Persistent And Nasty

Today Elaine chats puppeteer, performer, and playwright Megan Rose Thomas. We discuss drama schools, being a disabled performer, mental health and how that is a key part of Meg’s writing. As it’s spooky season we chat all things horror as well. Megan Rose Thomas Megan Rose Thomas is a Huddersfield-born, Glasgow-based actor, puppeteer and occasional magician. She's currently transitioning into playwrighting, having recently graduated from the MLitt Playwriting and Dramaturgy course at the University of Glasgow. Her plays have been longlisted for the Bruntwood International Prize for Playwriting, British Theatre Challenge, and Originals Playwriting Award. Her dissertation piece, a supernatural horror play called "Unseelie", was recently workshopped with Stage to Page. Instagram:@megan.rose.thomas PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentandnasty for those who can donate. A million thanks and love. R

Today Elaine chats with writer/producer Nina Atesh. They discuss all things horror, the lack of opportunities for working class artist to be able to afford drama schools and how we are losing those voices and the freedom the horror genre gives us. Nina’s new play The Drought is play Old Red Lion Theatre tickets available here Tickets Nina Atesh Nina is a playwright who recently set up her own production company Pither Productions, Pither Productions was set up with the purpose of creating new theatre for never before seen brand new work! We produce new writing and are keen on stories that are other-worldly, spooky, ground breaking and are particularly keen on representing female and/or working class writers Website: pitherproductions.com Twitter: @pitherprods Instagram: @pitherproductions PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentandnasty for those who can donate. A million thanks and love. Resour

Annabel Logan by Persistent and Nasty

Today Elaine chats with director/writer Kelly Holmes. They discuss all things horror, the process of getting a film made and their love of cinema. Both Kelly and Elaine happened to be wearing the same t-shirt when they met via zoom. The brilliant Eat The Patriarchy tees from the great The Spark Company Kelly Holmes Director | Writer Kelly Holmes is inspired to make genre films that have a real emotional connection with her audience. She has developed an aesthetic approach to cinema, focussed on creating detailed worlds. Kelly is also interested in stories that push the boundaries of psychological reality and/or fit in her macabre view of the world. Her shorts have won multiple awards at international film festivals and she has received Creative England/BFI funding, Creative Skillset funding, the Rafford Scholarship, television commissions, and won prizes in competitions such as the Enter the Pitch, and has been chosen for talent development on several schemes including the Reykjavik International Film Fes

IT’S SPOOKY SEASON Elaine chats with the wonderful Scottish actress and singer Therese Bradley. The two chat everything from horror movies, to rediscovering your joy. Motherhood and in particular coming back to the industry after having a baby and being a carer in the many different forms that role takes for a child or for elderly relatives. Therese Bradley Scottish actor and singer. Who has worked extensively in television and film. Best known for her work in Outcast, Young Adam, Peaky Blinders, Vigil, Outlander, The Curse and to many Scottish viewers River City. Therese also sang with world famous DJ’s touring Japan. A brilliant, captivating performer. Twitter:@therese_bradley PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentandnasty for those who can donate. A million thanks and love. Resources https://www.samaritans.org/?nation=scotland http://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/ https://rapecrisisni.org.

Today Elaine and Louise chat with the brilliant playwright Sara Shaarawi. They chat Sara’s new play Sister Radio which is touring Scotland right now and is a co-production between Stellar Quines and Pitlochry Theatre . The play is about Sisters Fatemeh and Shirin have been living together, in the same flat in Edinburgh, for 43 years. In this flat they cook, read their coffee grains, listen to the radio, and try to remember their childhoods in Tehran but they no longer talk to one another. When a global pandemic hits and the sisters are locked in their flat, they are forced to reckon with their memories of a betrayal that changed the course of their relationship. The trio also discuss the lack of visible and vocal support from the theatrical community regarding the events in Iran We as Persistent and Nast know we need to do more and wish to make a call out to our theatres in Scotland to discuss what we can do to help. Sara Shaarawi A playwright from Cairo, based in Glasgow. Sara has received development s

IT’S SPOOKY SEASON Elaine and Louise chat with the incredible Jordan & Skinner. Otherwise known as theatre maker Melanie Jordan and director and artistic director of Stellar Quines Caitlin Skinner. We chat about their new show THE TIME MACHINE (click for tickets/date/venues). A feminist retelling. The four have a brilliant and inspiring conversation Melanie Jordan Melanie is an actor, director and theatre maker based in Glasgow who makes performance in theatres, on screens and on the streets which is visually driven, physically dynamic and exposes our shared humanity with curiosity and humour. Melanie is Physical Theatre Practitioner with Surge and co-Artistic Director of feminist theatre company Jordan & Skinner. Melanie creates devised small-mid scale touring productions, and works with both professionals and communities. She specialises in Physical Theatre, Circus, Street Performance and Clown, and teaches across Scotland and internationally. Caitlin Skinner Artistic Director & Chief Executive Office

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats to the creators of Two Fingers Up Gina Donnelly and Seòn Simpson. How the show came to be, sex education, female masturbation. The pleasure if enjoying your own body and more. TW: there is mention of an assault case from Northern Ireland. Two Fingers Up What do you remember of sex education and puberty? Or at least, what can you remember that you haven’t blotted out? For many we were given the archaic and established believes that our parents and grandparents were told; of how to act, what to shave and what not to do, with much of the suggestions being a way to ‘control’ our bodies – that’s right, we’re talking abstinence. Unapologetic, unfiltered, and uncompromising, Two Fingers Up grasps the audience by the unmentionables and drags them down to the confusing level of adolescence. And shifting from young girls of ten into teenage years, Sarah Reid, Orla Graham and Shannon Wilkinson transmogrify themselves through the experiences and confusions. A

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats with director Katie Jackson about their new play Visiting Cezanne. We chat the industry as a whole, coming through the pandemic, being nonbinary in the arts and much more. Visiting Cezanne How does an artist keep going when all seems hopeless? Seeking an answer, a failed artist in New York visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016. From there she unexpectedly travels to an artist’s studio in southern France in 1900. She desperately wants to get back to her home in 2016 but Paul Cezanne, another obscure artist with his own problems, is not being helpful. Also ensnared in this crisis are Cezanne’s gardener and an art historian from Utah. This play's creative team is Glasgow-based. SHOW: TICKETS WEBSITE: redrovertheatre.com KATIE JACKSON Katie is a theatre director based between Glasgow and London. Having started out as a stage manager, Katie has worked professionally in theatre since 2014 and started to move into directing in 2019.During the pan

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats with director Jen McGregor and actor Catherine Bissett about their new play The Masks of Oscar Wilde. A great conversation about covering many things from queer culture to pushing buttons with theatre to make people really think. The Masks of Oscar Wilde Man of letters. Aesthete. Victorian moralist. Playwright. Oscar Wilde wore many masks. But as a well–meaning professor and his eager student trace the life of the legendary writer, it becomes clear there may be more masks waiting in the shadows. As they dig deeper, we begin to wonder. Are they hiding something? What if some masks are better left in the shadows? A test of wits, of "truth", and an examination of the fabulous and scandal-ridden life of Oscar Wilde and the man behind the masks. SHOW: TICKETS INSTAGRAM: @matchmakertp TWITTER: MatchmakerTP PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentan

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats with Celeste Cahn. Celeste is a writer performer for America. We chat Celeste’s new play, women pleasure and much more. A Lady Does Not Scratch Her Crotch Once upon a time, there was a young girl – not a princess or a pretty girl waiting to be one. No dress fanned out as she sat. She could barely sit in a dress. She saw no happily ever after on the horizon. Fresh from New York, ‘Cahn's sincerity and sharp humour are truly winning – I couldn’t stop laughing through the entire show’ (TheEasy.com). From princesses to periods, a look at gender, sexuality, and the near impossibility of growing up. SHOW: TICKETS INSTAGRAM: @ladydoesnotscratch TWITTER: @doesnotscratch PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentandnasty for those who can donate. A million thanks and love. Resources https://www.samaritans.org/?nation=scotland http://www.rapecrisissco

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats with Emilia and Meg Beech of The Oxford Bells. An A Capella group bring fierce feminist songs to the Edinburgh fringe. We talk feminist songs, what singing, and music means to us and how our feminism is moving and should always be inclusive. I’ll Tell You Mine A musical coming-of-age journey. There’s a song for every stage of life, and for every relationship in it – the one you have with your mum, your friends, your partners, your exes, yourself. Follow Oxford’s original all-female-identifying a cappella group through the mess and the magic of being a woman. With a set spanning seven decades of pop history, featuring everything from Whitney Houston classics to Olivia Rodrigo chart-toppers, there’s something for everyone. We all have a story – if you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine. SHOW: TICKETS INSTAGRAM: @oxfordbelles TIKTOK: @oxfordbelles PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayP

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine and Louise chat with creative and producer of Remedy For Memory Tell Letham and Robyn Jancovich-Brown. We talk influencers, the good the bad and the ugly of this industry and the joy of loving yourself and learning to not give a fuck. REMEDY FOR MEMORY Beautiful people.... Have you been seeking, dreaming? Of something more, something less, something beyond? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Remedy for Memory is a divine feminine fantasy, a dance theatre experience that transcends the boundaries of our reality. Broadcast live from the abstracted realms of a TV talk show, tune in as four women explore healing, cosmic wanderings, corporate wellbeing, discovery and desire. Surprising, enchanting, comedic and honest, we’ll take you through the highs and the lows. Join us in the search for the remedy. SHOW: TICKETS INSTAGRAM: @remedyformemory_show WEBSITE: dancebase.co.uk PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKT

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Elaine chats with director Nell Bailey about How to Build a Wax Figure. We discuss everything form age-gap relationships to queer love to the lack of visibility for lesbian and bisexuals on stage and screen HOW TO BUILD A WAX FIGURE Girl meets anatomical wax sculptor. Anatomical wax sculptor meets girl. They fall in love. Or something like that. Bea's older neighbour was her first love, her first cigarette, her first prosthetic eye. When Bea is invited to the Wellcome Collection to speak about her expertise making glass eyes, she finds herself unable to untie Margot from all that she does. As she tries to unpack her mentor's effect on her work, Bea must dissect for herself what love really looks like. SHOW: TICKETS INSTAGRAM: @novembertheatre WEBSITE: novtheatre.com TWITTER: @novtheatre PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/persistentandnasty for those who can d

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Louise and Elaine chat Ania Upstill over Zoom. A clown bringing their show Transhumance to the Festival for the first time. We chat moving from directing to clowning and the gender binary. Classic Hold onto your hats as a cast of 6 romp through all those classic novels you never had time to read. In 60 minutes and multiple costume changes the company race you from Wuthering Heights to Moby Dick, told at lightning speed… Expect the unexpected! No previous literary experience required. A thrilling script by Coronation Street writers Lindsay Williams and Peter Kerry and direction by Joyce Branagh (seen in the film Belfast, directed by brother Kenneth) this brilliantly funny show is for everyone! SHOW: Ticket Link INSTAGRAM: @opemilltheatre WEBSITE: hopemilltheatre.co.uk Joyce Branagh: joycebranagh.uk Instagram: @joyseabee Twitter: @oyseabee PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK ASN.COM- DONATE LINKTREE P&N Linktr PayPal https://www.paypal

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Louise and Elaine chat Ania Upstill over Zoom. A clown bringing their show Transhumance to the Festival for the first time. We chat moving from directing to clowning and the gender binary. Transhumance Take a surreal journey through the landscape of gender with Transhumance, winner of a Best Weekly Award for Circus and Physical Theatre at Adelaide Fringe in 2020. Award-winning clown Ania Upstill playfully explores what it means to be a trans human—or any human—in a society where the gender binary often blocks us from the richness of human experience. Join Ania Upstill (they/them), a NYC-based theatre and circus artist for a heartfelt, physical exploration of gender norms. As a genderqueer and queer performer, the American Kiwi Upstill is excited to bring Transhumance to the largest theatre festival in the world. “I think of Edinburgh as the great art hub of humanity,” says Upstill, “and I know we will find an audience that needs, wants, and will enjoy this journe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Today Louise and Elaine chat with writer, performer Sophie Bentinck about her new show Pauline. Pauline is a comedy drama about Sophie’s own family. Important conversation with another wonderful human. PAULINE A new comedy drama about finding your nan’s suicide note by award-winning writer and performer Sophie Bentinck. Pauline is the brutally honest and joyfully hilarious story of three generations of women in one family – and of the writer who went digging in the secrets file in order to bring them all on stage. 'Captivating' (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). 'Storytelling at its finest' **** (AYoungerTheatre.com). Winner – Breakthrough Memoir 2022. Runner Up – Screenshot 2020. Directed by Fred Wienand (Twelfth Night, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre) and presented together with producer Emma Blackman (Bobby & Amy, Fringe First Award 2019). See Pauline – Pleasence Courtyard – Bunker 2 @12.20pm till 29th August SHOW: Tickets TWITTER: @sophiebentinck PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE DON

Episode 5 of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Today Louise and Elaine with the creatives and cast of Blood Harmony at the Traverse Theatre. Our first in person Podcast recording since February 2020. BLOOD HARMONY When siblings sing together, the music is special. All the more beautiful for the bond between them, it’s called a blood harmony. Sisters Anna, Maia, and Chloe have lost their mum. And now, thrown together in the attic of their childhood home, they must work out what happens next. High-flying Anna wants to swoop in and problem solve, whilst chaotic Maia can’t stop cracking jokes, and caught in the middle is Chloe, who cared for their mum at the end of her life. The trio have never seen eye-to-eye, and without Mum holding them together, what’s to stop them falling apart? Featuring songs from Atlantic Records artists The Staves, beautiful harmonies and stunning visuals, Blood Harmony is an uplifting and universal story about moving on, and the healing power of family – love them or loathe

Episode 4 of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Today Louise and Elaine chat with F-Bomb Theatre – Sally Cairns and Rachel O’Regan about their new Edinburgh Festival Fringe show The Beatles Were A Boyband. #femifringe ˚femifringe The Beatles Were A Boyband After moving to London to live within a more diverse community, Livia learns that the self-hate feelings she experienced all her life are internalised racism and survival techniques. While building her career in the circus industry she grows tired of playing a stereotype and starts unpacking layers to grow and overcome. She uses poetry, music and performance to speak about the challenges a Black woman faces when daring to move into her power. Carving out a place for herself as one of the UK's up-and-coming Black voices, Livia presents a performance that is timely, unsettling and powerful. See The Beatles Were A Boyband – Guilded Balloon @8pm 6th – 13th August 2022 SHOW: fbombtheatre.co.uk INSTAGRAM˚@fbombtheatre TWITTER: @fbombtheatre LIVIA K

Episode 3 of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 series Today Louise and Elaine chat with performer, spoken word poet, writer, vocalist, sword swallower Livia Kojo Alour about her new Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Black Sheep. BLACK SHEEP After moving to London to live within a more diverse community, Livia learns that the self-hate feelings she experienced all her life are internalised racism and survival techniques. While building her career in the circus industry she grows tired of playing a stereotype and starts unpacking layers to grow and overcome. She uses poetry, music and performance to speak about the challenges a Black woman faces when daring to move into her power. Carving out a place for herself as one of the UK's up-and-coming Black voices, Livia presents a performance that is timely, unsettling and powerful. See Black Sheep at Assembly Rooms – Powder Rooms @9pm 5th – 28th August 2022 (excluding 14th & 15th August) SHOW: Black Sheep INSTAGRAM˚@missa_swords TWITTER: @livia_k_alour LIVIA