Pip Nash
Subject Leader in Design for Theatre and Performance
Summary
Pip Nash’s career spans more than 35 years, working within a range of theatre forms, including new writing, devised, classic and contemporary texts, and within main house, touring, open air and studio theatre settings. More recently, Pip has designed the set and costumes for productions that explore the connections between community and place, as a result of an ongoing dialogue within intergenerational community companies. This has led to theatre-making in public spaces, in non-theatre venues such as markets, parks, streets, empty houses, industrial buildings and churches, challenging the relationship between performer, audience and performance space.
Pip has stood as Research Fellow in Accessible Practice at Rose Bruford College, which has led to the exploration of devising work through multi-senses, working with young disabled artists at Graeae Theatre and within training practice at Oily Cart Theatre. Her interest is in enabling participation in the practice of theatre-making amongst non-trained artists and with creatives working in other visual arts forms.
Teaching
Research
Teaching Area
Design for Theatre and Performance
Qualifications
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education – Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
MA in Cross-Sectoral and Community Arts – Goldsmiths College, University of London
LEM (Laboratory of Movement Study), in association with L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq and Complicité
Theatre Design – Motley Theatre Design Course
Dip HE Art in Social Contexts – Dartington College of Arts
Memberships
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Professional Practice
Set and costume design for companies including:
Royal Court Theatre, Gate Theatre, Soho Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Lancaster TIE, Everyman Theatre, Theatre Powys, Pentabus, Ludus Dance, Garden Opera, London Bubble, Central School of Speech and Drama, M6 Theatre, Raw Cotton Theatre, Theatremongers, Immediate Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Maya Theatre, Wimborne Community Theatre.
Resident Head of Design – The Dukes Playhouse, Lancaster 1985–1988
Resident Designer – Common Stock Theatre Company 1983–1985
External Duties
External Examiner: UAL London College of Fashion Performance (Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics, Costume for Performance and 3D Effects for Theatre and Film)
Publications
Nash, P. (2018). Costume Design and its Relation to Movement and Character for Older Performers.
TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research). Aberystwyth University.
Nash, P. (2016). Intergenerational Participation in Design Process. TaPRA. Bristol University.
Nash, P. Site Specific Theatre. DAMU. Prague.
Nash, P. (2012). Theatre Design and Community Theatre Practice. University of Bucharest. Romania.
Nash, P. (2011). Design for Participatory and Site Specific Theatre. TaPRA. Kingston University.
Nash, P. (2007). Origins of personal site specific design practice, theatre design in found spaces. Liminal and Secular Space Conference. Buckingham Chilterns University College.
Nash, P. (2007). Taking Theatre Home – design for site specific and found spaces. Nottingham Trent University SBTD Conference.
Nash, P. (2006). The Process of Creating Theatre from Verbatim Text Based on the Design for My Home. Department of Cultural Geography. Queen Mary University of London.
Research Interests
Design process performance within participatory settings and socially engaged practice; multi-sensory theatre.
Additional Information
At Rose Bruford College, Pip led the Design for Theatre and Performance course through its early formation and is now a key contributor to its continuing pedagogy and practice. Notably, Pip has co-initiated street and gallery performance pieces with the student designers and makers at events, including the Prague Quadrennial and Parque de las Ciencias, Granada. Having trained at Dartington College of Arts and at Le Laboratoire du Mouvement, Pip’s background is in asserting the value of the creative process, cross-specialism, collaboration and the role of physical awareness and performance practice within design training. Pip also contributes to the MA Theatre for Young Audiences and the MA Theatre Making Practice at Rose Bruford College.