NAN TURNER

Nan Turner is a songwriter, musician, improviser/actor, and dancer. Sometimes she does these one at a time and sometimes all at once.

After losing her mind with Meisner actor training in NYC in the late 90's, she fell into a Riotgrrrl-Antifolk-Punk-infused life of rock and roll. She spent a lot of time at Sidewalk Cafe on the Lower East Side of NYC watching her friends play hilarious and heartfelt songs, and learning how to craft her own quirky "but with meat at the center of it” tunes.

Her band Schwervon! (with Matthew Roth, aka Major Matt Mason USA) got cruisin' in the early oughts and toured Europe and made albums for many years. In 2012 they moved from NYC to Kansas to be able to live more cheaply and tour the world MORE. They did this hardcore style until 2018.

We should mention that Nan is also is a dancer. She started making up dances with her friends when she was in junior high, and guess what. She’s still doing this! It was only a matter of time until dancing became a natural accompaniment to her music, finding its way into tapdance improvs during poetry breaks with Schwervon!,  and also in her project, Nan + the One Nite Stands, where she blends dance moves with theatrical poetry. She has choreographed dances for Kimya Dawson and music videos for R. Ring (Kelley Deal + Mike Montgomery), True Lions, and Chase the Bunnyman.

After being in KC for a few years, Nan decided to take an improv comedy class. This lit a fire in her brain, burning down the charred remains of the difficult acting experience of her 20's. You can often catch her improvising (musical and non-musical) at The Bird Theater in Kansas City.

Nan’s latest opus is Sequins Before Noon, a musical about 90's figure skaters like Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul (and their mothers). Nan wrote, directed, choreographed, and performed in it! It had a sold-out run of 5 shows at The Black Box in Jan 2026 in Kansas City and she is already chewing on the next draft. She is also finishing a Nan + the One Nite Stands EP (with her producer/collaborator Chase Horseman) which is slated for release in Summer of 2026.