Roots

Arnold Wesker, FRSL, Hon. Litt.D. born London 1932, is the author of 42 plays, four books of short stories, two collections of essays, a book for young people, three more of non-fiction, and an autobiography.  

His works include: The Kitchen; The Wesker Trilogy (comprising Chicken Soup with Barley; Roots; I’m Talking About Jerusalem); Chips with Everything; The Four Seasons; Love Letters On Blue Paper; Shylock; Annie Wobbler; When God Wanted a Son; Caritas; Circles of Perception; Denial; Groupie; Longitude.

His work, which includes scripts for TV, radio and film is continually performed world-wide, and translated/published in 18 languages. They have won prizes in both the UK and abroad. Over the last 40 years Penguin have published seven paperback volumes of his collected plays and one of his stories. These are now gradually being taken over by Methuen Books.

In 1989, Wesker received his first Honorary Degree (D.Litt.) from the University of East Anglia. His second from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, was awarded March 1995. A third – Doctor of Humane Letters – was awarded from Denison University, Ohio, May 1997.  

Diyan was the 2021 recipient of the Genesis Future Director’s Award, as well as a member of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers Group. 

Theatre includes:  

As Director: English (RSC/ Kiln Theatre); Lysistrata (Lyric Hammersmith); Tom Fool (Orange Tree Theatre); Klippies (Young Vic, as recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award). 

As Associate and Assistant Director: Faith Hope and Charity; Evening at the Talkhouse (National Theatre); Love (National Theatre/ European tour); The Ferryman (West End); Fireworks; The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court). 

Theatre includes: Shed: Exploded View; Light Falls; Happy Days (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Hope has a Happy Meal; That Is Not Who I Am/Rapture; Scenes with girls; The Woods (Royal Court); Akedah; The Breach; The Animal Kingdom; Wildefire; Belongings; The Gods Weep (Hampstead Theatre); Fair Play (Bush Theatre); The Convert; The Container; Phaedra’s Love (Young Vic); Romeo and Juliet; As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi; Doctor Faustus; The White Devil; The Roaring Girl; As You Like It; King John (RSC); The Winter’s Tale (Roma Abbey, Romakloster); Beryl (Leeds Playhouse/UK tour); Kasimir & Karoline; Fanny & Alexander; Love & Money (Malmö Stadsteater); Hotel; Three More Sleepless Nights (National Theatre); Amerika; Krieg der Bilder (Staatstheater Mainz); Scorched (The Old Vic); Mary Shelley; The Glass Menagerie; Speechless (UK tour) State of Emergency; Mariana Pineda (Gate Theatre); Stallerhof; Richard III; The Cherry Orchard; Summer Begins (Southwark Playhouse); If That’s All There Is (Lyric Hammersmith); The Typist (Sky Arts); Attempts on Her Life (Battersea Arts Centre); Home; In Blood; Venezuela; Mud; Trash (Arcola Theatre). 

Opera includes: Madama Butterfly; The Lottery; The Fairy Queen (Bury Court Opera); Madama Butterfly (Arcola Theatre). 

Tomás is an artist and designer who works across theatre, dance, opera and performance art. Tomás trained at The Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He is a recipient of the 2021 Linbury Prize for Theatre Design. As an artist, he has created installations and performance pieces for the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Transmission Gallery and Embassy Gallery.

Theatre includes: 

As Set and Costume Designer: Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse) Dreaming and Drowning (Bush Theatre); Blue Mist (Royal Court); The Bacchae (Lyric Hammersmith); My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar (Brixton House); Autocue (Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow).

As Costume Designer: Multiple Casualty Incident (The Yard); Julius Caesar (RSC). 

For the Almeida: Roots; Look Back in Anger; King Lear; Romeo and Juliet; A Streetcar Named Desire (also West End); Summer and Smoke (also West End); Dance Nation.

Theatre includes: Constellations (West End/ Broadway/ Royal Court); Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/ US tour/ Barbican); Next to Normal (West End/Donmar Warehouse); Player Kings (West End/ UK tour); Henry V; Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); The House of Bernarda Alba; The Welkin; Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear – The Musical; Protest Song (National Theatre); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); The Song Project; Gundog; Road; Nuclear War; a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun); X; Linda (Royal Court); The Glass Menagerie; West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester/ UK tour); Nora: A Doll’s House (Young Vic/ Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); Harm (Bush Theatre); Burgerz (Hackney Showroom); Julius Caesar; Doctor Faustus (RSC).

Opera includes: Orphée et Eurydice (Royal Opera House/Teatro alla Scala); Aida; Fidelio; Nothing (Royal Danish Opera); Tosca (Opera North/Opera Australia); Phaedra (Royal Opera House).

Dance includes: Cycles, Blak Whyte Gray (Blue Boy Entertainment); The Limit (Royal Opera House); We Are As Gods (James Cousins Company); Enowate (Dickson Mbi); Clowns; Sun; Political Mother; In Your Rooms; Uprising (Hofesh Shechter Company); Don Quixote (Royal Danish Ballet); Untouchable (Royal Ballet); Grey Matter; Tomorrow; Frames (Rambert).

For the Almeida: The Duchess of Malfi; Three Sisters.  

Theatre includes: The Homecoming (Olivier Award nomination for Best Sound Design); The Seagull; Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons; The Importance of Being Earnest; Pinter at the Pinter (West End); Nine Night (West End/ National Theatre); Sweat (West End/ Donmar Warehouse); English (Kiln Theatre/ RSC); Love’s Labour’s Lost; Venice Preserved (RSC); The Effect (National Theatre/ The Shed, New York); Blues for an Alabama Sky; An Octoroon (National Theatre); The Homecoming; Further than the Furthest Thing; The Mountaintop (Young Vic); Clyde’s (Donmar Warehouse); Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles; Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads; The Deep Blue Sea; The Norman Conquests (Chichester Festival Theatre); Glee & Me (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Straight Line Crazy (Bridge Theatre/ The Shed, New York); The Southbury Child; Two Ladies (Bridge Theatre); Talent; Frost/Nixon; Tribes (Sheffield Theatres); Hedda Tesman; Spring Awakening (Headlong); Much Ado About Nothing; Imogen; The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Harrogate; Fireworks; Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Julie (Internationaal Theater Amsterdam). 

Chris was a founding member of the Hofesh Shechter Company, where he spent six years devising and touring work globally. He has been a regular collaborator with Ben Duke since performing in the Place Prize-winning It Needs Horses (The Place).  

Theatre includes: 

As Associate Choreographer: Two Boys (Metropolitan Opera House, New York); Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway). 

As Movement Director: The Dreamer (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre). 

As Associate Movement Director: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (West End); CODE (International tour); Tom Fool (Orange Tree Theatre). 

As Writer and Director: The Rescue (The Place/ Riley Theatre, Leeds). 

Chris is a core member of Gecko Theatre, contributing to the company’s success for over a decade across six major productions. His roles at Gecko have evolved from performer to writer and Director of Associate Commissions, including the upcoming immersive show The Deal (Minghua, Shenzhen). 

Yarit is a multidisciplinary creative working as a Fight Director, IDC Certified Intimacy Director and Movement Director. She is co-director of Moving Body Arts and an Ensemble Associate Artist of The Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2019 she originated the role of the Intimacy Director in the West End and recently she’s been awarded a Fellow of Rose Bruford College. 

For the Almeida: The Years;“Daddy” A Melodrama. 

Theatre includes: Why Am I So Single; Hamilton; The Shark Is Broken (West End); Hadestown (West End/ National Theatre); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Death Of A Salesman (West End/ Young Vic); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre); Othello; Henry V; The Merchant of Venice; Richard II; Hamlet; As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Band’s Visit, Love & Other Acts Of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); The Homecoming; The Second Woman; Changing Destiny (Young Vic); A View From The Bridge (Headlong); This Is Not Who I Am (Royal Court); Old Bridge (Bush Theatre).

Film includes: Wicked. 

Television includes: Daisy Jones and The Six; Mood; The Rings of Power. 

Dance includes: Weather Is Sweet; Death Trap; Peaky Blinders (Rambert Dance Company); The Burnt City (Punchdrunk).

For the Almeida: The Years; Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.  

Theatre includes: Hamnet (RSC); Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Night of Iguana; Rosmersholm; True West; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; The Pillowman (West End); The Son (Kiln Theatre/ West End); Sweat (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Ferryman (Royal Court/ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre/ West End); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); The Birthday Party; Consent (National Theatre/ West End);  Hangmen (Royal Court/ West End/ Atlantic Theater Company); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Stories; Exit the King (National Theatre); White Noise; A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Brothers Size (Young Vic); Maryland; ear for eye; Girls & Boys; Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court).   

Sabia studied Costume Construction and Supervision at RADA.  

Theatre includes: Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); Duchess of Malfi; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights; Midsummer Mechanicals (Shakespeare’s Globe); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written. (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Inquiry (Chichester Festival Theatre); Favour (Bush Theatre); Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); Noises Off (West End); Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] (Park Theatre); The American Clock (The Old Vic); Twelfth Night (Wilton’s Music Hall); We’re Stuck! (Shoreditch Town Hall). 

Opera includes: Aleko; Gianni Schicchi; Gods of the Game: a Football Opera;  La Gioconda; The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko; Falstaff; Don Carlos (Grange Park Opera); Zauberland (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/ Royal Opera House/ La Monnaie / De Munt/ Opéra de Lille/ Lincoln Center, New York/ Opéra de Rouen); The Marriage of Figaro (Royal Academy of Music). 

Film includes: Nation Down.

Television includes: Gods of the Game: A Football Opera.

Dance includes: Anne of Green Gables (Sadler’s Wells); Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/ International tour). 

Theatre includes: English (RSC/ Kiln Theatre); The Witches (National Theatre); And Then There Were None (UK tour); Baghdaddy (Royal Court); My Fair Lady (ENO); Oleanna (Theatre Royal Bath/ West End); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Lyric Hammersmith/ Chichester Festival Theatre); Love, Love, Love; A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith); When the Crows Visit; Approaching Empty (Kiln Theatre); The Other Boleyn Girl; Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hobson’s Choice (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Switzerland; King Lear (Theatre Royal Bath); Witness for the Prosecution (County Hall) Lions and Tigers (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Graduate (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep); East is East (West End); The Rover; Volpone; Wendy and Peter Pan; What Country Friends Is This; The Homecoming; I’ll Be The Devil (RSC). 

Film includes: Far from the Madding Crowd; The Door; The Anomaly; Kajaki. 

Written works include: How To Do Accents. 

Edda has also worked on over 20 seasons as Head of Voice and Dialect at the Shaw Festival Theatre, Ontario. 

Tian is a British-Caribbean theatre director, producer, movement director, writer, dramaturg, translator and facilitator. Her focus lies mainly within Black, East and South-East Asian South Asian, and D/deaf and disabled theatre work within new writing. She is currently Associate Trustee at Theatre503. 

Theatre includes: 

As Director: The Lesson (Theatre503); Violet (Pleasance Theatre); babydyke; Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie (Talawa Theatre); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre); In the Black Fantastic (Southbank Centre); Days of Significance (ArtsEd); For Her 还装什么男子汉 (Kakilang Festival); Lost Laowais (VAULT Festival). 

As Associate and Assistant Director: Passing Strange; Further than the Furthest Thing; Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic); A Dead Body in Taos (Bristol Old Vic/ Theatre Royal Plymouth/ Wilton’s Music Hall/ Warwick Arts Centre); Moreno (Theatre503); Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Does My Bomb Look Big In This? (Soho Theatre); Under the Umbrella (Belgrade Theatre); Forgotten 遗忘 (Arcola Theatre). 

As Movement Director: Makeshifts and Realities (Finborough Theatre); Possession (Arcola Theatre); Til Death Do Us Part (Theatre503); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre); Heard (Camden People’s Theatre). 

Wabriya is a qualified dramatherapist (Roehampton University), actress (The Oxford School of Drama), creative facilitator and Reiki practitioner. She combines her experience to support creatives alongside the rehearsal and performance period.    

For the Almeida: Alma Mater; Romeo and Juliet; The Secret Life of Bees. 

Theatre includes: Shifters; August In England (Bush Theatre); Samuel Takes A Break (The Yard); Beautiful Thing; Tambo & Bones (Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Cowbois; Falkland Sound; The Empress; Julius Caesar (RSC); School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet (International tour); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicité); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (New Diorama Theatre/ Royal Court/ West End); Blue (ENO); Further than the Furthest Thing (Young Vic); Family Tree (Actors Touring Company); Bootycandy (Gate Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (National Theatre); Hamilton; Moulin Rouge (West End).