we are queer artists of colour
we make politically engaged theatre and poetry
we use poetry, dance, live music and installation
bios
coriander theatre is made up of simran uppal and zad el bacha (artistic directors), gabrielle leadbeater (associate producer) jolliff seville (music) and magda hunt onatra (set and installation).
email directors@coriandertheatre.com to contact any of us.
zad el bacha, writing and direction (she/they)
Zad El Bacha’s work combines their political and community building experience with Middle-Eastern poetic traditions to write on migration, sexual trauma, and sexual and gender identity. They regularly perform with Arte Migrante, a collective of Italian migrant artists, and were commissioned to perform on the main stage for 10,000+ people at Ventimiglia Città Aperta, a protest on the border between Italy and France against the racist violence of the Salvini-Five Star Movement government. They were also one of the winners of Italy’s biggest poetry slam, PoverArte, in 2016, and have featured at the Ruskin School of Art and Hatchards with The Mays, among others.
simran uppal, writing and direction (they/them)
Simran is a poet and an interdisciplinary artist. Simran is curious about devotion, trauma, bliss, community and their body, and how these things relate to their experiences as a queer, nonbinary, brown person from London. Their work often comes from playing in the space where translation and internal sensation co-exist, where embodied emotions and texts shape each other. After studying Classics at the University of Oxford, they now use radical approaches to translation to queer, decolonise, and find the contemporary use in European classical and North Indian mystical poetry.
They're a Barbican Young Poets alum, received a mentorship-residency from the North Wall Theatre, and have directed work for the Camden People's Theatre and Theater X in Berlin. They've also featured or headlined for poetry nights including London Queer Writers' Speak =, The Hen-Nah Party, and The Isis x Common Ground, and been commissioned by the Barbican Galleries, ivo theatre's Outrageous 2018, and Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, among others. They're also a yoga teacher and educator on race and queerness, and work with several refugee organisations and an LGBTQ youth centre.
magda hunt onatra, installation and set (they/them)
Magda is a London-based artist and editor of Sect_Viscera magazine. They have designed sets for Camden People’s Theatre, the North Wall Theatre and have exhibited at the Ruskin School of Art.
jolliff seville, music (he/him)
A classically trained vocalist, professional jazz singer, and commercial composer for the last 4 years, Jolliff is highly accomplished across genres and styles. Releasing his first album at only 16, he has toured his solo work all across the world, as well as writing for many music publishers. His latest single, Moonlight Sonata, is available across all platforms.
gabrielle leadbeater, associate producer (she/her)
Gabrielle first started working with Coriander Theatre in 2018, when she produced My Mother Runs in Zig-Zags at the North Wall Arts Centre. She adores collaborative theatre which explores the uncanny, the spooky and the wonderfully naive. Gabrielle is also an Associate Producer with Ellie Keel Productions, an award-winning company producing new theatre shows in London, Edinburgh, and on tour. In 2019, Gabrielle presented a season of four shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with EKP: Collapsible by Margaret Perry at Assembly (transferred to the Dublin Fringe, Aldeburgh Festival and The Bush Theatre), in co-production with HighTide; Where to Belong by Victor Esses at Summerhall; Son of Dyke by Jordan Waller and HOTTER by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter (transferred to the Soho Theatre), both at Underbelly.
As an Associate Producer with EKP, Gabrielle also presented the pulitzer prize finalist Lisa D’Amour’s (Detroit, National Theatre) Anna Bella Eema at the Arcola Theatre. Her credits as an independent producer include Indigo Griffith’s Masterclass Award winning play, Passing (Tara Arts Theatre) and The Mulatto Girl, Coriander Theatre’s My Mother Runs in Zig-Zags (North Wall Arts Centre, 2019), Your Little Play (Michael Pilch Studio, 2019), Medea (Belgrade Theatre, 2018) and James Morton’s Father’s Son (VAULT festival). Gabrielle is also a member of the National Youth Theatre and her Stage Management credits include Stephanie Street’s adaptation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Bradford Literary Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2018), the Vintage New Year’s Party (Southbank Centre, 2018), Peter Terson’s Zigger Zagger (Wilton’s Music Hall, 2017), William Kerley’s adaptation of Twelfth Night at (Middle Temple Hall, 2016), and Paul Roseby’s The Story of our Youth (Shaftesbury Theatre, 2015).