THE JUNGLE AND THE SEA

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Jacob Rajan

Jacob was born in Malaysia. His parents are from Kerala in Southern India. He has a B.Sc. in Microbiology; a Primary School Teaching diploma and he became the first Indian actor to graduate from Toi Whakaari: The NZ Drama School.  Soon after graduation Jacob co-founded the Indian Ink Theatre Company with director, Justin Lewis. Jacob and Justin collaborated to make all of Indian Ink’s 11 plays to date and Jacob has performed in many of them including Guru of Chai, which was performed at Belvoir St Theatre in 2017.  He has won numerous theatre accolades including 2 Fringe First Awards from Edinburgh as well as Actor of Year and Production of the Year awards back home. Jacob was made a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2002 and a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to theatre in 2013. 

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.

Kaivalya Suvarna

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.

Biman Wimalaratne

Biman Kasun Wimaratne is an actor, performance coach, and a political activist involved in the Peoples Protest in Sri Lanka – for an inclusive and accountable society. A versatile actor, Biman has starred in shows such as ‘The Pillowman’ (dark comedy) and the ‘12 Angry Men’ (drama). Loves getting on stage for some standup comedy. Graduate – Actors Centre Australia.

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.

Veronique Benett

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

As a lighting designer, Veronique’s credits include: Wolves (Belvoir); Burn Witch Burn (Old Fitz); Happy Days (Red Line Productions); Sacre (Circa); Banging Denmark (Sydney Theatre Company); The Smallest Hour (Griffin Theatre); John (Outhouse Theatre Co.); The Life Of Us (Hayes Theatre); Nosferatu (Old 505); Stupid Fucking Bird (New Theatre); Happy Days, Chorus, Anatomy Of A Suicide, Permission To Spin, Howie The Rookie (Old Fitz); A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing (KXT).

Veronique designed set and costumes for A DOLL’S HOUSE at Ensemble: costumes For MUSEUM OF MODERN LOVE (Seymour Centre/Sydney Festival); set and lighting design for Exit The King (Red Line Productions) and Ulster American (Outhouse Theatre Co); costume design for As You Like It (Sport for Jove); set and costume design for Our Blood Runs In The Street (Red Line Productions); set and lighting for Venus In Fur, costume and lighting design for Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (NIDA). 

Veronique’s associate lighting designer credits include: Cursed! designed by Chloe Oglvie (Belvoir); No Pay? No Way! designed by Paul Jackson (Sydney Theatre Company); Prima Facie designed by Trent Suidgeest (Griffin Theatre); Cry-Baby directed and designed by Alexander Berlage (Hayes Theatre Co); and Macbeth, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Sport for Jove. 

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.

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 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 Children, The Weir, The Sublime (MTC); No Pay No Way, Appropriate, Still Point Turning, The Father, The Hanging, Disgraced, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, The Long Way Home, The Secret River, Machinal and Bloodland (STC); Hamlet, Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); and Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues (Griffin). For dance, Steve has composed music for 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.

Alan John

Alan is one of Australia’s most prolific composers for theatre, opera, television and film. Theatre credits include Packer And Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Twelth Night, Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll, Stuff Happens, Once In Royal David’s City, The Judas Kiss (Belvoir); A German Life (Adelaide Festival), I’m Not Running(National Theatre London); That Eye The Sky, A Doll’s House, (State Theatre Company of South Australia). Machu Picchu, Orlando, The Season At Sarsaparilla, Mother Courage, Hedda Gabler (Sydney Theatre Company); Hamlet, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing (Bell Shakespeare).

Opera credits include The Eighth Wonder (Opera Australia), How To Kill Your Husband, Through The Looking Glass (Victorian Opera/Malthouse Theatre).

Musical Theatre credits include The Adventures Of Snugglepot And Cuddlepie, Jonah Jones, Frankie – An Opera For Young People, Can You Hear Colour?

Film credits include Holding The Man, Looking For Alibrandi, The Bank, and the recent Storm Boy, and TV credits include The Shark Net, The Farm, Love My Way, The Beautiful Lie.

Awards include 2002 APRA Award for Best Score Feature Film for The Bank, APRA Award for Best Music Mini Series for The Shark Net (2004) and The Beautiful Lie (2016); 2010 Sydney Theatre Award and Helpmann awards for Best Music for Diary Of A Madman, Sydney Theatre Award for The White Guard.      

Tim Dashwood

Belvoir: The Life of Galileo. Other Theatre: Sydney Theatre Company:Julius Caesar, Death of a Salesman, No Pay? No Way!, Lord of the Flies. Opera Australia: Whiteley, West Side Story on Sydney Harbour, Krol Roger, Faust. shake & stir theatre co.: Fantastic Mr Fox, Jane Eyre, George’s Marvellous Medicine. New Theatre: The Removalists. Outhouse Theatre Co: Ulster American. Empress Theatre: Cyprus Avenue. Packemin Productions: Les Miserables. Sport for Jove: Rose Riot, Servant of Two Masters, Measure for Measure, Fallen. ATYP: Intersections: Arrival, War Crimes. NSW Public Schools: Macbeth. Red Line Productions: Fierce. As Actor: Kay & McLean Productions: The Graduate. Bell Shakespeare: Richard III. shake & stir theatre co.: Fantastic Mr Fox, Animal Farm, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, George’s Marvellous Medicine. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: A Chorus Line (understudy), Deathtrap. Gordon Frost Organisation: Fame: the Musical. Queensland Theatre Company: Managing Carmen, The Odd Couple, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Rabbithole, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Exception and the Rule. The Escapists: Packed. La Boite Theatre Company: The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay. Other: President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors incorporated. Training: Bachelor of Theatre Arts: university of Southern Queensland, Certified by the Society of Australian Fight Directors incorporated.

Nigel Poulton

Nigel is an award-winning movement director, fight and intimacy coordinator, SAG-AFTRA/MEAA stunt performer and actor, with over 25 years of professional experience. Selected theatre credits include: for Belvoir St Theatre, The Master and Margarita, Miss Peony, Packer and Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Stop Girl, Blessed Union, At What Cost?, The Jungle and the Sea; for Sydney Theatre Company, Oil, On The Beach, Do Not Go Gentle, Fences; for Bell Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth; for Melbourne Theatre Company, Bernhardt/Hamlet; for Ensemble Theatre, Memory of Water, Mr Bailey’s Minder, Suddenly Last Summer. Nigel’s film and television work includes: Deadloch, Nautilus, Poker Face, Thor: Love and Thunder, Spiderhead, Ding Dong I’m Gay, Occupation 2, Pirates of the Caribbean V, Deadline Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, The Bourne Legacy, Vikingdom and Winter’s Tale.

In 2021, Nigel was awarded the status of Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors, as one of only two recipients outside the US with this accolade. He has also won a Green Room Award for outstanding contribution to the stage.

Laura Farrell

Laura Farrell (she/her) is a Voice and Dialect Coach living and working on Gadigal land. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Voice from NIDA; a Post Graduate Diploma in Voice from the Victorian College of the Arts; and a Bachelor of Music Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts. A current lecturer for NIDA’s BFA, Laura has also taught on multiple Sydney actor training programs, including NIDA’s Diploma of Stage and Screen and Diploma of Music Theatre, Actors Pulse, Sydney Acting Studio, Actors Centre Australia and The University of Wollongong.

For Belvoir, Laura’s coaching credits include Into The Woods, directed by Eamon Flack (2023), Blue, directed by Deborah Brown (2023), Jungle And The Sea, directed by Eamon Flack (2022), Tell Me I’m Here, directed by Leticia Caceres (2022), Fangirls, directed by Paige Rattray (2022) and Counting And Cracking, directed by Eamon Flack (2022).  

Other credits include Pear Shaped, directed by Miranda Middleton (Rogue Projects, 2023), F*** It Bucket, directed by Alyssa McClelland (LeftBank Productions UK, 2022),  Reluctant Sea Shanty for UNHCR, directed by Kyra Bartley (FINCH, 2022), Picnic At Hanging Rock, directed by Claudia Osbourne (NIDA, 2022), Paper Stars, directed by Miranda Middleton (Salty Theatre, 2021) and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., directed by Heather Fairbairn (NIDA, Sydney 2021). 

Amy Hume

Amy Hume is a voice and dialect coach for theatre and screen, and Lecturer in Voice at Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Recent theatre credits include Fangirls, Counting & Cracking, Sami in Paradise (Belvoir), The Sound Inside, Fun Home, Cyrano (Melbourne Theatre Company), An American in Paris (Australian Ballet and GBS), Six the Musical Australia; Billy Elliot Australia (LWAA), White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company), Merrily We Roll Along (Hayes). Recent coaching for screen includes Bad Behaviour (Stan), New Gold Mountain (SBS), and The Secrets She Keeps (Ten). Amy previously taught BFA Acting and MFA Voice students at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) from 2015 – 2019. Amy also facilitates voice training for individuals and organisations across different industries, recently working with NSW Parliament, Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and NSW Department of Education. She is a Designated Linklater Teacher and currently serves on the Board of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), the international organisation for voice and dialect practitioners.

Keerthi Subramanyam

Keerthi is a Sydney based set and costume designer for live performance and film. Keerthi is a National Institute of Dramatic Art, BFA (Design for Performance, 2019) graduate, and a member of the Australian Production Design Guild.

Keerthi has designed set and costumes for Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Chewing Gum Dreams at the Old Fitz, Chop Chef at Riverside Theatres, and designed the costumes and was a set realiser on Belvoir’s At What Cost.

Keerthi has been an associate designer on a wide range of theatre shows including Sydney Theatre Company’s Grand Horizons, Belvoir’s Jungle and the Sea, Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Boomkak Panto, Cursed!, and Hayes Theatre Co’s Young Frankenstein. 

Keerthi has also worked as a props supervisor on Belvoir’s Into the Woods and Blessed Union. 

Keerthi’s film credits include working as a design assistant on Operation Buffalo, as production & costume designer on various short films and music videos and most recently as an art director on SBS’s mini series Appetite.  Keerthi is one of Belvoir’s Artistic Associates. She is currently working across theatre and art installation. 

Nithya Nagarajan

Nithya Nagarajan is an artist-curator with an expansive practice that is interested in the micro and macro qualities of movement. Having extensive training in Bharatanatyam, Nithya has been a soloist and a principal dancer of the Abinaya Natyalaya dance company in Chennai, India. Select creative credits include The Jungle and The Sea (Assistant Director – Belvoir St Theatre 2022), Sacred Grooves for Secular Spaces (Director, MPavilion 2020) and Outwitted! (Co-Director, Happenstance 2017). She was most recently co-Artistic Director at Arts House and forms 1/4th of a South Asian arts collective H-ME W-RK. She holds an award-winning PhD in performance studies for her field research on the intersection of gender and genre in Indian dance. 

Sujan Selven

Sujan Selven is a social entrepreneur aiming to create businesses that make money but also have some element of driving social good to them as well. He started Space Group with his brother which focuses on telecommunication builds, electrical services and civil construction. He went on to co-found Upcycled Tech which has a goal of lifting the North Eastern part of Sri Lanka into the digital economy by providing internet connectivity as well devices (recycle) to the population there to open up economic opportunities. He is also passionate about the arts, human rights and is an advocate for refugees and asylum seekers.

Thinesh Thillainadarajah

Thinesh Thillainadarajah is an Eelam Tamil Queer creative hailing from Toronto, Canada. Whilst his formal training was in law, sound design and music production, his creative interests have been multi-faceted. His ideas around community, multiculturalism and identity were heavily influenced by his upbringing in Toronto and shows up in the work he creates.

Thinesh’s previous community engagement work includes work for the Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company and the Belvoir Street Theatre. Outside of his community engagement work, he is the creative producer of Hot Sauce, curating intimate gatherings to roving dance parties that aim to create an intentional space to celebrate the lives of queer people of colour. 

Thinesh also guest produces episodes for Shoes Off, a podcast series exploring and celebrating what it means to be Asian in Australia. Most recently, he won for Best News & Current Affairs at the Australian Podcast Awards for You Have Been Told A Lie, a podcast series chronicling the Nadesalingam family’s journey to Australia, the geopolitical and national forces at play when it comes to Australia’s immigration policy, and what this all says about Australian identity.

Luke McGettigan

Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage managed The Jungle and the Sea, Tell Me I’m Here, Opening Night, The Boomkak Panto, Stop Girl, My Brilliant Career, A Room of One’s Own, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, A Taste of Honey, Sami in Paradise, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, Ghosts, The Rover, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Faith Healer, Twelfth Night or What You Will, The Great Fire, Mortido, Seventeen, Elektra/Orestes, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Brothers Wreck, Once in Royal David’s City, Miss Julie, Forget Me Not, Peter Pan (including New York tour), Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, Babyteeth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Wild Duck (including UK and Europe tours), Namatjira (Belvoir/Big hART), Page 8, The End, That Face, The Promise, Scorched, Antigone, Keating!, The Little Cherry Orchard and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His other credits include The Pig Iron People, The Give and Take, Bed, La Dispute (Sydney Theatre Company); Like a Fishbone (STC / Griffin); The Government Inspector, The Tempest, The Servant of Two Masters, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew (Bell Shakespeare); Paradise City, Through the Wire (Performing Lines); and Alive at Williamstown Pier (Griffin).

Ayah Tayeh

Born on Wurundjeri land and currently working on Gadigal land, Ayah is a stage manager with a passion for new work and diverse storytelling. Her Belvoir credits include: The Boomkak Panto (2021), A Room of One’s Own (2021) and My Brilliant Career (2020). Other credits include: 7 Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Breaking Glass (Sydney Chamber Opera), and Double Delicious (Contemporary Asian Australian Performance with Sydney Festival).

Nitya Ganesh

Nitya is a freelance stage manager and recent graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Art’s Stage Management course. During her time at WAAPA, she fulfilled stage and production management roles on a wide range of acting, music theatre and dance performances. Nitya’s recent professional credits include working as the Stage Manager for ‘107’ at The Blue Room Theatre in Perth, and as an ASM Swing for the 2022 Sydney season of ‘Mary Poppins’. After completing work as a Production Administrator earlier this year, Nitya is excited to be returning to Belvoir as an Assistant Stage Manager for ‘The Jungle and the Sea’.

Tom Rogers

Tom Rogers (he/they) is a Sydney-based freelance Stage Manager and Theatre Practitioner, with a passion for musical theatre.

In 2020 they worked as the Head of Staging at Concourse Theatre, Chatswood. Managing large-scale productions including, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Les Misérables, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Opera, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Bluey’s Big Play National Tour and CDP Productions

Previous credits include, FANGIRLS! (Belvoir St Theatre), Mary Poppins (Michael Cassel Group), North by Northwest (Kay and McLean Productions), Nearer the Gods (Ensemble Theatre Company), A Chorus Line (Darlinghurst Theatre Company).