BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO - CAST AND CREATIVES

Cast

Creatives

Rajiv Joseph

Writer

Rajiv Joseph is a multi-award winning Playwright. He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago since 2018 and has served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

Theatre as playwrite includes: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo – 2010 Pulitzer Price Finalist; Guards at the Taj – Obie Award Winner, Lortel Winner; Describe the Night – Obie Award Winner; Dakar 2000; King James; Letters of Suresh; Gruesome Playground Injuries; Animals Out of Paper.

Omar Elerian

Director

Omar Elerian is a freelance director, dramaturg, and theatre-maker. He was the resident Associate Director at The Bush from 2012 – 2019.

Theatre includes: Misty (Bush/ West End/ Off Broadway); NASSIM (Bush/ Traverse/ World Tour); Going Through, Islands (Bush); You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy (China Plate); The Mill: City of Dreams (Site Specific); Rhinoceros, The Chairs (Almeida); Nowhere (BAC/ Traverse/ World tour); The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner (Factory International); Two Palestinians go dogging, ECHO (Royal Court); As You Like it (RSC).

Rajha Shakiry

Set & Costume Designer

Theatre includes: The Mountaintop – JMK Award (Young Vic/ Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); The Hot Wing King, The Father and the Assassin, Trouble in Mind, ‘Master Harold’… and the boys, Nine Night (National Theatre); Two Palestinians Go Dogging, seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Royal Court/ Public Theater, NY/ Woolly Mammoth Theatre, DC); Return of Danton for Collective Ma’louba, Germany; Autoreverse (BAC); Going Through and Misty (Bush/West End/ Broadway); Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Dark (UK tour); Richard II (Ashtar Theatre at Hisham’s Palace, Palestine/Shakespeare’s Globe); I Stand Corrected (Artscape, South Africa/Ovalhouse); Muhammad Ali and Me (Albany & UK tour).

Jackie Shemesh

Theatre includes: A Face in the Crowd, Changing Destiny, In the Penal Colony, Man and Oh my Sweet Land (Young Vic); ECHO, Two Palestinians Go Dogging (Royal Court); Nowhere (BAC/HOME) The Chairs, Rhinoceros, Uncle Vanya (Almeida); Mary Stuart (Almeida/West End); Death of England – Trilogy, Hansard (National Theatre/West End); Ben & Imo, As You Like It (RSC); The Seagull (West End); The Beloved, Islands (Bush); Misty (Bush/West End); Ruination (ROH); Goat and Cerberus (Rambert); Picnic, White Hare (Sadler’s Wells); Beheld, Hot Mess, Let’s Talk About Dis (Candoco Dance Company) The Ways, The Fortune, The Fall, Continual Cry (Jamila Jonson-small).

Elena Peña

Sound Designer

Theatre includes: The Beautiful Future is Coming (Bristol Old Vic/ Traverse); Rhinoceros, The Chairs (Almeida); A Good House (Bristol Old Vic/ Royal Court); The Legends of Them (Royal Court/ Hackney Showroom); A Tupperware of Ashes, The Hot Wing King, Trouble in Mind (National Theatre); The Wedding Band (Lyric Hammersmith); Sweat, Nora, A Doll’s House (Royal Exchange); Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse); Blue Mist, Baghdaddy, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Two Palestinians Go Dogging (Royal Court); As You Like It (RSC); Misty (Bush / West End/ Shed, NYC).

Film includes: The Magic Finger; Hope; Aunty Ji.

Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster

Movement Director

Theatre includes: Cock (West End); Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Choir (Chichester Festival Theatre); Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, Beauty And The Beast, The Panto That Nearly Never Was, Pavilion (Theatr Clwyd); The Constant Wife (RSC); Shanghai Dolls (Kiln); Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew (Bush); Beautiful Thing (Stratford East/ Leeds Playhouse/ HOME); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre); Overflow, Chiaroscuro (Bush); The Bee in Me, Grimm Tales (Unicorn); You Stupid Darkness (Southwark Playhouse); Pericles (RSC/ Chicago); The Tempest Re Imagined (Regents Park Open Air Theatre/ Unicorn); The Famous Five (Chichester Festival Theatre/Theatr Clwyd); Heart (Minetta Lane Theatre, New York).

Heather Basten CDG

Casting Director

Theatre includes: Passing Strange (Young Vic); Elektra, Comedy of Spies, Barcalona (West End); Hedda (Theatre Royal Bath);The Harder They Come (Stratford East).

Film includes: Speak No Evil; House of Spoils; Hoard; Animol.

Television includes: Open Water; Dreaming Whilst Black

Ruth Cooper-Brown of Rc-Annie

Fight & Intimacy Director

Rc-Annie Ltd is the UK’s leading dramatic violence company established by Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown.

Theatre includes: Oklahoma! (Young Vic/West End); The Maids, Macbeth (Donmar); Troilus & Cressida, Cymbeline, Antony & Cleopatra, Emilia, Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe); Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Empress, Henry IV:Rebellion (RSC); Hedda (Orange Tree); Romeo a Juliet (Theatr Cymru); A Tupperware of Ashes, Cleansed, Ugly Lies the Bone, The James Plays (National Theatre); Bernarda Albas Haus (Deutsche Schauspielhaus); Great Expectations (Royal Exchange Manchester); The Pillowman, To Kill a Mockingbird, 2.22 A Ghost Story, Noises Off (West End); Lucia di Lammermoor (Royal Opera House).

Khaled Abunaama

Dialect Coach

Theatre includes: The beekeeper of Aleppo (Nottingham Playhouse); Trouble in Butetown (Donmar).

Television includes: The Agency; The Gentlemen; Slow Horses; The Crow Girl; Prime Target; Industry; Vigil; Culprits; The Tower; Atomic; I Fought the Law.

Hazel Holder

 Voice & Dialect Coach 

Theatre includes: Passing Strange, The Homecoming, Best of Enemies (Young Vic); Stereophonic, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Unicorn, Waiting for Godot, People, Places and Things, Enemy of the People, Sunset Boulevard, Dreamgirls, Constellations, COCK, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Glass Menagerie, 2:22 A Ghost Story, Uncle Vanya, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (West End); Bacchae, Alterations, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Tupperware of Ashes, TheGrapes of Wrath, The Hot Wing King, Death of England trilogy, The Effect, Grenfell: in the words of survivors, The Crucible, Small Island, Nine Night, Barber Shop Chronicles, Angels in America (National Theatre); The Seagull (Barbican); Intimate Apparel, The Human Body, The Doll’s House: Part 2, Marys Seacole, [BLANK] (Donmar); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); A Good House, Giant (Royal Court); Jitney (The Old Vic); Mlima’s Tale, Retrograde, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),The Wife of Willesden (Kiln).

Male Arcucci

Costume Supervisor

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Male is a theatre designer and costume supervisor based in London. She is co-artistic director of Mariana Malena Theatre Company.

Theatre design includes: When You Pass Over my Tomb (Arcola); Super Chefs (UK tour); Strangers Like Me (NT Connect/ Hackney Shed); The Bit Players (Southwark Playhouse); Friday Night Love Poem (Zoo Venues); Playing Latinx (Summerhall); La Llorona (Dance City Newcastle); The Two of Us (Theatre Deli).

Theatre as Associate Designer includes: Falkland Sound (Royal Shakespeare Company); Dear Elizabeth (The Gate); Chiaroscuro, House of Ife (Bush); Thebes Land (Arcola).

Theatre as Costume Supervisor includes: The Cherry Orchard (The Yard); Chasing Hares (Young Vic); The Empress, As You Like it and The Tempest (RSC); A Tupperware of Ashes, The Estate, The Land of the Living and End (National Theatre); August in England, Chiaroscuro, House of Ife, Shifters (Bush); Sucker Punch (Queen’s Theatre); Bootycandy (Gate Theatre); Super High Resolution (Soho Theatre); The Boys are Kissing (Theatre 503); Lotus Beauty, Raya (Hampstead); Moreno, Milk and Gall (Theatre503).

Sarah-Jane Pucci

Hair & Make Up Supervisor

As a versatile Prosthetics, Hair and Make-up Artist, Sarah-Jane works across the board within stage and screen.

Theatre includes: The Collaboration (Young Vic); Dear England (National Theatre); Tammy Faye, A Moon for the Misbegotten (Almeida); Sunset Boulevard (ENO); The Lady from the Sea (The Bridge).

Television includes: Bridgerton; Stath Lets Flats; The Man who fell to Earth; Cursed.

Film includes: Star Wars; Wicked; Supergirl; Antman; The Legend of Tarzan; The Imitation Game.

Kate Margretts

Prop Supervisor

Theatre includes: The Little Foxes (Young Vic); Punch (Nottingham Playhouse/ Young Vic); Lord of the Flies, Anna Karenina, Assassins (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Spy That Came in from the Cold (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End); My Master Builder, A Christmas Carol-ish, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Enemy of the People, A Mirror, Vanya, Good (West End); Dear Evan Hansen (Nottingham Playhouse/ UK & Asia tour); The Baker’s Wife, Close Up: The Twiggy Musical (Menier Chocolate Factory); The Constituent (The Old Vic); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Leeds Playhouse, UK tour); Saw: The Experience, Monopoly Lifesized (London); Ulster American (Riverside Studios).

Layla Madanat

Jerwood Assistant Director

Layla Madanat is a director, dramaturg and producer.

Theatre as Director: HOME (Grand Junction/Shubbak Festival); succession theme is my ringtone (Rose Theatre, Kingston); I Lord (Theatre Deli); Made at Home (Tamasha Digital); She is a Place Called Home (VAULT Festival); Colour is Too Sweet (King’s Head).

Theatre as Staff Director: A Tupperware of Ashes (National Theatre).

Theatre as Associate Director: Jesus Christ Superstar (The Watermill); First Encounters: The Tempest (RSC/UK tour); The Empress (Lyric Hammersmith); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rose Theatre Kingston); Walk with Amal (European tour).

Theatre as Assistant Director: The Empress (RSC); Hakawatis (Shakespeare’s Globe).

Film includes: mosaic/فسيفساء.

Yimei Zhao

Associate Designer 

Yimei is a set and costume designer based in London.

Theatre as a Designer includes: Porn Play (Royal Court); THE HEAT (Sadler's Wells/ The Lowry/ South East Dance); The Society For New Cuisine (Omnibus); Before After (Southwark Playhouse); Dare You Say Please (King's Head Theatre).

Theatre as Associate Designer includes: The Hot Wing King (National Theatre); King Troll (New Diorama).

Film as a Designer includes: Men Without Women.