Global Voices Podcast

Bonus material from the in-person event Global Jewish Voices in April 2022, with discussions from key creatives on complexities of representation, thematic choices and engagement with Jewish identity, a rich and insightful panel discussion with invited guests Stephen Bush and Dalia Fleming, and reflections from contemporary Jewish playwrights and theatremakers Nick Cassenbaum, Samantha Ellis, Rachel Mars and Josh Azouz on Jewish dramaturgy.

Philip Arditti was born and brought up in the Jewish community of Istanbul in Turkey. He moved to London as a late teen and was part of the founding of the Arcola Theatre whilst also training as an actor at RADA. He has worked as an actor on stage and on camera in English, Turkish, French and Italian as well as translating several plays into Turkish and is an ACE funded theatre maker. In 2020 he joined the newly formed MENA Arts UK and is continuing to serve in its Steering Committee. Website: http://philiparditti.com/ Twitter: @parditti Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Latinx queer theatre maker and performance artist. His practice centres nuanced intersectional auto/biographical stories of belonging, resilience and intimacy, encouraging audiences to ask questions about what makes us most human. Past curations include We’re Here! (BAC, Vogue Fabrics) and They Shall Not Pass (Limehouse Town Hall). He is an associate artist with CASA Festival, and has performed, directed and shown work with Arcola Theatre, HOME, Whitechapel Gallery, Barbican (Fertility Fest), Forest Fringe, Summerhall, The Lowry, Arts Admin, Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction, Latitude Festival and more. Website: www.victoresses.com Twitter: @victoresses

L M Feldman is a queer feminist playwright, deviser, professor, and circus artist. She loves theater that is audacious and kinetic, honest and intimate, theatrical and slightly impossible. Based in Philadelphia, L is a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and a Shakespeare’s New Contemporary at ASC. Website: http://www.laurenfeldman.com/ Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Latinx queer theatre maker and performance artist. His practice centres nuanced intersectional auto/biographical stories of belonging, resilience and intimacy, encouraging audiences to ask questions about what makes us most human. Past curations include We’re Here! (BAC, Vogue Fabrics) and They Shall Not Pass (Limehouse Town Hall). He is an associate artist with CASA Festival, and has performed, directed and shown work with Arcola Theatre, HOME, Whitechapel Gallery, Barbican (Fertility Fest), Forest Fringe, Summerhall, The Lowry, Arts Admin, Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction, Latitude Festival and more. Website: www.victoresses.com Twitter: @victoresses

With Afro-Caribbean, French, Dutch, and Jewish heritage, Sarah Waisvisz lives at the intersection. She is a playwright, dramaturg, and multi-disciplinary performer with training in dance and physical theatre. Playwright credits include: Monstrous (published in Alt.theatre 13.3 and performed across Canada and the US), Heartlines (Undercurrents Festival, Great Canadian Theatre Company). Director credits include: Witness Shift by Donna-Michelle St Bernard (Osidian Theatre and CBC Arts). Sarah has been Artist-in-Residence at the Great Canadian Theatre Company and the National Arts Centre. She is Assistant Professor at the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University. Twitter: @sarahwaisvisz Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Latinx queer theatre maker and performance artist. His practice centres nuanced intersectional auto/biographical stories of belonging, resilience and intimacy, encouraging audiences to ask questions about what makes us most human. Past curations include We’re Here! (BAC, Vogue Fabrics) and They Shall Not Pass (Limehouse Town Hall). He is an associate artist with CASA Festival, and has performed, directed and shown work with Arcola Theatre, HOME, Whitechapel Gallery, Barbican (Fertility Fest), Forest Fringe, Summerhall, The Lowry, Arts Admin, Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction, Latitude Festival and more. Website: www.victoresses.com Twitter: @victoresses

Jessica Benhamou is a multilingual writer and director of stage and screen. Having grown up in three different countries as the daughter of a French-Algerian refugee, she is drawn to global, urgent and untold stories. Her credits include: an episode of the docuseries Hacker: Hunter; the BFI Flare short Love Is A Hand Grenade; and an UKJFF-funded documentary, Sadeh. Twitter: @jessicashiraz Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Latinx queer theatre maker and performance artist. His practice centres nuanced intersectional auto/biographical stories of belonging, resilience and intimacy, encouraging audiences to ask questions about what makes us most human. Past curations include We’re Here! (BAC, Vogue Fabrics) and They Shall Not Pass (Limehouse Town Hall). He is an associate artist with CASA Festival, and has performed, directed and shown work with Arcola Theatre, HOME, Whitechapel Gallery, Barbican (Fertility Fest), Forest Fringe, Summerhall, The Lowry, Arts Admin, Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction, Latitude Festival and more. Website: www.victoresses.com Twitter: @victoresses

Hana Vazana-Grunwald is a director, creator, and playwright. She is the moderator of the Israeli Theatre group and founder of the "Freichot Ensemble." Her works cross various theatrical genres and often explore the intersection of feminism and Mizrachi identity, with an artistic and political commitment to the silenced voices of Israeli society. Credits include: Papag'ina, Friecha a Beautiful Name, Pearl Paper Heart, Sof Al Hakatino, Maternity, Whistle, Tikva Quarter Cairo, Impregnate and Give Birth, and Consensual Murder. Instagram: @vazanagrunwald Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Latinx queer theatre maker and performance artist. His practice centres nuanced intersectional auto/biographical stories of belonging, resilience and intimacy, encouraging audiences to ask questions about what makes us most human. Past curations include We’re Here! (BAC, Vogue Fabrics) and They Shall Not Pass (Limehouse Town Hall). He is an associate artist with CASA Festival, and has performed, directed and shown work with Arcola Theatre, HOME, Whitechapel Gallery, Barbican (Fertility Fest), Forest Fringe, Summerhall, The Lowry, Arts Admin, Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction, Latitude Festival and more. Website: www.victoresses.com Twitter: @victoresses

Koleka Putuma is an award-winning poet, playwright and theatre director. Her theatre works include UHM (2014) Woza Sarafina (2016), and Mbuzeni (2017/18). She is a Forbes Africa Under 30 Honoree, recipient of the Imbewu Trust Scribe Playwriting Award, Mbokodo Rising Light award, CASA playwriting award and 2019 Distell Playwriting Award for her play No Easter Sunday for Queers, published by Junkets in 2020. Koleka is the Founder and Director of Manyano Media, a multidisciplinary creative company that produces and champions the work and stories of black queer artists and queer life. Website: https://www.kolekaputuma.com/ Twitter: @KPutuma Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria

Lisa Langford is a Cleveland-based playwright and actor. Her play Rastus and Hattie was a Joyce Award winner; a National Playwrights Conference finalist; and was published by New Stage Press. Lisa’s other plays include How Blood Go, selected for the August Wilson New Play Initiative reading series at the Congo Square Theatre and Global Black Voices at the Roundhouse; The Art of Longing, a Leslie Scalapino Award finalist; The Bomb, published in Black Lives/Black Words; and Revolt. Ing, part of the I Am…Festival at Goodman Theatre. Lisa received commissions from the Cleveland Playhouse, the College of Wooster and others, and is a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria

Maxwell Odoi-Yeboah is a part-time lecturer at the Communication Unit of Pentecost University, Ghana, and serves as the resident writer for the Global Arts and Development Centre (GADEC). Over the years, Maxwell has written a number of plays and had a couple of them produced on stage. Notable among his plays are I’m so Happy I could just SHIT!, Sorry Ever After, Masking the King, I Love Him but... among others. His interest lies in using his plays to engage social issues in plays in order to entertain, educate, inform as well as spur readers/audience into action. Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria

Shayera Dark is a writer. Her fiction and non fiction work have appeared in various publications that include Refinery29, Johannesburg Review of Books, Aljazeera, AFREADA and Quartz. Her play, The Preacher's Wife, was one of several selected by Global Voices Theatre in 2019 for a reading at the Roundhouse in London. Website: www.shayeradark.com Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria

Named “Someone to Watch” by American Theatre magazine, France-Luce Benson’s play Talking Peace topped the list of most impactful plays in ATLA’S Together L.A. Festival 2020. Tigress of San Domingue was featured in Atlantic Theatre Company’s African Caribbean Mixfest 2021, and Anjelique is currently running in Juggerknot/Popup Theatre’s Long Distance Affair event. Honours include: Dramatist Guild Fellow, Zoetrope Grand Prize, Samuel French OOB Festival Winner, Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist. Productions and workshops at Ensemble Studio Theatre New York, Crossroads Theatre, New Black Fest, City Theatre Miami, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Playwrights Center. Publications: Samuel French; Routledge Press, DPS. Website: https://www.francelucebenson.com/ Twitter: @francelucebenso Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria

Africa Ukoh is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director. He tells stories to global audiences through a uniquely African voice. His play 54 Silhouettes has won multiple awards such as the BBC African Performance prize and the Best International Show award at New York's United Solo Theatre Festival. It has received a showcase performance by Global Voices Theatre at London's Roundhouse and a staged reading at Canada's Belfry Theatre as part of the Spark Theatre Festival. Africa has worked on two of Nigeria's most critically acclaimed films which both received world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival. Twitter: @Pensage Instagram: @pensage Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists. Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator. Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre. Twitter: @absmaria