SAMSKARA

Ali is a freelance lighting designer working in dance, theatre and opera. She was the Young Associate Lighting Designer for Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet in 2019. 

Recent Lighting Design Credits include:

Dance: Inscribed in ‘Me’ (Alethia Antonia); Happy Father’s Day (Dani Harris Walters); Vital Stages (Studio 3 Arts); Benched (Leila McMillan); The Quake Within (Yun Cheng); Deuce (Iona Brie); Foreign Body (Southbank Centre for WOW).

Theatre: Small Change (Clapham Omnibus); Brief Encounter (The Watermill); Fix (Pleasance Islington); The Man who wanted to be a Penguin (Stuff and Nonsense); Mother of Him (Park 200), For Services Rendered, The Play About my Dad, Woman before a Glass,  (Jermyn Street), Cash Cow (Hampstead); Muckers (The Egg, Conde Duque, Oxford Playhouse); Soft Animals (Soho); Sugar, Don’t Forget the Birds, Rattlesnake (Open Clasp); Clear White Light (Live Theatre Newcastle); Fairytale Revolution, Out of Sorts, Isaac Came Home from the Mountain, Cinderella and the Beanstalk (Theatre 503);

Opera: La Nonne Sanglante (Gothic Opera); Treemonisha, The Boatswain’s Mate (Spectra); Gracie, The Biograph Girl (Finborough), Tenderly (New Wimbledon Studio); Katzenmusik (Royal Court);As Associate Lighting Designer: Hot Mess for Candoco Dance, The Half God of Rainfall (Birmingham Rep and Kiln) Lighting Designer: Jackie Shemesh.

Anthony Simpson-Pike is a director, dramaturg and writer whose work has been staged in theatres including The Bush, The Gate, The Young Vic and The Royal Court. He is currently Associate Director at The Yard Theatre, was previously Resident Director at Theatre Peckham and Associate Director at The Gate Theatre. Anthony is also a facilitator, having worked with young people and communities at The Gate, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The Globe, and National Theatre. 

Recent directorial work includes Lava by Benedict Lombe (Bush Theatre), Living Newspaper (Royal Court), The Electric by Vickie Donoghue (Paines Plough/ RWCMD), and The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz (Gate Theatre).  

As a dramaturg Anthony has developed multiple seasons of work for The Gate and The Yard as Associate Director. Recent dramaturgical credits include Hotline with Produced Moon (Tron Theatre), Dear Young Monster by Pete McHale (The Queer House), and Coup de Grace by Almudena Ramirez (Royal Court). Anthony is also a reader for the Royal Court. 

Jan Baranowski is a composer, sound designer, engineer and pianist pioneering at the forefront of electronic music. Having played piano as a child, Jan left Warsaw at 18 and moved to London to study a degree in jazz and pursue a music career.

Film work includes short films such as The Circle – long list candidate for Bafta Best British Short Film and winner of the parliamentary award Film The House. The Circle was officially released online via The Guardian in 2020. 

Jan has also scored The Conversation – Best Dance Film Winner at Aesthetica Film Festival.

Jan’s body of work includes scores and sound-design for theatre pieces such as: Saskia Horton’s “Life According To Motown ” which received The Place Startin’ Point Comission; and sold-out Lanre Malaolu’s solo “Elephant In The Room”.

Jan is also an assistant engineer at 5 dB, a project based in West London that helps young, talented and underprivileged musicians produce and record their music at a world-class level.

Kirk-Ann is a Caribbean born, London based, spoken-word poet, playwright and theatre director. Inspired by movement and visual art. Her work often focuses on identity and the human experience. Roundhouse Resident Artist and graduate of Young Vic’s Director Programme. A workshop facilitator and creative practitioner; she has worked for the likes of Talawa Theatre, Emergency Exit Arts and The London Bubble. 

Meg Hodgson is a technical production/stage manager and lighting designer who also has their own performance practice. They’ve worked with artists such as Stacy Makishi and Le Gateau Chocolat and are currently in the process of making their first full-length solo show MOONFACE.

THEATRE includes Red Velvet at RADA; 846 Live at Theatre Royal Stratford East; Me for the World at the Young Vic; Ducklings at the Royal Exchange; (Co -Set and Costume Designer) For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad at Hackney Showroom; Not Now, Bernard at the Unicorn.

COSTUME DESIGNER

THEATRE includes Old Bridge at the Bush; White Noise at the Bridge; Is God Is at the Royal Court; Anna X on the West End; Tales of the Turntable for Zoonation; and The Winter’s Tale (as Costume Supervisor) at Shakespeare’s Globe.

FILM includes Good Grief, Fourteen Fractures, Myrtle, Fellow Creatures, Swept Under Rug and (as Costume Trainee) My Name is Leon.

As a Creative Producer, Ruby works across artforms and disciplines to reimagine spaces and challenge traditional presentation methods. Her background in outdoor arts & festivals means Ruby often works in unconventional environments.

Ruby splits her time as a freelancer and as Senior Creative Producer at Poet in the City and is also the Creative Director for Cloud9 Festival. Prior to this, Ruby led the artist development and professional performance programmes for East London Dance. 

Ruby has worked as a creative producer for East Wall at Tower of London, listed as The Guardian’s ‘top 25 dance productions of 21st Century’, Equality Always Fits, A Celebration of Pride with Levi’s UK® and Identity, a co-production with Shoreditch Town Hall.

Previous collaborations include: London College of Fashion, Coventry City of Culture, Emergency Exit Arts, Feminist Review, London Mela, Latitude Festival, Mahogany Carnival Company, National Theatre & Latitude Festival.

Shereen is a dedicated and versatile Creative Practitioner. Alongside her BA and MA in Theatre and Performance, specialising in the intersectionality of race and gender in theatrical representations, Shereen has trained and worked as a Producer, Director, Actor, Stage Manager and Facilitator. Her area of work centres around intersectional identities on stage, current and historical politic, theatre as a vehicle of education and diversifying the theatre we see today. 

After being Project Manager for the SAMSKARA R&D and Lanre Malaolu’s Elephant in The Room at The Roundhouse 2019, Shereen was selected as part of The Roundhouse Future Producers 2020. 

Prior to this, Shereen has worked as Assistant Producer on Evolution Festival at The Lyric Hammersmith and has Produced and Directed Bitchcraft, part of Melanin Box Festival at Peckham Theatre and then to Blacktress UK, part of The John Thaw Initiative.

Shereen’s recent directing credits include; Assistant Directing seven methods of killing kylie jenner at The Royal Court 2019 & 2021 and directing CRIPtic Pit Party at The Barbican 2019.

Shereen has undergone training with Talawa on Creating Routes 2019 and with Company Three on Making Theatre with Young People, resulting in her becoming one of Company Three’s Young Peoples Facilitator.