A Nan Shepherd Journey with Sophia McLean
Saturday 23rd September, 3.30-4.30pm BST
Main Hall King's Pavilion, King's College Campus University of Aberdeen
Conversation and Q&A with actor Sophia McLean, who portrayed much-loved Grampian writer Nan Shepherd in a recent spoken word dramatisation by Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen. A Journey with Nan Shepherd is split into three dramatised audio episodes, each focusing on different periods of Nan’s life and featured performances by Sophia McLean, an Aberdeenshire actor who plays Nan, alongside Elgin actor David Rankine, with the aim of giving listeners the experience of meeting Nan herself. Speaking to Arts Centre Director Amy Liptrott, Sophia will perform some extracts, discuss feminist themes in Nan’s work and how the sentiments in her groundbreaking nature piece The Living Mountain can be applied to surviving the current environment crisis.
Sophia McLean is an established performer, working in various genres from theatre to radio to dance. She is based in London but is originally from the Grampian area and is joining WayWORD to discuss her recent role as Nan Shepard in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s project A Journey with Nan Shepherd. Written by Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen, the work celebrates the discovery of a collection of Nan’s personal letters to fellow Scottish literary figure Neil M Gunn. This interview will explore Nan’s determination to portray the natural world in a respectful and honest way as well as to establish her own identity as a female writer at a time when Scottish literature was dominated by romantic and revisionist views from male writers.
This event is supported by
