Persistent and Nasty

We chat with ThickSkin producer Steph Connell, Associate Producer Carla Marina Almeida, Lighting Designer Zoe Spurr and Composer & Sound Designer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite about their work on the incredible How Not To Drown.

ABOUT THE SHOW

A painful yet uplifting true story of a child asylum-seeker arriving in the UK. At 11 years old, Dritan is sent on the notoriously perilous journey across the Adriatic to a new life in Europe, only to continue his fight for survival in the British care system. 'I don’t know why my Dad let me go... I was too young, too weak, to make this journey. He wouldn’t have sent me unless there was a reason'. Award-winning theatre company ThickSkin (Chalk Farm, The Static) returns to the stage with an action-packed, highly visual production. www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com

Catch the show until 25-Aug (ex 12th + 19th) at various times (see the Traverse website for times on your desired date). Book your tickets at https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/how-not-to-drown

Written by Nicola McCartney & Dritan Kastrati

Director & Co-Choreographer

How Not To Drown is a ThickSkin and Traverse Theatre Company production, co-produced with Tron Theatre and Lawrence Batley Theatre.

Commissioned by ThickSkin and Lawrence Batley Theatre.

Supported by November Productions and Citizens Theatre. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and Creative Scotland.

Part of Made in Scotland 2019.

Developed with support from Creative Scotland, Tron Theatre and University of Edinburgh.

Follow them...

on Twitter @thickskintweets

on IG @thickskintheatre

W: https://www.thickskintheatre.co.uk

Another fabulous afternoon was spent chatting with team behind Bobby and Amy. Bobby and Amy is a new dark comedy about foot-and-mouth disease by Fringe First winning Emily Jenkins.

ABOUT THE SHOW

It's the late nineties, Take That, Tamagotchis, Dip Dabs, and Pog Swaps. When 13 year old Bobby and Amy meet, hundreds of cows dot across the fields and the sun always shines. But when the cows begin to burn, Bobby and Amy’s sleepy Cotswold town faces a catastrophe that will change their home forever. Set amongst the devastation that hit farming communities in the late nineties; Bobby & Amy explores friendship, heartache, and what happens when our way of life is threatened by those who don’t understand it.

Catch the show until 26-Aug (ex 12th) at 12:45 in Pleasance Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard. Book your tickets here - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/bobby-amy

ABOUT THE TEAM

Bobby & Amy is the first collaboration for Emily Jenkins & Emma Blackman. The partnership is built on a shared passion for championing female creatives and giving a stage to female voices. Bobby & Amy was promoted by ERA50:50 during their VAULT Festival season, and they are an active member of #WomenOfFringe. Their Edinburgh run sees a fully female creative team, including a sound, light and costume designer and a stage manager and operator. The show's PR is managed by Chloe Nelkin Consulting, who are also a 100% female team.

Follow them...

on Twitter @bobbyandamyplay

on IG @bobbyandamyplay

W: https://www.bobbyandamy.co.uk

We had an absolute ball chatting with Rachael Abbey, Jess Morley and Sarah Penney - the Roaring Girls and hilarious cast of Beach Body Ready.

ABOUT BEACH BODY READY

t's the season of cutting carbs, hitting it hard at the gym, and shaving everything from the chin down. Summer has rocked up and the media has us thinking about how our bodies aren't up to scratch and there are companies ready to capitalise on that. We've been shamed, dehumanised, and humiliated for how we look and we've had enough. Join The Roaring Girls for a defiantly feel-good show which sticks two fingers up at how the media says you should look. The Roaring Girls are getting Beach Body Ready. Are you?

Catch the show until 25-Aug (ex 12th) at 1.10pm in Pleasance Above at the Pleasance Courtyard. Book your tickets here - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/beach-body-ready

Beach Body Ready is supported by Pleasance Futures as part of the Regional Theatre Partnership Programme with York Theatre Royal and in association with Hull Truck Theatre.

Developed with support from ARC, CAST, Sheffield Theatres, and Square Chapel. Beach Body Ready is part of the Hull Takeover 2019, produced by Absolutely Cultured through their Hull Independent Producer Initiative, in partnership with Middle Child, supported by Hull Truck Theatre, and Back To Ours.

CAST

Rachael Abbey

Jess Morley

Sarah Penney

Written and devised by the cast, with

DRAMATURG

Lydia Marchant

DIRECTOR

Lizi Perry

PRODUCER

Shaunagh McClean

CHOREOGRAPHER

Jo Ashbridge

VIDEOGRAPHER

Fly Girl Films

COSTUME & SET DESIGN

Nat Young

LIGHTING DESIGN

Jess Addinall

STAGE MANAGER - EDINBURGH

Jay Hirst

WHO ARE THE ROARING GIRLS?

The Roaring Girls are a Hull-based theatre company creating work that is fierce, feminist, and fun. They use autobiographical narratives to create their work - they want to talk about things they can relate to, that their audience can relate to. They believe that approaching big, sometimes taboo, subjects on a personal level, allows them to talk about these topics with their audiences. Their work is the first part of a conversation- their audiences leave laughing, crying, and most importantly , talking.

​Their work is often devised, but even when working with writers, collaboration is at the core of their practice - the voices and experiences of the people in the room shape the work. They aim to foster a supportive, creative environment where everyone is heard and valued equally.

Follow them...

on Twitter @TheRoaringGirls

on IG @TheRoaringGirls

W: https://www.theroaringgirls.co.uk

Team Nasty sit down with director Madeleine Skipsey and lead actress Antonia to talk about their work on a new play - She Sells Sea Shells - by Helen Eastman.

ABOUT THE SHE SELLS SEA SHELLS

'It ain't a fossil. It's fossilised dung. But if he wants to pop it in a cabinet I don't want to spoil his day'. In 1811, the daughter of a Lyme Regis carpenter discovered the world's first Ichthyosaur. She was twelve. Before she was thirty, Mary Anning made discoveries that transformed our understanding of the universe. Then she was written out of history. Nearly. Scandal and Gallows bring their blend of movement and storytelling to this extraordinary story of genius, gender and dinosaurs.

Catch the show in the Iron Belly at Underbelly Cowgate at 1.30pm until 25-Aug (ex 12th). You can buy tickets here - https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/she-sells-sea-shells

ABOUT SCANDAL AND GALLOWS

Scandal and Gallows are a young theatre company who stage classic stories using intimate and innovative storytelling.

Follow them...

on Twitter @SCAGTheatre

on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SCAGTheatre/

Louise has a fantastic chat with some of the incredible women of brand new play, Drowning. She was in the stellar company of playwright Jessica Ross, producer Kendell Shaffer and actress Aurora Henning. Louise had an absolute blast with these talented, inspiring and powerhouse ladies. They chat all things feminism, pursuing your goals, the #WomenOfFringe initiative and murder! This is definitely a killer episode. Pun intended 😉

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About Drowning - What makes a killer? What makes the yearning for connection and friendship so great that you would do anything? How does a mind justify the most terrifying act? In 1991, four Austrian nurses were charged with murdering 49 patients in their beds, but were suspected of killing up to 200. The world premiere of this blistering new play by Jessica Ross, directed by Steven Roy and executive produced by Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss, forces us to confront all we deem evil, horrible, and hideous. Look carefully enough, and we might just see a little bit of ourselves.

DATES: 31-Jul to 25-Aug 14:30 @ The Pleasance Courtyard (Above)

Get your tickets @ https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/drowning

About the Playwright - Jessica Ross is the writer of Drowning and also plays the role of Irene in the play. She is the creative force and drive behind the #womenoffringe Undrowning Campaign. Jessica is an award-winning theatre actor. She has worked on Will and Grace for several seasons. She is the proud Mum of nine children, both biological and adopted. Jess is also a ghostwriter for popular children's series and television.

Follow Drowning on...

Twitter @DrowningPlay

IG @Drowningtheplay

W: http://drowningtheplay.com/

In the first of our series of 2019 Edinburgh Fringe podcasts, we talk to the brilliant Cat Hepburn. Cat is an award-winning script writer, spoken word artist and educator based in Glasgow. She holds an MA with distinction in TV Fiction Writing from Glasgow Caledonian University, and an MA Hons in Theatre and Slavonic Studies from the University of Glasgow. Her passions are working with marginalised voices, exploring feminist issues and using contemporary storytelling to empower, provoke and make people laugh. She is the co-host and producer of Creative Scotland funded spoken word events organisation Sonnet Youth. She has story-written for BBC’s River City and Lime Pictures’ Hollyoaks. Cat's debut poetry book #GIRLHOOD (Speculative Books) is available to buy now.

#GIRLHOOD is Cat Hepburn's debut Edinburgh Fringe show and adaptation of her hit poetry book. Nostalgic, hilarious and heartbreaking, her performance deconstructs and satirises the milestones, conventions and pressures that girls and young women face.

The show runs from 31-July to 25-Aug (ex 12 + 19) at 16:45 at the Gilded Balloon Rose Theatre (Attic). You can book tickets https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/cat-hepburn-girlhood

You can follow Cat on...

Twitter @CatHepburnWrite

IG @cathepburnwrite

W: https://cathepburn.wordpress.com/

Produced in associate with live-arts production house Civil Disobedience, Persistent and Nasty is a creative activism initiative for women and gender minorities in the stage and screen industries. We are committed to an intersectional approach the prioritises diversity and inclusion. Through a series of live events and a regular podcast series, we aim to amplify the unrepresented voices in theatre and film. Our goal is to create a project that is safe and supportive, but that is also an act of protest. Persistent and Nasty is about changing the cultural narrative through the stories we tell.

"The exchange provided by P&N is electric, reminiscent of the consciousness raising gatherings of the second wave but with a focus on intersectionality that has been sorely missing from so much of the mainstream feminist movement" - The Fountain Review

Twitter @PersistentNasty

IG @persistentanddnasty

W: https://wearecivildisobedience.com/portfolio/persistent-nasty/

In episode 11 all of our Nasty gals have a great conversation with Jemima Levick the Artistic Director Of Stellar Quines Theatre Company

The conversation covers everything from Jemima’s beginnings as a director to changing the narrative our young people see on stage and screen with her current production of This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing to what the future holds for all of us.

Jemima was previously Artistic Director and Associate Director at Dundee Rep Theatre for seven years until she joined Stellar Quines in May 2016. She trained at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and also on a Scottish Arts Council Director Traineeship.

She is an extremely successful director and has won and been nominated for a number of awards. While at Dundee Rep she directed more than 18 productions, including, The Tempest, The Glass Menagerie, The Tempest, Time and the Conway’s, The Elephant Man and Beauty and the Beast.

As a freelance director and producer she worked with a number of companies, including the Royal Lyceum Theatre, The National Theatre of Scotland, Perissology Theatre Productions, Borderline, Grid Iron Theatre Company, Traverse Theatre and Paines Plough.

You can support Persistent and Nasty and receive exclusive members only content by subscribing to our Patreon at www.patreon.com/persistentandnasty

Persistent and Nasty is produced in association with Edinburgh based live-arts production house Civil Disobedience. Civil Disobedience is committed to creating and supporting queer work and theatre and art that addresses issues of inequality and injustice. You can find out more about the Persistent and Nasty project and all the work that Civil Disobedience do by visiting wearecivildisobedience.com. You can also find us on all the usual social media platforms.

On Twitter @weareohsocivil

On Instagram @wearecivildisobedience

And on Facebook at Facebook.com/wearecivildisobedience

In episode 10 Louise chats to the more than a little bit impressive Sarah Rose Graber. Sarah-Rose is a performer, director, teaching artists and occasional unicorn with a fascinating resume. She's always off an exciting new creative adventure, so it was a lucky delight to catch her for a coffee and a blether.

Originally from Miami, she moved to Chicago to study theatre at Northwestern University and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London which piqued her interest in the international theatre scene. Graber is a Circumnavigator Scholar Grant winner having traveled around the world to England, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina exploring theatre for social change. She was awarded a prestigious US-UK Fulbright Grant in 2013 to work with professional theatre companies across the UK researching devising based practices and making interdisciplinary theatrical experiences. Sarah Rose was named “One of 15 Women to Watch” in 2015 by Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine and received the MacArthur International Connections Fund for her production of REPRISE with National Theatre of Scotland’s HOME AWAY Festival in partnership with Adventure Stage Chicago.

In the UK, Graber has worked with the National Theatre of Scotland (TIN FOREST, GRANITE, HOME AWAY, EXCHANGE 2018), Playwrights’ Studio Scotland (STAGE TO PAGE), Fuel (THE ROOF), New Inck (SCENES UNSEEN, GOLD DUST), Tron (TRON 100 FESTIVAL), the LIFT festival (TURFED), Scottish Youth Theatre (BIT BY BIT, CREATIVE SPACES, STEALING STARS), Surge (DIRTY LAUNDRY CAMPAIGN) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (HUNTING OF THE SNARK). Hailed by the Chicago Theatre Beat as “one of the finest comedic actresses in Chicago,” Graber has worked with many US companies including Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Collaboraction, Strawdog Theatre, Metropolis Performing Arts Center, Adventure Stage Chicago, the Factory Theater, and Knife & Fork.

You can find out more about her work at her website http://sarahrosegraber.com

Follow Sarah-Rose on Twitter @SRGraber and on Instagram @srgraber

You can support Persistent and Nasty and receive exclusive members only content by subscribing to our Patreon at www.patreon.com/persistentandnasty

Persistent and Nasty is produced in association with Edinburgh based live-arts production house Civil Disobedience. Civil Disobedience is committed to creating and supporting queer work and theatre and art that addresses issues of inequality and injustice. You can find out more about the Persistent and Nasty project and all the work that Civil Disobedience do by visiting wearecivildisobedience.com. You can also find us on all the usual social media platforms.

On Twitter @weareohsocivil

On Instagram @wearecivildisobedience

And on Facebook at Facebook.com/wearecivildisobedience

In today's episode Elaine sits down with Jennifer Bates. Artistic Director of the DH Ensemble.

They chat about Jen's most recent work and what she has coming up. Covering everything from Breast milk to taking up your own space.

Jen's daughter makes a few guest vocals throughout the podcast as well. Enjoy.

Co-founder and Director of the DH Ensemble, Jennifer has directed each of the Ensemble's projects to date. Other theatre credits include companies such as The Tron Theatre, Glasgow, The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Poorboy Theatre, Bard In The Botanics, Glasgow Rep and The Royal Shakespeare Company Studio. Film and TV include Ickleflix Production 'Fast Romance' and Belle and Sebastian's music video 'White Collar Boy'. She has worked extensively with Solar Bear Theatre Company and Youth Arts Scotland/National Theatre of Scotland. She has directed several works with Solar Bear’s Deaf Youth Theatre including a collaboration with electronic duo, Tigerstyle and The Arches. She completed her Masters (with Distinction) in Advanced Theatre Practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Follow DH Ensemble on Twitter @DH_Ensemble

Find out more www.dhensemble.com

Follow Jen on Twitter @jenkbates

Find out more at www.jenniferkbates.com

Follow Persistent and Nasty on Twitter @PersistentNasty

Persistent and Nasty is co-produced by Edinburgh based live-arts production house Civil Disobedience. Follow them on Twitter @weareohsocivil and find out more about our work at www.wearecivildisobedience.com

In today's episode, Louise sits down with playwright, actress and musician Morna Young to talk about her upcoming project "Lost at Sea", a story inspired by the loss of her father when she was a child.

Morna is a playwright, actress and musician from a wee fishing village in the North East of Scotland. She is recipient of the 2017 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship (hosted by Creative Learning, Aberdeen City Council), the 2018 'Tomorrow at Noon' award for female playwrights (Jermyn Street Theatre, 2018) and the New Playwrights Award 2014 (Playwrights' Studio, Scotland). She is also the 2018 recipient of the Scotland-New Zealand playwriting exchange (BATS Theatre, Toi Poneke Arts Centre and Playmarket NZ).

LOST AT SEA, her first full-length play, was developed in 2013 with award winning Stellar Quines Theatre Company and is now in pre-production with Perth Theatre for 2019. Other plays include: AYE, ELVIS ('a Play, a Pie and a Pint' and Gilded Balloon as part of Edinburgh Fringe 2018), THE BUKE OF THE HOWLAT (Findhorn Bay Arts), SMITE (Jermyn Street Theatre), NETTING '(a Play, a Pie and a Pint' and Scotland wide tour with Woodend Barn, Banchory), SHE OF THE SEA (Paines Plough 'Come to Where I'm From' at The Lemon Tree), B-ROADS (Play Pieces), NEVER LAND (Eden Court) and two short theatre plays for the National Theatre of Scotland's GREAT YES, NO, DON'T KNOW SHOW. Current commissions include THE WATER CLAN (BATS Theatre, New Zealand) and she is developing further work for theatre with Magnetic North, Stellar Quines and The Tron. She has also performed extracts of her work at the Scottish Parliament, The European Author's Festival (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland) and as part of National Poetry Month, France. Morna primarily writes in Doric and is a proud Scots Language Ambassador (Education Scotland).

As an actor, Morna has worked for companies including the National Theatre of Scotland, Royal Lyceum, The Beacon, a Play, a Pie and a Pint (Oran Mor/Traverse), Alterean Media, ITV and BBC Worldwide. Morna is also an Associate Artist of Out of the Darkness Theatre Company and tidy carnage.

A multi-instrumentalist, she plays fiddle, flute, percussion and clarsach. Album recordings include Kevin McKidd's SPEYSIDE SESSIONS (No.1 in the itunes world music charts) and THE FISHWIVES (TV appearances include The One Show and BBC Breakfast). She has composed scores for several theatre productions including SUNSET SONG (The Beacon). She is one half of the band FOLKIFY (alongside Sandy Nelson) who were in residence at The Tron in 2016.

She was equally flattered / mortified to be voted the 11th most eligible woman in Scotland 2014 by the Scotsman on Sunday (but, as her Auntie quite rightly pointed out, "nae quite top ten...').

Follow Morna on Twitter @mornayoung

Find out more at www.mornayoung.com

Get tickets for Lost at Sea at https://www.horsecross.co.uk/whats-on/lost-at-sea-37602

Follow Persistent and Nasty on Twitter @PersistentNasty

Persistent and Nasty is co-produced by Edinburgh based live-arts production house Civil Disobedience. Follow them on Twitter @weareohsocivil and find out more about our work at www.wearecivildisobedience.com