202 episodes

Persistent and Nasty is a script-reading, debate and art as activism initiative for women and gender minorities in the stage and screen industries. We are committed to an intersectional approach and aim to use the space we’ve created to provide a platform for the spectrum of marginalised voices in our culture.

Through a series of script readings, live debates 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.

Persistent and Nasty Persistent and Nasty

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 47 Ratings

Persistent and Nasty is a script-reading, debate and art as activism initiative for women and gender minorities in the stage and screen industries. We are committed to an intersectional approach and aim to use the space we’ve created to provide a platform for the spectrum of marginalised voices in our culture.

Through a series of script readings, live debates 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.

    Episode 194: Jo Rush & Natasha Jenkins talk UGLY! A Cinderella Story

    Episode 194: Jo Rush & Natasha Jenkins talk UGLY! A Cinderella Story

    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 Dismantling the outdated gender norms while bring everyone with us and glitter.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

    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 47 min
    Episode 193: Aqsa Arif

    Episode 193: Aqsa Arif

    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
    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 48 min
    Episode 192 W.I.T.C.H By Louise Oliver

    Episode 192 W.I.T.C.H By Louise Oliver

    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

    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 19 min
    Episode 191: Home Body By Rowan Heggie

    Episode 191: Home Body By Rowan Heggie

    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

    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 19 min
    Episode 190: The Inertia Years By Ambrose Kelly

    Episode 190: The Inertia Years By Ambrose Kelly

    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

    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 24 min
    Episode 189: Sarah Hopfinger

    Episode 189: Sarah Hopfinger

    Today Elaine chats with artist Sarah Hopfinger about her up show Pain and I opening at The tramway on the 8th November then heading to Findhorn on the 11th November.
    Before a tour round Scotland in 2024. We chat chronic pain, capitalism, loving your body and much more.
    Ticket links and Audio & Graphic Score Link below
    https://www.tramway.org/event/bbcdeede-e0be-4264-9c89-b03700b23a24
    https://universalhall.co.uk/event/pain-and-i/
    https://www.sarahhopfinger.org.uk/pain-and-i-audio-graphic-score-holding

    Pain and I
    Glasgow-based queer disabled artist Sarah Hopfinger (she/her) presents her solo performance Pain and I at Tramway, returning to the place of its initial inception from 8-9 November, ahead of a one-night performance at Universal Hall in Findhorn on 11 November 2023.Pain and I is a bold exploration into chronic pain experience that focuses on the lived experience of the artist and performer to explore and celebrate the rich complexities of living with pain, asking ‘what can pain teach us?’ As a piece of work, it invites the audiences to reflect on what it means to care for our bodies, ourselves, and each other in times of personal and collective pain. A powerful, honest and compelling work, the audio features intimate autobiographical text framed as a love letter to Hopfinger’s body and chronic pain, paired with original classical music composition by Alicia Jane Turner (they/them). Presented by a queer disabled creative team that includes Hopfinger and Turner, Pain and I puts the disabled experience centre stage. To further platform and promote access and disability arts, the performance is BSL integrated and there is a freely accessible digital Graphic Score here. As an artist, Sarah Hopfinger’s practice encompasses contemporary performance, dance and live art. Her work is philosophically based in crip politics that embrace and celebrate disability as valid and valuable. She often works with diverse collaborators including children and adults, trained and non-trained dancers, disabled and non-disabled performers, composers and visual artists.
    https://www.sarahhopfinger.org.uk/

    OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk

    Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership
    Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room

    Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com
    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:
    NASTY25

    Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
47 Ratings

47 Ratings

redirectingpops ,

love it

The feminist collective dissecting the Scottish arts scene. A lovey range of screen and stage, with interviews that range from the big names to the unheard of. I love listening and learning about other women’s work, process, and thoughts on the industry.

Been a lifeline tying me to the arts through 2020.

geoff__90 ,

Improving the world one episode at a time.

Funny, informative and even at times powerful. The brave choice to speak out about the unsaid issues in society can only enlighten and improve the world, so remember......to stay nasty!

Sarah_J_M ,

100% recommend!

Such a brilliant podcast - funny, informative, entertaining and important conversation and an amazing range of guests!

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