JABALA AND THE JINN CREDITS - JABALA AND THE JINN CREDITS: Belgrade Theatre

JABALA AND THE JINN CREDITS

      JABALA AND THE JINN CREDITS:

                            Writer: Asif Khan
                      Performer: Natalie Davies
                        Performer: Safiyya Ingar
                         Performer: Jay Varsani
                      Director: Rosamunde Hutt
         Producers: Charlotte Cunningham for Turtle Key Arts
                  and Asif Khan for AIK Productions
                      Composer: James Hesford
              Set and Costume Designer: Mila Saunders
                  Lighting Designer: Aideen Malone
            Production Technical Manager: Stacey Potter
        Assistant Producer: Ellen McGahey for Turtle Key Arts
                Assistant Lighting Designer: Holly Ellis
              Assistant Stage Manager: Bethany Alsford
                      Illustrator: Nadine Kaadan
Education and Outreach Leaders: Oliver Campbell-Smith, Natalie Davies
                         and Qasim Mahmood
                Primo DV: Alan Bowyer and Paul Veer

Special thanks to the team at the Belgrade who have gone above and beyond their
     usual responsibilities to welcome us and to help us to create this show in
                                unprecedented times :

                            Senior Producer: Samir Bhamra
                          Assistant Producer: Emma Barber
                          Creative Producer: Claire Procter
                    Digital Content and PR officer: Jessica Milner

                       Director of Production: Adrian Sweeny
                           Technical Manager: Chris Munn
                              Wardrobe: Mandy Brown
                              Construction: Peter Bruus
                         Head of Paintshop: Claire Winfield
                            Head of Lighting : Rod Clews
                                Sound : Ollie Howard
                 Programme and Production Manager: Keith Tunstill
                    Audience Development Officer: Ayesha Jones
                            Drama Worker: Leon Phillips
                         Drama Worker: Tristan Jones Smith

                                  Biographies

Asif Khan – Writer and Co-Producer

Asif is an award winning writer and actor, born and raised in Bradford. He trained as
an actor at RADA. His debut play COMBUSTION toured the UK in 2017 and was
nominated for OffWestEnd’s Best New Play award and Best Writer in the Stage Debut
Awards. It also Won Best Production at The Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre
Awards (2018) and at The Asian Media Awards (2017). In 2018, Asif Won the Channel
4 Playwright’s Scheme Award with RIFCO and Watford Palace Theatre, where he was
commissioned to develop a new play. In 2019, his play IMAAM IMRAAN was produced
by the National Youth Theatre, playing at the Bradford Literary Festival.

He is a Tamasha Theatre Alumnus with whom he has developed two plays for
teenagers. He was part of the BBC Comedy Room in 2017 and was named on the BBC
New Talent Hotlist in 2017. He is currently commissioned by Birmingham Rep, Bush
Theatre, English Touring Theatre and Rifco Theatre Company. His 5 part audio drama
series THIS WEIRD NORMAL is available on various podcast platforms. In 2015, Asif set
up AIK Productions, with the aim to produce new, high quality theatre, specialising in
stories and voices from minority backgrounds. With Turtle Key Arts, Asif (AIK) co-
produced the award winning play Love, Bombs and Apples, which played at the Arcola
Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, Potrero Stage (San Francisco), The Kennedy Center
(Washington DC) as well as a UK Tour. It Won OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION at Theatre

Bay Area Awards 2018. Asif wrote and co-produced COMBUSTION with Tara Arts. He
is currently in rehearsals for Hamlet with Ian Mckellen.

Rosamunde Hutt - Director

Rosamunde Hutt has commissioned, produced and directed an extensive body of new
plays throughout the UK for 30 years, many created especially for young audiences.
She has led or co-led three major theatre companies; Hijinx Theatre, Resident
Director, 1990-1993, Theatre Centre, Director, 1993-2007 and Unicorn, Associate
Artistic Director, 2007-2011. From 2017 she has been the Artistic Director of the new
writing company Pursued by a Bear, with whom she develops new plays by women
playwrights, and with whom she has just completed the project Nothing on Earth
Shorts, a series of six digital films written by Anna Reynolds, currently showing on the
University of Hertfordshire’s UH Arts website, with an accompanying e-book on her
directing process.

Recent directing credits include: the award winning Love Bombs and Apples by
Hassan Abdulrazzak (AIK Productions/ Turtle Key Arts), Arcola, two UK tours, three-
week residency with Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, the Arab Arts Focus
season at the Edinburgh Festival 2017, and the World Stages season at the Kennedy
Centre, Washington 2019; New Nigerians by Oladipo Agboluaje (Arcola Revolution
Season 2017), revival and UK tour 2018 (Arcola/Tribal Soul Arts); and award
nominated This Evil Thing by Michael Mears (Edinburgh Festival 2016, UK and USA
tours, Tara Theatre 2019).

Other recent work for young audiences includes Jumping on my Shadow by Peter
Rumney (Dragon Breath/ Lakeside Arts 2017); Grandpa in my Pocket-Teamwork by
Mellie Buse and Jan Page (Nottingham Playhouse); Bin Men by Mike Kenny (AJTC/York
Theatre Royal); Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Simon Reade and Operation
Magic Carpet by Samantha Ellis (Polka Theatre).

International work includes: touring her production of Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The
Snow Queen to India (Trestle Theatre/British Council), co-leading workshops on young
people’s theatre in Japan, and directing Charles Way’s The Snow Queen in Romania,
(Theatre Ion Creanga). In 2017 Rosamunde directed the research and development of
Ben Musgrave’s Mad Bees Riot in the Light in Bangladesh (British Council).
Rosamunde regularly directs and teaches at RADA, Drama Studio, Italia Conti and East
15 and regularly develops new writing with Kali Theatre and Goldsmiths MA Writers.
She edited Theatre Centre New Plays for Young People and is frequently invited to
speak about her new writing track-record (e.g. at the Youth Theatre Festival 2016 at
the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, and the inaugural Brian Roberts Memorial
Lecture, Goldsmiths, 2017).

Natalie Davies – Performer

Natalie was born and brought up in Bradford of mixed Asian and English parentage.
She trained at Northumbria University. Natalie’s television credits include Casualty,
Doctors, and the 2020 Christmas Vicar of Dibley shorts (all BBC), Coronation Street
(ITV), and Brad Boyz (Channel 4 Blap). She also plays Parveen in the award-winning
feature film Eaten by Lions. For stage, Natalie’s credits include This Space is Occupied
(Bent Architect Theatre Company), Alia’s Adventures and the Bradford Literary
Festival (Wrong Assemble) and North Country (Freedom Studios).

Jay Varsani – Performer

Jay trained at East 15.
Theatre includes: Eastward Ho and Raleigh (Shakespeare’s Globe), Homing Birds
(Kali), Memoirs Of An Asian Football Casual (Leicester Haymarket) which won the
Asian media award for best production of the year.

TV includes: Word on Fire (Mammoth Screen)
Film includes: Gloves Off and Golden Years (MoliFilms Entertainment).

Safiyya Ingar – Performer

Safiyya trained at ArtsEd.

Theatre includes: September Skies/RAGE (Small Truth Theatre) Hobson's Choice (The
Royal Exchange), The Canterville Ghost (Unicorn Theatre), Abi (Derby Theatre/Queens
Theatre) The Captive Queen (The Globe); LAVA, Holes (Nottingham Playhouse); The
Box of Delights (Wilton’s Music Hall); GROWTH, Come to Where I’m From, Crave
(Paines Plough), and Santi and Naz (The Thelmas)

TV includes: Summer Of Rockets (BBC/Little Island Productions)

Film includes: Faith, What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Working Title Films)

Video Game: Another Eden - A Cat Beyond Time and Space.

Mila Sanders – Set and Costume Design

Mila trained at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Wimbledon School of Art.

Her designs include: Combustion (Tara / AIK productions), Love, Bombs and
Apples (Arcola, UK Tour, San Francisco and The Kennedy Centre), Imaam
Imraan (National Youth Theatre), The Pixie and the Pudding (Little Angel), The Little
Mochi Man (A Thousand Cranes), Soapbox (Talawa), Pinocchio, The Wind in the

Willows (Birmingham Old Rep), The Only Way is Chelsea’s (York Theatre Royal), Queen
of the Nile (Hull Truck), Dogs Barking (RADA), Parallax, The Door Never Closes, All the
Little Things We Crushed (Almeida).

As costume designer: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Twelfth Night (National
Theatre), Jason and the Argonauts and St George and the Dragon (Warwick Arts
Centre).

Mila regularly teaches and designs for East 15 Acting School and is an associate artist
with All Change Arts.

Aideen Malone – Lighting Designer
Aideen trained in drama and theatre in Trinity College Dublin and Goldsmiths
University of London. She works extensively in theatre, dance and opera.
She was nominated for Best Lighting Design for Death of a Salesman at Knights of
Illumination 2019.

Theatre credits include: Death Of A Salesman (Young Vic / Piccadilly), A Kind Of
People (Royal Court), A Monster Calls (London Old Vic/Bristol Old Vic), Brighton
Rock (York Theatre Royal/UK Tour), Strange Tale Of Charlie Chaplin And Stan Laurel,
Napoleon Disrobed (Told By An Idiot), Darbar Festival (Sadlers Wells), La Strada (The
Other Palace/UK tour), Peter Pan (NT Olivier Theatre), Jane Eyre (BOV/NT/NTP
tour), Frankenstein (Living Spit), Sleeping Beauty (BOV), Raisin in the Sun (Ecilpse
Theatre), Blood (Tamasha).

Dance/Circus credits include: Outwitting The Devil, Kaash, Polaroid Feet, Related
Rocks (Akram Khan Co.), Impulse (Okhams Razor/NCCA), Imbalance, Stateless (Joli
Vyann), My People (Gwyn Emberton Dance), Unkindest Cut, Under My Skin, Elixir, The

Shiver (Sadhana Dance), Sense Of Beauty (Arc Dance), Agnes and Walter, Devil's
Mischief (Smith Dance Theatre).

Opera credits include: Teseo, Country Matters, Tosca, Jenufa, Mary Queen Of Scotts,
Cosi Fan Tutti, Marriage of Figaro, Midsummer Night's Dream, Ariodante, Turn Of The
Screw (English Touring Opera), Dialogues of The Carmelites (Royal College Of
Music); Maskarade (GSMD), On The We Feed (ENO Works), Escape From The Seraglio,
Orfeo and Euridice (Opera Spezzata).

James Hesford – Sound Designer & Composer

James Hesford is an award-winning composer/musician working in Film, TV and
Theatre as well as receiving regular commissions for contemporary orchestral and
chamber music. James was born in a mining village in South Yorkshire (UK) and began

performing in his early teens in soul and blues bands, touring Europe and the UK.
After moving to London, at the age of 19, he studied Fine Art at Sir John Cass and
Goldsmiths School of Art. Taking advantage of their music department, he frequently
gate crashed lectures on 20th century compositional techniques taking a particular
interest in the scores of Stockhausen, Varèse and John Cage. During this period he
established himself as a leading jazz guitarist and in 1980 won the Arts Councils GLAA
Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award. The next two years were spent In New York
composing and performing all styles of jazz - from bebop to free atonal improvisation
- as well as playing in punk bands.

Now resident in the UK, James continues to develop his unique compositional style
drawing inspiration as much from his early rock, soul and jazz roots, as from late 20th
century contemporary classical music. He regularly performs as a multi-
instrumentalist with his ensembles WCMO (Working Classical Music Orchestra), The
PGO (The Pocket Guerrilla Orchestra) and Cellorhythmics.

Stacey Choudhury-Potter – Production Technical Manager

Stacey has worked in the arts for 30 years as a Production Manager, Technical Stage
Manager, Company Stage Manager, and re-light Technician. She has been involved
with individuals, companies and festivals producing circus, experimental work and
more traditional pieces.

Credits include: This Time (Ockham’s Razor), Article 19 (Proud & Loud Arts), Love
Bombs and Apples (AiK Productions), The Chairs (Extant), Flight Paths (Extant & New
Earth Theatre), TRANSIT, CINEMA, HEART (Zendeh Productions), Rule 35 (Community
Arts Northwest), Whose Sari Now?, Handlooms (Rasa Productions), Happily Ever After
(Action Transport), Manchester Street Poems (MIF), Thumbelina (Dancing Brick),
What Is It? (PrefaceMorn Dance Theatre), Lost in the Neuron Forest (Bread & Goose),
Baby Balloon, If All The World Were Paper (Oily Cart).

Turtle Key Arts – Co – Producers

Turtle Key Arts unlocks creative potential in individuals, companies and communities,
producing and devising original, ground-breaking, inclusive art to entertain and
inspire.
As creative producers they enable each project to reach its full artistic potential and
ensure that participation and education is embedded at the heart of everything they
do.

Their work has a UK and international reach through a wide variety of innovative
projects with many different collaborators and partners, currently including the
companies: Ockham's Razor, RedCape Theatre, Amici Dance Theatre Company, Joli
Vyann, Flying Cloud, Slot Machine, Keziah Serreau and SMITH dancetheatre; and

recent collaborations with: English Touring Opera, Royal College of Music, The
Wigmore Hall, National Portrait Gallery, Opera North, The Royal Court Theatre and
Oxford University.

They have played a committed role in advancing participation in the arts by disabled,
disadvantaged and socially excluded people, and are widely recognised as a leader in
this field, often charting new territories, such as Turtle Song for people with Dementia
and The Key Club for young people with Autism.

Turtle Key Arts was formed in 1989 as a unique and ground-breaking accessible space;
and accessibility for all continues to be a key philosophy of the company.
www.turtlekeyarts.org.uk

Turtle Key Arts Staff:

                         Artistic Director Charlotte Cunningham
                                Chief Executive Alison King
                   Marketing & Development Director Shaun Dawson
                        Senior Producer Holly Cameron-Jennings
                                    Producer Kelly Bray
                              Finance Manager Alan Bowyer
                        Key Club Co-ordinator Ruth Naylor-Smith
                  Dementia Development Director Carolyn Von Stumm
                     Project & Officer Administrator Ellen McGahey
                   Associate Artist for Inclusion Oliver Campbell-Smith

 Funded by Arts Council England. Produced by AIK Productions and Turtle Key Arts in association with
the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. The development of the play has been supported by Stratford Circus,
                               Kala Sangam & The AMAL Foundation.