggle of autobiographical performance and so, so much more.

Jory will be putting a callout out in January/February 2024 for their final Drag show in June of 2024 so please follow all of Jordy’s socials, so you don’t miss out.

Jordy Joans

Jordy Joans is an award winning non binary & trans femme artist from Edinburgh, Scotland, who works across the UK creating work for theatre, film and music. They focus their creative work on human psychology, and she also presents for podcast and radio platforms sharing stories rooted in overcoming adversity and trauma. Their monthly show ‘Songs That Shape’ features with EHFM on the second Thursday of the month, a show where artists share their creative journeys and the music that inspired them along the way - and even had the fabulously talented Elaine from Persistent and Nasty as a guest in summer this year. Their second radio show ‘EMpower’ is showcased by Voices Radio in London, on the second Tuesday of the month and includes empowering songs that help audiences unleash their inner diva front and centre stage. Jordy’s been DJing and performing for over a decade, starting in LGBT spaces as ‘just for a laugh’ and now holds residencies in venues across Scotland. Infusing house, disco, pop edits and party classics in most of their set lists. Over the years, this work has included working with celebrities: B*Witched, Jedward, Tulisa, Kerry Katona, Rupaul’s Drag Race UK & US, N Trance, HRH Prince Edward and more. Jordy previously has been under commission with the BBC, National Theatre of Scotland, SMHAF, Aberdeen Performing Arts and Creative Youth (London) - just to name a wee few. Since 2020, Jordy has been working as a Vocalist and Producer, with several songs due for release in 2024. Their first track ‘Not Again’ is a story of learning to love yourself again and leaving a toxic relationship behind, which was released with record label Lady of the House in July this year.

Website: thejordyjoansofficial.com

Radio Show: EHfm - Songs that shape

Instagram: @thejordyjoansofficial

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OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

Email – [email protected]

Instagram - @persistentandnasty

Twitter - @PersistentNasty

Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE

ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK - ASN.COM- DONATE

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Today Elaine and Louise chat with director and designer of UGLY! A Cinderella Story which is on now until the 30th December at Cumbernauld Theatre. The show it was written by Gary McNair with original songs by Brian James O’Sullivan. We chat being women in theatre, breaking out of the box you’ve been placed in. Dismantling the outdated gender norms while bring everyone with us and glitter.

A brilliant episode with brilliant humans

UGLY! A Cinderella Story – Tickets Here

https://lanternhousearts.org/events/ugly-a-cinderella-story/ - dates

An Afternoon of Palestinian Short Films – Tickets Here

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/glasgow/glasgow-film-theatre/an-afternoon-of-palestinian-short-films/e-pgomab

Jo Rush

Jo is co-artistic director of new writing company Braw Fox Theatre. As a director she has premiered new work at the Edinburgh Fringe including Ivory Wings (Coreth Arts), Mary the Last Farewell (Cutting Edge Theatre), The Society of Ethical Cat Burglars (Foolproof Theatre), and Hide & Seek, based on the short stories of Carol Ann Duffy. With Braw Fox she is currently developing a new play about fire supported by the University of Edinburgh.As an associate director she has most recently worked on My Friend Selma by Terra Incognita, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil with National Theatre of Scotland, and the premiere and tour of Fringe First Award winning production Stand By with Utter Theatre Company. As an assistant director she has worked at Dundee Rep on Death of a Salesman, at the Traverse Theatre on Bloody Trams and The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, and at the Royal Lyceum on Dark Road.

Jo has a BA Hons degree in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham.

Natasha Jenkins

Natasha studied Film Theatre and Television at the University of Glasgow. She was the first generation and the first woman in her family to study, gaining her MA in 2006. After a time working for Purni Morell as an assistant producer in Scotland Natasha moved to London and worked as a stage manager to support herself as she retrained, assisting directors and designers for several years before making her own work. She is a regular artistic collaborator of Alexander Zeldin, Joy Wilkinson and Amir Reza Khoonestani and works regularly within the UK, Europe and Internationally. Natasha was nominated for 2023 Drama Desk Award for Best Scenic Design for LOVE at Park Avenue Armory, New York. Natasha is an associate artist at Live Theatre Newcastle. Natasha is a founding member of Scene/Change. Her first feature 7 Keys (dir. Joy Wilkinson) is currently in post production for Jeva Films.

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE

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This week Elaine chats with artist Aqsa Arif about her work, her new project Anam Ki Almari at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the importance of intergenerational conversations and the need for true representation.

Anam Ki Almari is showing at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum from November 2023-April 2024.

https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/news/new-exhibition-at-kelvingrove-art-gallery-and-museum-explores-glasgow-s-links-to-slavery-and-empire

https://aestheticafilmfestival.filmchief.com/hub

Aqsa Arif

Aqsa Arif is an award-winning Scottish-Pakistani artist and filmmaker based in Glasgow. She incorporates film, printmaking, photography and poetry to construct installations in which she explores themes of dual heritage, migration and cultural dissonance. Her practice is deeply inspired by narrative structures built within folklore, mythology and cinematic spaces,

exploring this through her own dual identity to reclaim and re-imagine the pre/post-colonial world. Her film Spicy Pink Tea has been selected for BAFTA qualifying festivals and won Best Dance Film at Aesthetica Film Festival and was nominated for the Young Scottish Filmmaker prize in Glasgow Short Film Festival. Arif was selected to undertake the 20/20 residency by UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute: a 15-month residency at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum leading to her first solo exhibition, Anam Ki Almari (The Trophy Cupboard) and 20 new permanent acquisitions in 20 UK public art collections. In 2023, she was awarded the Platform: Early Career Artist Award as well as the RSA Morton Award. She has also been nominated for the major national touring exhibition, Jerwood Survey III, launching at Southwark Park Galleries in March 2024 and touring in Cardiff, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

https://www.aqsaarif.com/

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

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Spooky Season maybe officially over but not here at Persistent and Nasty. We still have amazing creepy stories for you so stay tuned.

Our final spooky tales is here.

W.I.T.C.H. written by Louise Oliver and performed by Misha McCullagh and Elaine Stirrat

Louise Oliver

Louise is an actor, writer and producer based in Glasgow. She has a Masters in Theatre Studies from the University of Glasgow and trained as an actor at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. You can find out more about her work at her website www.mslouiseoliver.com.

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE

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Spooky Season maybe officially over but not here at Persistent and Nasty. We still have amazing creepy stories for you so stay tuned.

Our next episode of the final 3 spooky tales is.

Home Body written by Rowan Heggie and performed by Amelia Donkor.

Rowan Heggie

Rowan (they/them) is an actor, writer, clown, and visual artist. They have collaborated with artists and companies to develop new works of performance and theatre, and work with Stellar Quines on their Younger Quines project in Fife. Rowan is a poet and developing playwright, having performed their first commissioned text at the UK Asexuality Conference in 2019. Their current project is a one-person show about bodies, food and grief, performed as part of Summerhall Surgeries at Edinburgh Fringe, 2023.

https://rowan-studio.com/

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

Email – [email protected]

Instagram - @persistentandnasty

Twitter - @PersistentNasty

Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE

ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK - ASN.COM- DONATE

WeAudition offer:

For 25% off your monthly subscription quote:

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Spooky Season maybe officially over but not here at Persistent and Nasty. We still have amazing creepy stories for you so stay tuned.

Our next episode is the third of the final 3 spooky tales.

The Inertia Years written by Ambrose Kelly and performed by Performed by Paula Nugent.

Ambrose Kelly

Ambrose Kelly (she/her) is a 25-year old writer and multidisciplinary artist living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She currently works in Arts and Culture. Working across fiction, poetry, visual arts and hopeful future forays into film and video, Ambrose probes ideas of 'the family'; disease and illness; the shift from girlhood to womanhood; gothic tragedy; and the ghosts that stay with us across our lives, and after. She has been published by Leamington Books as the introductory essayist for their reprint of The Crux by Charlotte Perkins-Gillman; her poem 'April' was selected for publication by The Pandemic Post in 2021; and she reviews books for SNACK Magazine. Ambrose loves the macabre and dressing up in ridiculous outfits in her spare time.

OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

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Email – [email protected]

Instagram - @persistentandnasty

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Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets

LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE

Resources

Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK

ArtsMinds - BAPAM

Freelancers Make Theatre Work

Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK

Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE

ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK - ASN.COM- DONATE

WeAudition offer:

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