COUNTING AND CRACKING

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). His other theatre credits include Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow (Pilot Theatre, York UK), 宿Stay (Sydney Festival); and has in development a new play with Belvoir, his first novel, a feature film with Felix Media and a new TV project. 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 recently won the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Mainstage Production. Shakthi is the Director of Kurinji and previous to this was Founder/Artistic Lead of Co-Curious (2018-2022), sister company to CuriousWorks where he was Founder and Artistic Director (2003-2018). Shakthi was the Carriageworks inaugural Associate Artist and is a recipient of both the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards.

Eamon Flack

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. He is a director, writer, dramaturg and script developer for stage and screen.

 Eamon was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He has a BA (English and History) from the University of Queensland, and trained as an actor at WAAPA from 2001 to 2003. He has worked around Australia and internationally, from the Tiwi Islands to Sri Lanka and the UK. He has led Belvoir’s new work development in various guises since 2006, and has commissioned and developed many of the company’s most acclaimed new works over the last 15 years.

His productions of The Glass Menagerie, Angels in America and Counting and Cracking won the Helpmann Awards for Best Play in 2015, 2016, and 2019. 

His key directing credits include: Counting and Cracking (with Associate Director S. Shakthidharan, winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play and nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of the Mainstage Production), The Jungle and the Sea (co-directed with S. Shakthidharan, winner of Best New Work and Best Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards), Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie, Into the Woods, 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 Hendrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov (Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production and Best Director), as well as The Rover, The Blind Giant is Dancing, As You Like It, and Beckett’s The End. His 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 (winner of the 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 (Winner, Best New Work, Sydney Theatre Awards 2022); 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.

Rodney Afif

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.

Antonythasan Jesuthasan

Nadie Kammallaweera

Nadie appeared in Belvoir’s critically acclaimed production of Counting and Cracking in 2019.

In 2021, Nadie appeared in another Belvoir production, The Cherry Orchard, directed by Eamon Flack. Other theatre credits include Kalumali (Stages Theatre Group, Colombo), House of Bernada Alba (directed by Priyantha Sirikumara), Blood Wedding (directed by Kaushalya Fernando), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Distortion, (Somalatha Subasinghe Play House, Colombo), and Mother Courage and Her Children (directed by Somalatha Subasinghe).

She has played Sister Suree in HBO’s The Young Pope directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Other TV credits include Bedde Kulawamiya and Sansaare Piyasatahan, Wakefield for ABC Australia, and Series 2 and 3 of Bump for Stan Australia.

Film credits include This is My Moon(directed by Ashoka Handagama), August Sun (directed by Prasanna Vithanage), Paanghu (directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram), A Strange Familiar (directed by Malith Hegoda), and Mother Teresa (directed by Fabrizio Costa).

Nadie has won a number of awards in Sri Lanka for her performances, including Best Supporting Actress in a movie 2021, Best Teledrama Actress 2018, Best Upcoming Actress (2004), Special Jury Award for Acting 2004, and Best Supporting Actress 2003.

Ahi Karunaharan

Abbie-Lee Lewis

Abbie-Lee Lewis is a Kalkadoon actress who trained on the Aboriginal Theatre and Acting courses at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Perth.

Her credits include Seanna Van Helten’s Fallen, directed by Penny Harpham, for Sport for Jove; Our Town, directed by Clare Watson, for the Black Swan State Theatre Company of Western Australia; a national tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Hermia) for Bell Shakespeare; and Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree, directed by Ian Michael at the Blue Room Theatre, Perth. Her television credits include Black Comedy for ABC. In recent years she has also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with Peter Evans on Hamlet for Bell Shakespeare and with Jena Prince on Charlie Pilgrim for the Australian Theatre for Young People.

This year she has joined the team at Belvoir as the Andrew Cameron Fellow and will make her directing debut with Bruce Pascoe’s Cutter and Coot for the Moogahlin Performing Arts, NSW.

Based in: Kalkatungu Country, Australia

Gandhi McIntyre

Shiv Palekar

Sukhbir Singh Walia

Kaivalya Suvarna

Nipuni Sharada

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 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 due to premiere at festivals later this year

Rajan’s 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 has just finished filming on the mini-series Savage River directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Sukania Venugopal

Kranthi Kiran Mudigonda

Janakan Raj

Venkhatesh Sritharan

Anandavalli

Anandavalli has achieved world acclaim as a dancer throughout her celebrated international career spanning 45 years. She has been taught and nurtured by the foremost Gurus in the field of Bharatha Natyam and Kuchipudi.

Migrating to Australia she founded the Lingalayam Dance Academy in 1987 and the company in 1996. Her opus includes an impressive repertoire of original productions centred on the theme of woman. The company has embarked on a series of collaborations with renowned national and international artists.

In 1989 she was presented with Australian Citizenship on stage in recognition of her contribution to the arts in Australia. In 2002 she was awarded a Fellowship by the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. In December 2007 Anandavalli was awarded the title of “Kala Seva Bharathi” from the Bharat Kalachar institution in Chennai, India, and in 2019 the “Natya Aachryamani” – Lifetime Achievement Award, from Apsaras Arts, Singapore in recognition of her services to the arts.

Dale Ferguson

Dale has designed many Belvoir productions including Sami in Paradise, The Blind Giant is Dancing, Radiance, Brothers Wreck, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, Measure for Measure, The Power of Yes, Antigone, Exit the King, Peribanez, and The Judas Kiss (Toronto, West End and Brooklyn Academy of Music). Dale’s other credits include Away, Les Liaisons Da ngereuses (STC), August: Osage County, An Ideal Husband, The Weir, The Speechmaker, The Crucible, Top Girls, The Drowsy Chaperone (MTC); Dance of Death, Night on Bald Mountain and Because the Night (Malthouse Theatre); ‘Stay’ (Sydney Festival). For opera, Dale designed The Magic Flute (Lyric Opera of Chicago), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera) Otello (Cape Town Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos (Welsh National Opera), Anything Goes, The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin (Opera Australia). Dale received Helpmann Awards for August: Osage County and Counting and Cracking and Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for the Broadway Production of Belvoir’s Exit the King.

Damien Cooper

Damien designs lighting for Dance, Theatre, Opera and Film.  Designs for Belvoir include Into the Woods, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, Wayside Bride, Things I Know To Be True, Counting and Cracking, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, The Dog/The Cat, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Coranderrk, Miss Julie, Stories I Want to Tell You in Person, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Peter Pan, Private Lives, Conversation Piece, Strange Interlude, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, Gethsemane, Keating!, Toy Symphony, Peribanez, Stuff Happens, The Chairs, The Spook, In Our Name, The Underpants, The Sugar House, A Taste of Honey, The Ham Funeral, Exit the King (with Malthouse Theatre, and Broadway transfer). 

Designs for Sydney Theatre Company include Blithe Spirit, White Pearl (with National Theatre of Parramatta), Top Girls, Dinner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Disgraced, Arcadia, Orlando, The Golden Age, Suddenly Last Summer, The Women of Troy, The Lost Echo, Riflemind, Tot Mom, King Lear, The Shape of Things, These People, Morph, Thyestes, Far Away, Bed, This Little Piggy, Julius Caesar, Summer Rain, Boy Gets Girl, The Metamorphosis, The Cherry Orchard, A Hard God, Fat Pig, A Walk With the Goons, Self Esteem, The Art of War, The Great, The Duel, Honour, Oresteia, Zebra!, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness, Blood Wedding, Bloodland (with Queensland Theatre, Adelaide Festival and Bangarra), Pygmalion, Under Milk Wood, The Splinter, Storm Boy, The Long Way Home, Children of the Sun, Cyrano de Bergerac, Arms and the Man. 

Other theatre highlights include Queensland Theatre: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (with Belvoir), Away; Bell Shakespeare: The Tempest; MTC: Golden Shield; Ensemble Theatre: Kenny, Honour.

Damien also designs lighting for other forms of performance art, including over 150 opera, ballet and dance productions. He has been awarded Three Sydney Theatre Awards – Best Lighting; Three Green Room Awards – Best Lighting; Two Australian Production Designers Guild Awards – Award for Best Lighting Design Der Ring des Nibelungen; Award for Best Lighting Design The Glass Menagerie.

Stefan Gregory

Stefan Gregory is an Australian composer and sound designer for theatre, dance and film. His recent productions include: Medea (Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY), Yerma (The Young Vic, London), Medea, Ibsen Huis, Husbands And Wives (Toneelgroep Amsterdam), Drei Schwestern, Engel In Amerika, Medea (Theatre Basel), Trilogie de Vengeance, Les Trois Soeurs (L’Odeon, Paris), Avalanche (Barbican, London), There Is Definitely A Prince Involved (Australian Ballet, Melbourne), L’Chaim (Sydney Dance Company), Wonangatta, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company), The Present (Broadway, NY), Counting And Cracking, The Wild Duck, Thyestes (Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney), The Dig (Netflix). He has worked with many esteemed directors and choreographers, including Simon Stone, John Crowley, Neil Armfield, Benedict Andrews, Anne-Louise Sarks, Eamon Flack, Kip WIlliams, Gideon Obarzanek, Matthew Lutton, Ralph Myers, Angelica Mesiti.

Stefan has won two Sydney Theatre awards, and OBIE, was nominated for a drama desk award, has received a Sidney Myer Fellowship and has won a Helpmann award.

Stefan was a band member of Faker from 2004-2009, which achieved a platinum release with This Heart Attack and was nominated for several ARIA awards (Australian Recording Industry Association).

Stefan has a degree in pure mathematics (Hons. 1st) from the University of Sydney and also studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, but did not finish his diploma.

The son of science teachers and amateur folk musicians, Stefan grew up in a steel agricultural shed on a bushland property in the hinterland of Sydney with no electricty and a pet wallaby called Basil, where he nearly died from a red back spider bite at the age of nine.