Kareem Samara
Kareem Samara is a musician and composer from London. He works with a wide variety of poets, writers and musicians across many disciplines in Europe, the USA and the Middle East. His work combines Arab and western acoustic instruments along with electronics, creating new lines of dialogue between traditions; resulting in a unique soundscape and performance. Unpredictable and raw, the improvisational method ensures no performance is the same. ‘Shoegaze-esque solo set that paired electronic foot pedals with Maqams played on historys oldest string instrument…our ears bent like periscopes to catch every finger twist.’
His work for theatre includes You Bury Me (Paines Plough) Hakawatis (Shakespeare Globe) and History of Water in the Middle East (Royal Court) The Chronicles of Majnoon Leila (The Gate).
Anjali Mehra
Anjali joined Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Dance company in 1999 after graduating from Central School of Ballet, London.
For the Watermill Theatre: Othello (also co-director), Spike, Brief Encounter, As You Like It, Macbeth and A Midsummer Nights Dream (also UK Tour). Current projects: Lord of the Rings, Watermill theatre, Choreographer and Movement Director.
Her Choreography/ Movement Direction highlights include Daddy (Almeida); Cherry Town (Welsh National Opera); Jacob Lenz (English National Opera); Dick Whittington (Watford Palace Theatre); L’Orfeo (Silent Opera); Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armoury, NY); God Only Knows (Tate Modern).
Recently, she was Movement Director for Stravinsky’s Mavra and Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire (Royal Opera House).
Candida Caldicot
Current and forthcoming credits: The Lehman Trilogy (Musical Supervisor, West End); To Kill A Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre).
Candida composed music for The Little Prince (Taunton Brewhouse & Metta Theatre) alongside lyrics by P Burton Morgan. The EP is available to listen to on Spotify.
Musical Director credits include: Jews. In Their Own Words (Royal Court); Black Love(Kiln Theatre, Paines Plough); The Lehman Trilogy (Broadway, US Tour, West End, National Theatre & The Armory, New York); The Wizard of Oz (Musical Supervisor, Leeds Playhouse); King Lear (Duke of York’s); The Seven Ages of Patience (Kiln); Carmen – The Gypsy (UK Tour); Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Little Mermaid (Metta Theatre, UK Tour); The Shadow Factory (Nuffield Southampton); Queen Anne (RSC, Theatre Royal Haymarket); WOYZECK (Old Vic); Snow White; Beauty and the Beast(Lighthouse Theatre); Beyond The Fence (Sky Arts, Arts Theatre); It’s a Mad World My Masters (English Touring Theatre); Hecuba; The Witch of Edmonton; The Heresy of Love; The Heart of Robin Hood (RSC); Love’s Labours Lost (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Galileo (Birmingham Rep); Bed and Sofa (Finborough Theatre); The Vaudevillians (Lowry Theatre & Charing Cross Theatre).
Rosamunde Hutt
Rosamunde has led or co-led three major companies, Hijinx Theatre 1990-1993; Theatre Centre, Director, 1993 -2007; Unicorn, Associate Artistic Director, 2007-2011 and is Artistic Director of Pursued By A Bear for whom she recently directed 5 Nothing on Earth: Shorts, digital films by Anna Reynolds and produced Pigeons and Plantain by Afia Nkrumah (Watford Fringe 2021, First Sight Festival, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, 2022). For the Arcola Rosamunde was invited to direct New Nigerians by Oladipo Agboluaje as part of the Russian Revolution season (2017). With Patrice Naiambana (Tribal Soul Arts) Rosamunde then co- produced the Arcola’s first ever UK tour, with a revival of New Nigerians (2018). The award winning play Love, Bombs and Apples by Hassan Abdulrazzak, was premiered and completed two runs at the Arcola, toured the UK, and was presented at the Edinburgh Festival with Arab Arts Focus (2017), at the Golden Thread Theatre, San Francisco (2018) and at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC 2019 World Stages season (AIK Productions/Turtle Key Arts). Rosamunde has also directed three productions for East 15 School of Acting in Arcola’s Studio 1. Other recent credits include Jabala and the Jinn by Asif Khan (AIK/Belgrade/Turtle Key/UK tour). She has worked as a director in India, Romania, Japan and Bangladesh, regularly directs for Goldsmiths, RADA and East 15, and specialises in new writing, often developing new work with Kali Theatre. She collaborates regularly with Michael Mears and directed his play, This Evil Thing (Edinburgh Fringe 2016, UK and USA tours) as well as The Mistake (Edinburgh Fringe 2022). Currently she is the Workshop Director for The Shadow World Musical, music and lyrics by KS Lewkowicz, book by Hassan Abdulrazzak, which is being developed in association with the Arcola; and is producing and directing the brand new play Nothing on Earth by Anna Reynolds, with original music composed by Helen Chadwick, which will tour Hertfordshire and UK venues in March 2023.
KS Lewkowicz
Musicals include Release The Beat, Goodbye Barcelona (London/Barcelona/Madrid/Berlin/Mexico City) and The Queen and I
Other writing includes additional lyrics and musical supervision for Bliss/Mutluluk, the Arcola Theatre adaptation of the iconic Turkish novel ‘Bliss’, music and lyrics for an adaptation of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (Arcola Theatre), a musical adaptation of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and music for various devised scenes for Paddington Arts Youth Theatre Group.
Hassan Abdulrazzak
Hassan Abdulrazzak’s plays include Sea Things (Southwark Playhouse, 2022), The Special Relationship (Soho Theatre, 2020), And Here I Am (Arcola Theatre, 2017 and UK tour; Europe, Middle East and Africa tour, 2018-2019), Love, Bombs and Apples (Arcola Theatre, 2016 and UK tour; Golden Thread, San Francisco, 2018 followed by a second UK tour; Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, 2019), Catalina (Oval House, 2015), The Prophet (Gate theatre, 2012) and Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre, London 2007; BBC Radio 3, 2008; Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney 2009; Akvarious productions, Delhi & Mumbai 2010).
He had translated numerous Arabic language plays including Chronicles of a City We Never Knew by Wael Qadour (reading at the Gate Theatre 2019), Voluntary Work by Laila Soliman (reading at The Royal Court Theatre 2012) and 603 by Imad Farajin (reading at the Royal Court Theatre 2008).
His film Catalina is being produced by Nadia Nadif and developed with the BFI.
He has adapted Baghdad Wedding into a feature film for Focus Features, wrote an original screenplay called Cutting Season about FGM for New Century. He has also written four episodes for HWJN, an upcoming TV series commissioned by O3 and Image Nation productions.
He is the recipient of George Devine, Meyer-Whitworth, Pearson theatre awards as well as the Arab British Centre Award for Culture. Love, Bombs and Apples won the Bay Area theatre award for outstanding production in 2018. And Here I Am won best monodrama at Sharm El Sheikh International Theatre Festival For Youth in 2019. He was a Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow in 2020. He is also a Golden Thread Productions Resident Artist.
