CivicLAB in partnership with Derby Learning Theatre, University of Derby will host a panel event that uses Little Shop of Horrors as a provocative starting point for exploring the fraught relationship between industry and nature within contemporary civic and cultural contexts.
Bringing together voices from across practice, academia, and the arts, the panel will examine how the musical’s narrative of an unruly, ever‑expanding plant mirrors real‑world tensions between industrial ambition and the natural world’s capacity to push back. In the show, a seemingly miraculous botanical “innovation” quickly becomes a symbol of unchecked industrial appetite—revealing how growth, profit, and efficiency can spiral into exploitation and collapse.
The discussion will delve into how economic systems treat nature as a limitless resource, and how this industrial logic drives extraction, dependency, and degradation. By looking at the musical’s central plant as a metaphor for industrial expansion—hungry, insatiable, and demanding—the panel will consider what happens when human systems prioritise productivity over ecological balance, and convenience over reciprocity.
Connecting the story to urgent real-world issues, the panel will explore environmental degradation, climate change, and resource extraction, interrogating how industries attempt to dominate or optimise natural systems, often with irreversible consequences. Themes of corporate greed, misinformation, and the pressure to constantly “scale up” will be examined alongside the natural world’s resilience, agency, and refusal to remain passive.
Grounded in both theatrical storytelling and the realities of environmental crisis, the event will invite audiences to rethink long-held assumptions about industrial progress, mastery over nature, and the uneasy power struggle between human ambition and the living systems that sustain us.
FREE to attend and open to everyone
Join us for Little Shop of Horrors
Book TodayPanellists include:
Jamie Quince-Starkey
His flagship project, Electric Daisy, took a forgotten patch of concrete and turned it into a thriving community garden and venue. It’s proof that when communities, businesses, and councils pull together, big change happens. Jamie speaks on action first, teamwork, mission-led change, and nature as a driver for innovation and purpose–without the jargon.
Luke Dorian
After studying Philosophy and Theatre & Performance at University, Luke worked in hotel management and commercial consultancy before joining frontline politics. Spending twelve years supporting MPs, Council Leaders and volunteers across the Midlands with elections, strategy and local issue campaigns.
Luke now works for the Royal Society of Arts as Fellowship Engagement Manager in the Midlands region. He’s passionate about encouraging arts learning from a young age and helping young people into creative careers.
Outside of work he loves playing guitar, print making, watching musicals, ice skating and causing mischief with his son, James.
Dr Anne Danby
Dr Anne Danby has navigated an eclectic career, from uncovering what fungi get up to inside trees to running a research camp in the forests and floodplains of southern Tanzania. Consultancy in sustainable forestry across Africa, with ventures into South America and Europe fulfilled the expeditionary dream sparked by an undergraduate field trip to Kenya. Twists and turns through HE regulation, social mobility and widening participation in education, work based and distance learning and academic quality have led her to become Head of Environmental Sciences at the University of Derby. When she’s not analysing departmental metrics, she is happiest leading fieldwork, teaching sustainable agriculture and mycology, chasing bees around Yellowstone and working with energetic people with a vision to do good.
David Powell
Dave has over 35 years of experience working across statutory services in Social Care, Youth Justice, and Mental Health. In addition to his public sector background, he has valuable experience in the private sector and have been deeply involved in a wide range of community initiatives across Derby and Derbyshire.
Driven by both professional expertise and personal experience, Dave is passionate about supporting the local communities and Derby’s wider population. His work focuses on raising awareness around mental health and wellbeing, and providing accessible social support services and development opportunities for individuals and groups.
