CORE CREATIVE TEAM
Ivan Thorley | Artistic Director
With over 20 years experience of working internationally, Ivan Thorley trained as a classical and contemporary dancer and worked with movement, objects and stories ever since. Following further postgraduate education in animateuring in Melbourne and completing performance technology MA in London, This led him to work with globally recognised puppetry theatre and outdoor performance companies including Snuff Puppets, Strange Fruit, Blind Summit Theatre and Warhorse. He founded Puppets with Guts in 2011 and has since grown a track record for both excellence in outdoor arts and the delivery of high quality outdoor performance and community engagement.
As an artist with a neurodiverse disability and from an ethnically diverse & from a low-socio economic background, Ivan has first-hand experience of the transformative power culture can bring, therefore his rich experience and his commitment to culture makes him one of the most exciting and talented creators working today.
Iskandar Sharazuddin – Learning & Engagement Executive, Performer
Iskandar R. Sharazuddin is an artist working in between Australia and the United Kingdom as a playwright, actor, director, and teacher. As a multidisciplinary artist Iskandar has developed, produced, directed, and performed work with a number of leading organisations including the Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, Punchdrunk, The Old Vic Theatre, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, The Blue Room Theatre, and Birmingham Hippodrome. He has toured work to various theatres Off-Broadway in New York, the National Arts Festival in South Africa, and a number of festivals throughout Australia.
Iskandar has been a workshop leader and facilitator in London schools and education for the past five years. He was recently artist-in-residence at Haringey Sixth Form College where he established a platform for students to develop their own devised works and is presently a member of faculty at South Hampstead High School.
He is an alumni of the Soho Theatre writers programme and recipient of the 2014 Soho Theatre Young Writer’s Award. Iskandar is the co-founder of Ellandar, a new writing theatre company, through which he has presented his own plays, championed other emerging playwrights, and toured work to independent festivals and seasons of theatre.
Caroline Bowman | Designer, Maker & Performer
Lara Costello | Marketing & Communications Executive
