Scottee
Scottee is an artist and writer from Kentish Town, North London
His early work has often been acknowledged as controversial, throwing cake at Rihanna as part of an X Factor performance and spitting milkshake over Nick Grimshaw.[1] On one occasion the police arrived at one performance of 'Mess' to investigate a suspected breach of public indecency laws. The police found no evidence of illegal activity.[2]
More recently, Scottee has turned to creating activist artworks and projects with communities across the UK and Ireland. These have included working with his grandfather to tackle ageism,[3] public artwork in Southend addressing queer trauma,[4] Hamburger Queen - a talent show for fat people exploring fat activism,[5] establishing Peterborough Pride,[6] participant led dance show Fat Blokes[7] and stage show Class[8] looking at poverty and class system in the UK
He has written on subjects for newspapers such as The Guardian, i-D Magazine and Global Citizen[9] In a piece in The Guardian expressing concerns about pay and the problems of working in the arts industry he characterises it as; "The arts are essentially a namby-pamby life of stealing Wi-Fi, cheap coffee, waiting tables and overpriced weekend workshops in improvisation that leaves you, at times, financially and mentally unstable."[10]
He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends after first appearing on the programme on 18 December 2012.,[11] he has also written columns and presented for Front Row and Cultural Front Line. In 2020 Scottee became the hose of After The Tone podcast,[12] first published in August that year.
From 2013 - 2016 Scottee was Associate Artist at Roundhouse, London.[13] In 2017 Scottee became Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, University of London[14] and 2018 he became an Associate Artist at HOME, Manchester.
Scottee is the Artistic Director of Scottee & Friends Ltd. which he established in 2017 with Executive Producer Molly Nicholson.
Theatre Shows
- Mess (2009)
- Camp (2012)
- Hamburger Queen (2012-2014)
- Camp (on the Estate) (2013)
- The Worst of Scottee (2013-2014)
- Putting Words in Your Mouth (2016)
- Bravado (2017)
- Fat Blokes (2018)
- Class (2019)
Commissions
- Take Over Fest (2015)
- Any Excuse (2016)
- From Wivenhoe, With Love (2017)
- You Are Not Alone (2017)
Radio
Books
- Bravado (Oberon Books, 2017)
- The Oberon Book of Queer Monologues (Oberon Books, 2018)
- Scottee: I Made It (Live Art Development Agency, 2018)
- Class (Salamander Street, 2019)
Awards & Recognition
- Total Theatre Award - Innovation (2014)
- Independent's Rainbow List (2015)
- Fringe World - Best Show (2nd Place) (2015)
- Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, University of London[19] (2017)
- Associate Artist at HOME MCR (2018)
- Total Theatre Award - Judges Award (2019)
Early life
Scottee was born on Queens Crescent, Kentish Town West Estate. He was expelled from school aged 14[20] after which he never returned to education. He has no formal training or qualifications.
Early career
Scottee made his name as part of several party organising crews including, but not exclusively, Kashpoint and Anti-Social.
References
- https://web.archive.org/web/20140131023334/http://www.scottee.co.uk/. Archived from the original on January 31, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014. Missing or empty
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(help) - "Scottee interview - Cabaret - Time Out london". Timeout.com. 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
- "Vice - Meet 'The Real Liam Gallagher', the 79-Year-Old Irish Artist Tackling Ageism in the Art World". vice.com. 2014-05-26. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
- "Huck - What happens when you ask your community if it's homophobic". huckmagazine.com. 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
- "The Guardian - The Big Beauty Contest". theguardian.com. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
- "PETERBOROUGH PRIDE 2018". Metal. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- "Fat Guys Talk About Living Life as Fat Guys". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- "Scottee: Class review – check your privilege, row A". the Guardian. 2019-08-08. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- "scottee global citizen - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- "UK arts: reasons not to get involved | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional". Theguardian.com. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
- "BBC Radio 4 - Loose Ends, Sophie Parkin, Sarah Hadland, Peter Wight, Scottee, Ed Harcourt and Clock Opera, Scottee on underlashes, hula-hooping and the politics of camp". Bbc.co.uk. 2012-12-15. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
- TONE, AFTER THE. "AFTER THE TONE". Google Podcasts. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- Hannah Bruce (2014-02-06). "In pictures: The Worst of Scottee". Roundhouse.org.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
- "Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre – Autumn 2017". bbk.ac.uk. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
- www.bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nc01. Retrieved 2020-10-11. Missing or empty
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(help) - www.bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mvy85. Retrieved 2020-10-11. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - www.bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0722q3n. Retrieved 2020-10-11. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - www.bbc.co.uk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k9bc. Retrieved 2020-10-11. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - "Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre – Autumn 2017". bbk.ac.uk. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
- Milazzo, Franco (2013-12-05). "INTERVIEW: Scottee On Why He Loves The Estate Life". This Is Cabaret. Retrieved 2014-02-10.