THE WRONG GODS

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, as well as a co-commission with the MTC and STC, 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 Drama 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.

Based in: Sydney Australia

Hannah Goodwin

Hannah Goodwin (she/her) is a director who lives and works on Gadigal land. She is currently Resident Director at Belvoir Street Theatre. Her work includes Wayside Bride by Alana Valentine (Belvoir), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill (Belvoir), The Sorry Mum Project by Pippa Ellams (National Theatre of Parramatta, Bondi Feast), A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar) by Lulu Raczka (Kings Cross Theatre), and The Carousel by Pippa Ellams (Shopfront Arts Co-op, Downstairs Belvoir, Merrigong X, Kings Cross Theatre). As assistant director: Black Brass by Mararo Wangai (Belvoir), Stop Girl by Sally Sara (Belvoir), My Brilliant Career by Kendall Feaver (Belvoir), Packer and Sons by Tommy Murphy (Belvoir), and Love by Patricia Cornelius (Darlinghurst Theatre Company).

Hannah was the 2020-2022 Andrew Cameron Fellow at Belvoir and the 2019 recipient of the ATYP Rose Byrne Leadership Scholarship.

Nadie Kammallaweera

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Nadie Kammallaweera is a theatre, film and television actor, writer, and a translator. She has acted in stage plays, movies and television dramas.

Nadie’s recent work as an actor in Australia include 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 Bernada Alba, Blood Wedding, Snowwhite and 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 Strage 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 BUNKA award of recognition of valuable contribution to the Sri Lankan Theatre .

Nadie has co written the screen play Thaala (Sri Lankan Children’s movie) and she is currently co writing a screen play with director Anura de Silva for Ashram Productions (Sri Lanka).

Nadie is currently based in Sydney.

Radhika Mudaliyar

Radhika Mudaliyar, a Sydney-based actor of Indian heritage, is a graduate of the renowned Bachelor of Arts in Acting program at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Recently seen in Stan’s ‘Prosper,’ she is eagerly anticipated in Belvoir Theatre’s acclaimed production, ‘Counting and Cracking.’

Whilst at WAAPA, a few notable roles Radhika portrayed are; ‘Hermia’ in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘Cleante’ in Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe,’ ‘Aarzu’ in Suzie Miller’s ‘Caress/Ache,’ and the titular role in Sophocles’ ‘Antigone.’

In 2023, Radhika was awarded the Best Actor prize at the Buddha International Film Festival for her role in ‘All is Well’ and was also named a finalist in the competitive Equity Neighbours Internship.

She earned the ‘Most Outstanding Actor’ award at the Vice Chancellor’s Shakespeare Awards for her original devised Bharathanatyam piece titled ‘A Nayika named Hamlet.’

Based in: Sydney, Australia

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash is an actor, dancer and emerging writer. She completed her training at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, in 2017 and also holds an Arts/Law degree from Sydney University. Her theatre credits include Counting and Cracking, Life of Galileo and Sami in Paradise for Belvoir; Grand Horizons, White Pearl and Julius Caesar (as understudy) for the Sydney Theatre Company; What the Ocean Said at the Sydney Opera House; Moby Dick for Sport for Jove; and Pramkicker for Vox Theatre. Her television credits include Wakefield for ABC, Pieces of Her for Netflix and The Secrets She Keeps for Lingo Pictures. She also appeared in the short films Pass the Parcel and Stories of Kannagi, which won the Blake Prize. Vaishnavi won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for her performance in Counting and Cracking. She is currently a literary associate at Belvoir, and was selected for this year’s AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School) Writing Talent Camp.

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. 

Amelia Lever-Davidson

Amelia is an award-winning lighting designer whose practice encompasses theatre, dance, live art, television, and events. Theatre design credits include: My Brilliant Career, Every Brilliant Thing (Belvoir St Theatre); They Divided The Sky (25A Belvoir); Girls & Boys, Slap.Bang.Kiss., Admissions, Torch the Place, The Violent Outburst That Drew Me To You (Melbourne Theatre Company); KBox, Because the Night, Australian Realness, Trustees, Turbine, META (Malthouse Theatre); Julius Caesar (Sydney Theatre Company); Leviathan (Circa); Myself in That Moment, System_Error, Diaspora (Chamber Made); Next Move 11 (Chunky Move); Moral Panic, Contest, Niche, Conviction, Dream Home (Darebin Arts); Hand to God (Vass Productions); A Simple Act of Kindness, Desert, 6:29pm, Jurassica, Foxfinder (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Looking Glass, Triumph (fortyfivedownstairs); and MKA Double Feature (Melbourne Theatre Company NEON Festival). Amelia won Green Room Awards for her work on Diaspora, Contest, Looking Glass, and for her 2015 body of work.  Amelia is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts, The Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts and RMIT.