The Jungle and the Sea

காடும்கடலும்  ගණවනමුහුද

S. Shakthidharan

Shakthi is a western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and producer of theatre and film, and composer of original music. Belvoir: The Jungle and the Sea (Co-written with Eamon Flack) and Counting and Cracking (Associate Writer Eamon Flack). He has in development a new play with Belvoir and a co-commission with the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. He has a feature film with Felix Media and a new TV project also in development. His debut play Counting and Cracking received critical, commercial and community acclaim. The script won the Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting; the production won 7 Helpmann and 3 Sydney Theatre Awards. Shakthi’s most recent play The Jungle and the Sea, again was met with rave reviews and had a profound impact on the Sri Lankan community. It won the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Drama Prize and 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Mainstage Production. Shakthi is the Director of Kurinji, was previously Director of Co-Curious, and was Founder and Artistic Director of CuriousWorks from 2003-2018. He is a Creative Australia and Sidney Myer Fellow, and a recipient of the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards.

Eamon Flack

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre. He was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He trained as an actor at WAAPA from 2001 to 2003 and has since worked as a director and writer around Australia and internationally, from the Tiwi Islands to Sri Lanka, London and New York. 

His directing credits for Belvoir include: Counting and Cracking (with Associate Director S. Shakthidharan, Helpmann Award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play), The Jungle and the Sea (co-directed with S. Shakthidharan, Sydney Theatre Award for Best Play), The Master and Margarita, Angels in America (Helpmann Award for Best Play), August: Osage County (Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Director and Best Show), The Glass Menagerie (Helpmann Award for Best Play), Tommy Murphy’s Packer & Sons, Rita Kalnejais’s Babyteeth, Alana Valentine’s Wayside Bride (co-directed with Hannah Goodwin), Tom Wright’s adaptation of Brecht’s Life of Galileo, Eamon’s own adaptations of Helen Garner’s The Spare Room, Hendrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov (Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production and Best Director), as well as Into the Woods, The Rover, The Blind Giant is Dancing, As You Like It, and Beckett’s The End. Other directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bob Presents/B Sharp) and Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui by Jason de Santis (Darwin Festival). 

His writing and adaptation credits include: Associate Writer of S. Shakthidharan’s Counting and Cracking (Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Literary Prize and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Helpmann for Best New Work), co-writer with S. Shakthidharan of The Jungle and the Sea (Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Sydney Theatre Awards for Best New Work); Helen Garner’s The Spare Room; a stage adaptation of Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children; Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov, Gorky’s Summerfolk, Sophocles’ Antigone and Ibsen’s Ghosts; co-adapter with Leah Purcell of Ruby Langford Ginibi’s memoir Don’t Take Your Love To Town; and co-deviser of Beautiful One Day with artists from ILBIJERRI, version 1.0, and the community of Palm Island. 

 For orchestral concert he has adapted and directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream alongside Mendelssohn’s score for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Belvoir St Theatre conducted by Simone Young, and directed and co-created Beethoven and Bridgetower with Anna Goldsworthy, Rita Dove and Richard Tognetti for the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

Anandavalli

Anandavalli is a veteran classical Indian dancer with an international career spanning over 45 years. Born in Sri Lanka, she performed as a young prodigy across India and Europe under the tutelage of dance luminaries from both the East and the West.

In 1985 she migrated to Australia and founded the Lingalayam Dance Academy and Company. Lingalayam’s work incorporates dance, live music, text and design. The company’s central focus is to express the timeless, unique role of women and dance in our society.

Anandavalli is deeply committed to advancing the course of Indian dance as well as the broader scope of artistic development in Australia. Through a series of innovative, national and international collaborative partnerships, today Lingalayam’s choreographic vocabulary far transcends the boundaries of its original performative paradigms, and presents contemporary work founded on its classical origins.

Anandavalli was the pivotal actor/dancer in the 2022 Belvoir Street Theatre & Lingalayam Dance Company’s 2022 co-production of the ‘The Jungle and The Sea’, which won four Sydney Theatre Awards, including Best Mainstage Production. She is the Cultural & Costume Advisor and Choreographer for the Belvoir and Co-curious, 7 Helpmann Award winning epic production of ‘Counting & Cracking’ since its inception.

Based in: Sydney, Australia

Prakash Belawadi

Prakash is an Indian theater, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Born into a family of theatre and cinema artistes, Belawadi obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983, but has devoted the most part of his years to the stage, cinema, journalism and teaching.

Belawadi has represented India as a delegate in many seminars, conferences and festivals around the world, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010; the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011; the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013; and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014.

He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey and is a mentor at Chanakya University, Bengaluru. He is a motivational speaker at events and Tedx conferences.

Prakash Belawadi’s debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003. The film has now been included in the national telecaster Doordarshan’s Best of Indian Cinema series.

Belawadi has acted in many stage plays, web series and over 70 films in five Indian languages and English. He was given the META award for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 and the Helpmann Award, Australia (2019) for Best Actor, Male in the play ‘Counting and Cracking’, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney. He was conferred ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ in 2003 by the Government of Karnataka for his contribution to culture; the Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2011-12) for his contribution to English and Kannada language theatre; and the Government of Karnataka’s ‘Rajytosava Award’ in 2021. He has also been awarded the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ by Bangalore Round Table (2015), ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (Kannadiga of the Year) (2015) in the field of entertainment, by News 18 Kannada.

The serial ‘Garva’, which he wrote and directed in 2001 is still considered a classic among Kannada serials.

Prakash was one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens. Prakash and like-minded citizens have founded the Greater Bengaluru Parisara Foundation, a trust with the vision to realise a healthy and sustainable Greater Bengaluru with clean air; piped supply of water; recharging of ground water, well managed tanks and other resources; improved management and renewal of urban and peri-urban forests, eco-friendly parks and wetlands with rich biodiversity.

Based in: Bangalore, India

Emma Harvie

Emma is a graduate from the Actors Centre Australia and has studied at The Atlantic Acting School in New York. She is a proud Equity member. Theatre credits include: Counting and Cracking (Belvoir UK Tour), My Brilliant Career (Belvoir), The Wolves (Belvoir), Dance Nation (STCSA/Belvoir), The Astral Plane (Belvoir 25A), 44 Sex Acts in One Week (Clubhouse Productions), Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company), The Last Wife (Ensemble Theatre), Wrath (KXT/JackRabbit), A Cheery Soul (Sydney Theatre Company), The Harp in the South Parts 1 and 2 (Sydney Theatre Company), The Hypochondriac (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), The Wolves (Redline Productions), Taking Steps (Ensemble Theatre), The Players (Bell Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sydney Theatre Company), Orfeo ed Euridice in the Art Gallery of NSW (Spectrum Now Festival)

Film credits include: Ladylike (Chekhov’s Gun Productions) 

TV credits include: LiMBO (ABC/Bunya Productions), Colin from Accounts (Easy Tiger/Binge), Frayed Season 2 (Guesswork/Merman), Diary of an Uber Driver (ABC/Revolver), The Letdown Season 2 (ABC/Netflix).

Nadie Kammallaweera

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Nadie Kammallaweera is a theatre, film, and television actor, writer, and translator. She has acted in stage plays, movies, and television dramas. Nadie’s recent work as an actor in Australia includes Counting and Cracking (2024), Jungle and the Sea (2022), Counting and Cracking (2019), Cherry Orchard (2021) by Belvoir Street Theatre, Wakefield (ABC TV Series), and Bump (Stan Australia TV Series). Her theatre credits elsewhere include Kalumali for the Stage Theatre Group Colombo; The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Mother Courage and Her Children for Somalatha Subasinghe Play House Colombo. Her television credits overseas include The Young Pope for HBO, The New Pope for HBO, Bedde Kulawamiya for SLRC (Sri Lanka), and Sansasre Piyasatahan for ITN (Sri Lanka). Nadie’s feature films include Asoka Handagama’s This is My Moon, Prasanna Vithanage’s August Sun, Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s Pangshu, Malith Hegoda’s Strange Familiar, and Fabrizio Costa’s Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Some of the national-level awards Nadie has won in Sri Lanka are Best Supporting Actress in a Movie (2021), Best Actress in a Series (2018), Best Translation (Drama) of the Year (2005), Presidential Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role (2005), Best Upcoming Actress (Movie) (2004 and 2003), and the BUNKA Award of Recognition for Valuable Contribution to Sri Lankan Theatre. Nadie has co-written the screenplay Thaala (Sri Lankan Children’s Movie), and she is currently co-writing a screenplay with director Anura de Silva for Ashram Productions (Sri Lanka).

Nadie is currently based in Sydney.

Shiv Palekar

Shiv Palekar was born in India, raised in Hong Kong and is now based in Sydney.

Since graduating from NIDA, Shiv has appeared in Counting and Cracking (Belvoir); The Tempest, The
Real Thing, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Disgraced (Sydney Theatre Company); The Sound Inside (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Almighty Sometimes (Griffin Theatre Company); and has toured nationally twice in The Merchant of Venice and The Players (Bell Shakespeare).

Shiv made his feature film debut in the feature film The Greenhouse. He has also starred in the short film Among Men.

Shiv’s most recent television credits include his ongoing appearance in Amazon Studios’ Daytime-Emmy nominated remount of Neighbours, as well as Apple TV/Paramount’s
Shantaram.

For his work in the Beauty Queen of Leenane and Counting and Cracking, he received two Sydney Theatre Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and Best Actor respectively. For his work in ‘The Sound Inside’ he received a nomination for Outstanding Performance at Melbourne’s Green Room Awards.

He is also an associate artist and founding member of theatre ensemble The Corinthian Food Store Collective for who he has starred as Lester in This, This is Mine.

Based in: Sydney, Australia

Dushan Philips

Dushan played the role of Niv in Stay Woke (Malthouse and Darlinghurst Theatre) and more recently tread the boards in Bighouse Dreaming (Arts Centre Melbourne).

Other stage credits include Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth (Australian Shakespeare Company) playing the roles of Lord Capulet and Macduff. He has worked on Fury, The Antipodes (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Right Now (Malthouse Theatre Company) and The Crocodile (Malthouse Theatre Company).

Previous TV credits include ABC’s Glitch, Channel 10’s Offspring, Foxtel’s Wentworth, Stan’s Romper Stomper and the American TV Series Hunters. He was also main cast in Channel 31’s ghost hunting six-part series Sonnnigsburg. Recent television roles include Fires and Jack Irish – Hell Bent, both for the ABC, Stan original series The Gloaming and Channel Ten’s My Life is Murder, directed by Leah Purcell.

Dushan won a Green Room Award for his performance in Angels In America, for Dirty Pretty Theatre (2017).

Based in: Melbourne, Australia

Kalieaswari Srinivasan

Kalieaswari Srinivasan’s stage credits include Une pierre de patience, directed by Clara Bauer, at last year’s Les Francophonies Festival, Limoges; Counting and Cracking with Belvoir at the 2019 Adelaide Festival; The Prisoner, directed by Peter Brook and Marie Helene Estienne, at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, and on tour in Europe and the USA; The Tempest at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; On the Other Side — Concert for Piano and Silences, directed by Diego Pileggi at the Grotowski Institute, Wrocław; Land of Ashes and Diamonds for Indianostrum Théâtre at Le Petit Salle of Theatre du Soleil, Paris; Ki Raa Kulambu, directed by Rajiv Krishnan, presented in Tamil Nadu; and Kunti Karna, directed by Koumarane Valavane and performed in India and France. Her films include Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2015; Sivaranjaniyum Innum Sila Pengalum, directed by Vasanth S. Sai; Biryani, directed by Jay Emmanuel, which she co-wrote; the short films Begum Parvathi, directed by Radhika Prasidhha, and Pablo Neruda, directed by Bagu; and Rettai Jadai, directed by Franziska Schönenberger and Jayakrishnan Subramanian. She appeared in two installations bridging theatre and fashion at BOZAR, Brussels: Figure Studies, directed by Andrew Ondrejcak, and Kabul to Bamako, directed by Clara Bauer.

Rajan Velu

Rajan Velu is a graduate of Actors Centre Australia and has worked extensively across Theatre, Television, and Film in Australia and the United States.

Rajan’s theatre credits include Jungle and the Sea (Belvoir), Counting and Cracking (Belvoir), Life of Galileo (Belvoir), Norm and Ahmed (Australian Theatre Live), The Last Highway (Urban Theatre Projects), The Drum (Sydney Opera House), Friends in Transient Places (Fresh Produce’d LA), The Changeling (Independent Shakespeare Company LA), Henry V (Independent Shakespeare Company LA).

Film credits include This Little Love of Mine, Eat Spirit Eat, Honeyglue and the short film Bug which hit the festival circuit last year.

His television credits include, Criminal Minds-Beyond Borders, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, All Saints, Doctor Doctor, RFDS, Diary of an Uber Driver, Born to Spy and the AACTA nominated shows, Savage River and The Disposables.

Based in: Sydney, Australia

Indu Balachandran

Indu Balachandran is a Sydney-based musician and cultural producer. She has learnt veena from her mother Malathi Nagarajan, and her grandmother Smt. Bhagirathi Narasimhan. Indu has also trained in vocal music. 

Indu is particularly interested in creating work that speaks to place. Most recently, she co-directed and performed in Bhoomi: Our Country for the Sydney Festival in 2021, Behind Closed Doors to engage communities in issues of family violence in 2022-2023, and the Melbourne Veena Festival in 2022. Her film – Her Inner Song – explores stories of older Indian women in Carnatic music, and has screened nationally and internationally. 

Indu is a Global Atlantic Fellow in Social Equity which centres Indigenous knowledges in Australia, and has held senior positions in the Indigenous sector for many years, most recently at the Aboriginal Housing Office.

Arjunan Puveendran

Arjunan’s work focuses on the intersection of music, dance, rhythm and dialogue. As a vocalist, percussionist and speaker, he has presented various arts projects in Sydney with collaborator Indu Balachandran including: Atma: Music and Movement (2017), Bhakti: Art and Devotion (2018), Bhoomi: Woman and Earth (2019) and Re-imagining Dance: Brown Bodies on the Global Stage (2020). He also featured in the multi-award-winning play Counting and Cracking (2019) by Belvoir and Co-Curious. He staged Bhoomi: Our Country with Indu for Sydney Festival 2021 at Seymour Centre. Film credits include short film Anthi (2021) and he performed dramatic monologue and vocals for Idam: Place (2022)(collaborations with Anandavalli of Lingalayam Dance Company, and Iqbal Barkat). Arjunan was named by the Australia Council for the Arts, as one of its cohort of 25 Arts Leaders in 2020.

Now based in Sydney, Arjunan trained in Carnatic (South Indian classical) vocal music from Sivaganga Sahathevan OAM and percussion under Balasri Rasiah, under the auspices of Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy in Melbourne. He continues to undertake further studies with leading Carnatic musicians based in Chennai, India.

Arjunan’s body of work also comprises music and rhythmic composition, particularly for dancers including the internationally acclaimed Christopher Gurusamy and Anandavalli. He has produced and performed works as part of The Taste of India, a long running project supported by Multicultural Arts Victoria with performances for the Darebin Music Feast, Piers Festival and Castlemaine Festival. He widely performs Carnatic music for dance productions including credits Mariamman (2013), Navagraha: Planets of Destiny (2014), Margam (2021) and Sringaram (2022).

Aside from music, Arjunan pursues a legal career working as a Partner at national corporate law firm Thomson Geer.

Dale Ferguson

Dale Ferguson’s credits for Belvoir include The Jungle and the Sea, Sami in Paradise, The Blind Giant is Dancing, Brothers Wreck and The Power of Yes.

Dales other theatre credits include Death of a Salesman (GWB, Andrew Henry Presents) 37, Come Rain or Come Shine, An Ideal Husband, The Weir, The Speechmaker, The Crucible, Top Girls (MTC); A German Life (Adelaide Festival); Emerald City, L’Appartement (Queensland Theatre); Because the Night, Away, Brothers Wreck, Night on Bald Mountain, Dance of Death, Timeshare (Malthouse Theatre); Exit the King (Broadway); Cosi, Away, Les Liasions Dangereues (Sydney Theatre Company). Opera credits are Tosca (Opera Queensland WA Opera); The Magic Flute (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Anything Goes (Opera Australia); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021 Adelaide Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera).

Dale received Helpmann Awards for August: Osage County and for Counting and Cracking. He has also received a number of Green Room Awards, most recently in 2022 for Because the Night and Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Exit the King on Broadway.

Dale is a Lecturer in Performance Design at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Based in: Melbourne, Australia

Arjunan Puveendran

Arjunan’s work focuses on the intersection of music, dance, rhythm and dialogue. As a vocalist, percussionist and speaker, he has presented various arts projects in Sydney with collaborator Indu Balachandran including: Atma: Music and Movement (2017), Bhakti: Art and Devotion (2018), Bhoomi: Woman and Earth (2019) and Re-imagining Dance: Brown Bodies on the Global Stage (2020). He also featured in the multi-award-winning play Counting and Cracking (2019) by Belvoir and Co-Curious. He staged Bhoomi: Our Country with Indu for Sydney Festival 2021 at Seymour Centre. Film credits include short film Anthi (2021) and he performed dramatic monologue and vocals for Idam: Place (2022)(collaborations with Anandavalli of Lingalayam Dance Company, and Iqbal Barkat). Arjunan was named by the Australia Council for the Arts, as one of its cohort of 25 Arts Leaders in 2020.

Now based in Sydney, Arjunan trained in Carnatic (South Indian classical) vocal music from Sivaganga Sahathevan OAM and percussion under Balasri Rasiah, under the auspices of Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy in Melbourne. He continues to undertake further studies with leading Carnatic musicians based in Chennai, India.

Arjunan’s body of work also comprises music and rhythmic composition, particularly for dancers including the internationally acclaimed Christopher Gurusamy and Anandavalli. He has produced and performed works as part of The Taste of India, a long running project supported by Multicultural Arts Victoria with performances for the Darebin Music Feast, Piers Festival and Castlemaine Festival. He widely performs Carnatic music for dance productions including credits Mariamman (2013), Navagraha: Planets of Destiny (2014), Margam (2021) and Sringaram (2022).

Aside from music, Arjunan pursues a legal career working as a Partner at national corporate law firm Thomson Geer.

Steve Francis

Steve has worked extensively in theatre, dance and screen. His Belvoir credits include The Wrong Gods, The Weekend, Jungle and the Sea, Tell me I’m Here, Cursed, My Brilliant Career, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing, The Sugar House, The Book of Everything, The Power of Yes, Ruben Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding, and Capricornia.

His other theatre credits include The Sound Inside, The Children, The Weir, The Sublime (MTC); Julia, No Pay No Way, Appropriate, Beauty Queen of Leanne, Still Point Turning, The Father, The Hanging, Disgraced, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, The Long Way Home, The Secret River, Machinal and Bloodland (STC); Boy Swallows Universe (QT); Love Stories (Brisbane Festival); Hamlet, Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); and Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues (Griffin).

For dance, Steve has composed music for Baleen (Adelaide Festival), Horizon, Wudjang, Sandsong, Dark Emu, Bennelong, Belong, True Stories, Skin, Walkabout, Bush (Bangarra Dance).

His awards include Helpmann Awards for Best Original Score in 2012 and 2003 and Best New Australian Work in 2003 and Sydney Theatre Awards in 2011 and 2014.

Véronique Benett

Véronique is a lighting and set designer, and costume designer.  In 2019, Véronique completed a Master of Fine Art (Design for Performance).  She also holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Technical Theatre and Stage Management) from NIDA.

As a lighting designer, Véronique’s credits include: THE JUNGLE AND THE SEA, TELL ME I’M HERE, THE WOLVES (Belvoir); BANGING DENMARK (Sydney Theatre Company); THE GREAT DIVIDE (Ensemble Theatre);  SACRE (Circa); THE SMALLEST HOUR (Griffin Theatre); JOHN (Outhouse Theatre Co.); LUMEN MACHINE, PSYCHADELLIC FRENZY (Ensemble Offspring), ETERNAL LIGHT, PLEASURES OF VERSAILLES (Pinchgut Opera).

Véronique’s associate lighting designer credits include: SCENES FROM THE CLIMATE ERA designed by Nick Schlieper (Belvoir);  JULIA designed by Alexander Berlage (Sydney Theatre Company); CURSED! designed by Chloe Oglvie (Belvoir); HUMANS 2.0 designed by Paul Jackson (CIRCA); PRIMA FACIE designed by Trent Suidgeest (Griffin Theatre); CRY-BABY directed and designed by Alexander Berlage (Hayes Theatre Co).

​She has received four Sydney Theatre Award nominations: for Best Stage Design of an Independent Production for EXIT THE KING and ULSTER AMERICAN; Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production for HAPPY DAYS; and Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production for JOHN.

Véronique participated in Melbourne Theatre Company’s WOMEN IN THEATRE Programme in 2020.