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BABYLON Beyond Borders

Bush Theatre in association with Harlem Stage, Market Theatre Lab and Pequeno Ato
BABYLON Beyond Borders

A live streamed performance happening simultaneously in four countries.

Four extraordinary theatres, each deeply rooted in their own community, explore their relationship to home, language and migration. A Brazilian activist at the Pequeno Ato Theatre in São Paulo performs with a chorus of women from Shepherd’s Bush. Musicians at Harlem Stage in New York City act out the experiences of students at the Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg in a celebration of the possibility and power of cross border encounters.

Devised by Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Pedro Granato, Mwenya Kabwe and Ruthie Osterman.

Project Partners

Bush Theatre (London, UK) – a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally renowned champion of playwrights.

Harlem Stage (NYC, USA) – an award-winning performing arts centre that features diverse local, national, and global artists in music, film, opera, theatre, dance and literature.

Pequeno Ato (São Paulo, Brazil)- award-wining young independent theatre focusing on creating new dramaturgy and contemporary aesthetics.

Market Theatre Lab (Johannesburg, South Africa) was operating as an independent, non-racial theatre during the country’s apartheid regime. The theatre provides a platform for professional performing and visual arts repertoire.

Presented by Bush Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre in partnership with Artistic Directors of the Future.

The UP NEXT initiative is funded by the Arts Council England Sustained Theatre grant. Babylon Beyond Borders is generously supported by Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.
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Photo & video

Production Manager
Aniela Zaba
Dramaturg and Writer: London
Annie Siddons
Live Stream Producer
Heather Pasfield
Community Coordinator
Katie Webb
Producer
Miranda Persaud
Movement Director
Rachael Nanyonjo

Rachael Nanyonjo is a movement director and choreographer.

Rachael’s training includes BA Honours in Dance Studies (Roehampton University) and MA in Choreography (Middlesex University).

Choreography & Movement Direction credits include: The White Card (Northern Stage & UK tour); Purple Snowflakes & Titty Wanks (Abbey Theatre and Royal Court); Trouble In Mind (National Theatre); Love Reign (Young Vic); Changing Destiny (Young Vic); The Death of a Black Man (Hampstead Theatre); Pigeon English (Bristol School of Acting); Cinderella (Nottingham Playhouse); Cbeebies (BBC); Spine (UK Tour); In A Word (Young Vic); Great Expectations (National Youth Theatre at Southwark Playhouse): Either (Hampstead); Two Trains Running (ETT – Royal and Derngate); American Dream (Young Vic); Does My Bomb Look Big In This (Soho Theatre, Tara Arts); Babylon Beyond Borders (Bush Theatre); Macbeth (Orange Tree); The Jumper Factory (The Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic); Misty (Trafalgar Studios); Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East, nominated for the Black British Theatre Best Choreographer Award); After It Rains (National Youth Theatre); Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse & Theatre Royal Stratford East); Bernstein’s Mass (Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre); Twilight (Gate Theatre); The Divide (Old Vic); and Cover My Tracks (Old Vic).

Directing credits include Recognition (audio play with 45North Ltd & Ellie Keel Productions); Bobsleigh (Old Vic Monologues); Amazina (Film); An Alternative Musical (National Theatre, for NT Learning as co-director); Assata – She Who Struggles (Young Vic, for Young Vic fresh direction); 2:1 (Kanzaze Dance Theatre at Rich Mix).

Choreographer screen credits include The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (ACE Entertainment); CBEEBIES: Christmas in Storyland (BBC); and Pirates (Hillbilly Films/BBC/BFI).

Director
Ruthie Osterman

Ruthie is a theatre director, playwright, performer and drama teacher who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the school of Dramatic Arts in Tel-Aviv.  Work includes multiple international collaborations and performances in London, Israel, Poland and India.  She is a member of the Lincoln Centre Director’s Lab in NYC and was recognised as a promising artist and endorsed for an Exceptionally Talented Artist Visa for the UK by the Arts Council of England in 2015. ​

Performers
Women’s Chorus

The women’s chorus was put together for Babylon Beyond Borders and is made up of women who are local to the Bush Theatre.

Maureen Natumi
Lieve Carchon
Aubrey Seader
Mediah Ahmed
Jessica Manu
Ilaria Ciardelli
Christaline Mckay
Pauline Singh
Tilail Negussie Mekuria
Sophie McCartney
Melissa Saint

Cast

Lydia Bakelmun
Lydia graduated from Drama Studio London in 2016. Her credits include; Polstead (tour Eastern Angles), The Palestinian in the Basement is on Fire (Southwark Playhouse), The Recruiting Officer/Indebted to Chance (The Old Red Lion Theatre), Hecuba Birangona (Kali Theatre, Tristan Bates Theatre), The Bashful Lover (Read Not Dead, Shakespeare’s Globe) and Wallenstein: SchillerFest (The Faction, The Bunker Theatre). Lydia will next appear in 10 at The Vaults.
Carol Walton
Carol trained at the London Contemporary Dance School. Her stage credits include The Boy, The Piano and the Beach for Slot Machine Theatre and multiple productions with The Oily Cart Theatre Company, Theatre~Rites and The Schools Company at West Yorkshire Playhouse. Dance credits include Starlight Express (London and Japan), Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and The Lion King. She has choreographed various productions. Screen credits include a selection of shorts and commercials, feature films David Brent - Life on the Road and County Lines and Stella for Sky TV. Radio and Voiceover work includes Conception and Watch with Baby for Radio 4s Womans Hour.
Afia Abusham
Afia Abusham is a graduate of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, NYC. Afia is a British-Sudanese Actress and Musician (Clarinet, Piano and Voice); she has produced and devised many pieces both in the UK and US. Theatre credits includes: The Ballad of Rudy (Actor-Musician) at the New Wolsey Studio; Stains at the Lyric Hammersmith; The Three Musketeers; Macbeth; (Classical Theatre of Harlem); The Talk (Written Foundations); Jezelle the Gazelle; When the Night Falls; The Crucible. Other television/film credits include: Apple Tree House, Gentrifiers, Undefeated, Islamaphobia.

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