Professional Perspectives: Abdul Shayek

Please join us for a conversation with Abdul Shayek (Artistic Director of Tara Theatre) and Dani Abulhawa (University of Leeds)

This event will take place online. Register for this event via eventbride.

Abdul Shayek was previously the founding Artistic Director & CEO of Fio, an international theatre company based in Cardiff. Before this he was an Associate at the National Theatre of Wales.

He is a member of the British Council’s Arts and Creative Economy Advisory Group, Vice Chair of the National Alliance of Arts in the Criminal Justice System, as well as a trustee of mid-Wales dance company Impelo. Abdul was a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow (2013-14), during which he spent time at Film4 and M&C Saatchi. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of East London and has guest lectured at a host of other institutions.

As a director and theatre maker Abdul's work is rooted in creating innovative participatory experiences, projects and productions and identifying and developing artists and new audiences. He has worked on TV documentaries, on operas (new and classics) with both ENO and WNO. Staged contemporary classics and adapted novels for stage.

In the short time leading Tara Theatre, he has created an audio walking project in response to the pandemic which will be touring UK festivals, theatres and civic spaces next year. Commissioned 12 new monologues with national and international writers. This Autumn he is making a site-specific gig theatre piece as well as creating a VR experience next spring for Bangladesh 50.

Dani Abulhawa is Lecturer in Contemporary Applied Performance at the University of Leeds in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. She teaches on the MA in Applied Theatre and Intervention, and undergraduate Theatre and Performance courses.

Dani is an ambassador for SkatePal, a charity that build skateparks and teach skateboarding in the West Bank and she is the co-director of Skate Manchester, delivering youth-focused community practice within the city. Dani is a co-founder of Accumulations, a supportive network of experimental movement and somatic practitioners in the North of England. Dani is also the co-director of Plant Ecology Beyond Land (PEBL) CIC, raising awareness of the effects of biodiversity loss on ocean ecology through communities-focused creative practice.