Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.
The culture of Chennai, popularly called the "Gateway to the South India", is distinct from that of any other Indian city. Being a cosmopolitan hub, the city's culture reflects its diverse population that has resulted in a unique blend. Though a modern metropolis, Chennai continues to be traditional and conventional in certain ways. Traditional music, dance and all other art forms of Tamil Nadu are very popular in the city. One can find a peculiar cultural blend in city, from traditional foods to fast foods, from ancient temple architecture to modern high-rises, and from classical music and dance to the growing nightlife.
Shreekumar Varma is an Indian author, playwright, newspaper columnist and poet, known for the novels Lament of Mohini, Maria's Room and Kipling's Daughter, the children's books, Devil's Garden: Tales Of Pappudom, The Magic Store of Nu-Cham-Vu, Pazhassi Raja: The Royal Rebel, and his collected plays, Five & Other Plays and Midnight Hotel & Other Plays,.
The Necessary Stage is a Singaporean non-profit theatre company with charity status. Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan, The Necessary Stage was established with its own mission to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches the heart and mind. The Necessary Stage is a recipient of the National Arts Council's Major Grant FY2014-2016, and is also the organiser of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. It is currently located at the Marine Parade Community Building.
Alvin Tan is the founder and artistic director of The Necessary Stage (TNS), and the co-artistic director of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. Under Tan's leadership, TNS has grown from a small society in 1987 to one of Singapore’s most prominent and respected theatre companies. He also initiated the Company's Theatre For Youth Branch and the Marine Parade Theatre Festival.
Indi Nadarajah is an actor and comedian based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He regularly performs on the Malaysian stage for both public and private shows. At present, he works with fellow Malaysian actor Allan Perera in a comedy duo called Comedy Court. Apart from his work on stage, he has also starred in the film Setem (2009) and features in the Channel 4 drama Indian Summers (2015).
Mohit Chattopadhyaya was a Bengali Indian playwright, screenwriter, dramatist and poet. He was a leading figure in modern Indian drama. Mohit Chottopadhya died on 12 April 2012. He had been suffering from cancer.
Alex Broun is an Australian theatre director/producer, playwright and screenwriter, who has worked extensively with Short+Sweet, a series of theatre festivals for productions of ten minutes or less. Born in Sydney, Australia, he has been referred to as "the Shakespeare of short plays". Broun has had over 100 ten-minute plays produced in over 2000 productions in more than 40 countries globally, and his plays have been translated into many languages. He has also worked extensively as a Rugby journalist and served as Media Manager for the Springboks (1997–2000), the British & Irish Lions (2001), and the Melbourne Rebels (2007).
Short+Sweet is a multi-form arts platform presenting festivals in theatre, dance, music-theatre, comedy and cabaret co-ordinated in multiple counties globally. The unifying feature of all works presented at the festival is they must be no longer than ten-minutes. Their flagship festival is Short+Sweet Theatre Sydney, the largest ten-minute play festival in the world.
Masquerade - the Performance Group is a Chennai based English theatre group. It is one of the few theatre groups in Chennai that survive without commercial financial sponsorship or funding from business houses or the likes, backed by public faith and smaller donorships from patrons, parents of tweens and teens who pay for training workshops. Public performances are rarely priced and income from performances are invariably through hat collections, done consciously as a tool to gauge audience appreciation of the show.
Mohammad Ali Baig is an Indian theatre personality and film maker of ad and documentary films, referred to by the media as 'Global Face of Hyderabadi Theatre', 'Sultan of Epics' and 'Master of Revival'. He is the recipient of the Padmashri He founded the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation in Hyderabad in 2005, as a tribute to his father, theatre legend late Qadir Ali Baig. In April 2014, he was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2014 for his contributions in theatre arts.
The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre in Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur is one of the established performing art centers in Malaysia. It is a non-profit company, aims to cultivate and sustain the performing arts for the Malaysian.
Maya from Madurai is an Indian play written by Naren Weiss. The play explores the life and death of a drug dealer, and marked the directorial debut of actress Pooja Devariya. It premiered at the 2013 edition of the Short and Sweet Festival in Chennai, India; where it won the Play of the Day award. Three days before script submission, director Devariya called former classmate Weiss and asked him to write something, describing what she had in mind.
Shilpa Natarajan is an independent acoustic singer-songwriter and a playback singer and was a music presenter on Chennai Live 104.8FM, based in Chennai, India. In 2015 she performed with the Beef Sappad Trio. She is an ATCL diploma graduate in Western Classical Music (Performance).
Naren Weiss is an actor, playwright, and former model. He played Osama bin Laden in Kamal Haasan's film on terrorism Vishwaroopam, Dekker in the ABC series Deception, and is known for his work in theatre in India and the United States.
Shekinah Jacob is an Indian playwright who has appeared in Edinburgh Fringe and worked with the Royal Court Theatre.
Aishveryaa Nidhi is an Australian actress, director, writer, and theatre personality based in Los Angeles. She has performed with the Short and Sweet festivals, and has worked to start Short and Sweet Bollywood. Other works include Gandhari... In search of light, a play about the character Gandhari from Vyasa's Hindu epic Mahabharata which has toured widely. She is also the president and artistic director of Abhinay School of Performing Arts, in Sydney.
Mathivanan Rajendran is an Indian actor and film producer. He produces films under his production company, Stray Factory which produces independent Indian films. Most recent productions include Nirvana Inn (2019) and Nasir (2020).
Danielle Galligan is an Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet. On television, she is known for her role in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023). She was nominated for an IFTA for her performance in the film Lakelands (2022).
Nirvana Inn is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language psychological horror film directed by Vijay Jayapal and produced by Stray Factory, Uncombed Buddha, Stop Whinging and Harman Ventures. The film stars Adil Hussain, Rajshri Deshpande, Sandhya Mridul. and Saandeep Mahaajan. It follows the story of a boatman who becomes the caretaker of a Himalayan resort after an attempted suicide.