Bombay Black

CAST & CREW

Veenesh Dubois – Padma

Veenesh is excited to be back onstage at ATP after the holiday production of The Jungle Book - 2022. A Fijian-born Canadian actress working in theatre in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, L.A. and Canada. She's a Jessie Richardson Best Supporting Actress nominee for the 2019 Bard On The Beach production of All's Well That Ends Well. Other credits include - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Japan), Othello (Japan), Jukebox Paradise (Japan), and A Christmas Carol (Hong Kong) Code 2024 (Hong Kong). In 2009, Veenesh wrote/starred in Vancouver Fringe Festival's winner "Under The Mango Tree" touring it all over Canada, L.A. and Japan to rave reviews. Away from the stage, Veenesh has appeared in numerous international commercials and TV series and has recently created a podcast called "The Reluctant Expat" where she interviews people living the ex-pat lifestyle. When not on stage, Veenesh travels between Vancouver, England and Fiji where she's remodelling her home with her husband Ray. Thanks to my family and friends for their continued love and support, couldn't do this without you! Thanks ATP!



Simran Sachar - Apsara, Assistant Choreographer

Simran Sachar is a Canadian East Indian/Punjabi Experimental/Street Dance Artist, and Writer. She is deeply in love with dance ranging from Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, W*acking, Hip-Hop, House, and Animation. She upholds the value of memories, imagination, our deepest desires, and storytelling to shape our own unique dance. Simran is a captivating anomaly reminding us that our greatest selves lie within us. Her versatility allows her to train and work with world class choreographers across the Philippines, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. Simran prides herself on versatility working in Film/TV, Contemporary spaces, Street Dance spaces, teaching youth of all levels, Adjudicating, and producing her own work. Simran is in the process of her most recent work with XR technology, titled ‘Mere Andar.’ In 2020, her first film ‘LUNACY’ premiered at FORM Film Festival and won the Official Selection of the Audience Choice Award. Simran’s credits include Riverdale, Vancouver Opera, Dairy Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Dancing On The Edge, LA: The Gypsy Project and more. Simran will make her acting debut in the Alberta Theatre Projects showing of Bombay Black as Apsara.



Suchiththa Wickremesooriya - Kamal

Suchiththa is a multi-disciplinary Sri Lankan/Canadian actor, singer, producer, writer and educator who has recently been drawn to multi-sensory theatre as well as physical theatre. This is his first role with ATP, and his third in Alberta, following Ariel in The Tempest (2019, Citadel Theatre Edmonton) and Fakir in The Secret Garden (2018, Theatre Calgary). He was most recently seen in Bend it Like Beckham in its North American premiere and as Henry Riverbrook in Dauntless Theatre’s production of This Earth of Majesty, an adaptation of Richard II. Over the past few years he’s also been involved in collaborating in new works, which include Sweeter by Alicia Richardson, Sister Warriors by Roselyn Kelada-Sedra, Leopards and Peacocks by Gitanjali Lena and Off the Beaten Path: The Musical by Calgary’s own Tory Doctor. This production is dedicated to his grandfather, Gerald Wickremesooriya, a blind musician, storyteller and music producer and the first person to spark the joy of storytelling in his life - thank you සීයා.



Anosh Irani - Playwright

ANOSH IRANI has published five critically acclaimed works of fiction: The Cripple and His Talismans (2004), a national bestseller; The Song of Kahunsha (2006), which was an international bestseller and shortlisted for Canada Reads and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Dahanu Road (2010), which was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize; The Parcel (2016), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize; and Translated From the Gibberish: Seven Stories and One Half Truth (2019). His play Bombay Black (2006) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and his anthology The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black (2007) and his play The Men in White (2018) were both finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. His one man show Buffoon (2020) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. He lives in Vancouver.



Alison Wong - Director

Alison Wong 黃巧文 is a director, producer, and performance maker born in Hong Kong and now based in Treaty 13 territory, also known as Toronto. A graduate of York University and Canadian Stage’s MFA in directing, her work in opera and theatre - with a focus on transnational and plurilingual storytelling - has taken her from across Turtle Island to Italy, India, and the Netherlands. Recent directing credits include Blackberry (Red Beti Theatre), nowhen (Canadian Stage/SummerWorks), Cloudless (Periphery/11ours/Canadian Stage), Revolt. She said. Revolt again. (York University), Stormy Weather (IN Series, Washington DC), La fedeltà premiata (Royal Opera House, Mumbai), and The Bremen Town Musicians (Canadian Opera Company). As an independent Creative Producer, she thrives on building world premiere productions of new performance works. She recently produced the premieres of Cacao | A Venezuelan Lament a new dance theatre piece by Victoria Mata and The First Stone by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard with New Harlem Productions. She has also produced with Small Wooden Shoe, Theatre Direct and WeeFestival, SummerWorks Performance Festival, and Luminato Festival Toronto. In 2017, she concluded a five-season term as Artistic Producer with b current, a Toronto-based company of 30+ years dedicated to developing new Canadian performance works by BIPOC artists.



Shrina Patel – Choreographer & Cultural Consultant

Shrina Patel is a multidisciplinary artist and the Artistic Director of Shaktiflow. As an actor, dancer, and choreographer, Shrina speaks through her expansive East to West dance vocabulary, utilizing styles of Indian folk such as Garba, Bharat Natyam and Kathak to her background in Hip Hop, Bellydance and Locking and Popping, to hold conversations of somatic unearthing through movement. She has set herself apart as a Performance Artist with her pieces blur with Mile Zero Dance and Re-Emergence for Schmoozy through Latitude 53. Shrina’s unique languaging around movement supports the unlocking of stagnant memories held within the body and towards healing, which she lovingly refers to as Artivism. In 2019, she produced and directed her first show entitled Sacred Spaces at the Arden Theatre; a conversation that asked the question, "how can we create safer spaces in our communities for healing?" Her work has been showcased in collaborations with Citadel Theatre, Alberta Musical Theatre Company, and Alberta Theatre Projects to name a few. Shrina resides in Amiskwacîwâskahikan Edmonton, Alberta.



Anastasia St. Amand – Intimacy Director

Anastasia (she/her) is a Queer, certified intimacy director and coordinator, an award-nominated actor, and an award-winning fight director who hails from Mohkinstsis (Calgary) on Treaty 7 Territory. She is the workshop committee chair and a board member for the National Society of Intimacy Professionals (NSIP), a proud team member of Principal Intimacy Professionals (PIPs), and an assistant instructor for PIP’s SAG-accredited intimacy professional training program. She directs with a sense of joy, exploration, and collaboration. Anastasia holds accreditation in, Mental Health First Aid, and Psychological First Aid as well as Standard First Aid and CPR and holds mental health and trauma-informed care as central to her practice. Select credits include: Hurry Hard (Western Canada Theatre) Brontë (Studio Theatre UofA), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure For Measure (Free Will Shakespeare), 52 Pick-Up, Constellations (DIY), Genesis: The Mary Shelley Play (ACT Edinburgh Fringe), Guilty Party (Paramount+), Superman & Lois S3 (Warner Bros), Peacemaker (HBO), Upload S2 (Amazon). Special thanks to her PIPs Pals and loved ones for their ongoing support.



Shelby Reinitz- Assistant Director

WITH ATP: Debut. ELSEWHERE: The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (StoryBook Theatre - Assist Dir.), Million Dollar Quartet (Theatre Calgary - Mentee Musical Dir.), Constellations, 52 Pickup, Half the Battle (DIY Theatre - Director), Twelfth Night, The Hobbit, The Apple Kingdom (Canmore Summer Theatre Festival - Director), Candlelight, Little Women, And Then the Lights Went Out…(Various - Director). OF INTEREST: When she isn’t playing “Director” or “Assistant Director”, Shelby has also been known to play “Actor”, “Producer”, “Production Coordinator” or “Mentee Music Director”. She would like to thank ATP for bringing her on this journey. She is grateful for the people and animals in her life that keep her sane, and for the opportunity to make art. Enjoy the show!



Hanne Loosen - Set Design

FOR ATP Set and Costume Design for In Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Set Design: Stealing Sam, Costume Design for: Zorro: Family Code, Constellations, To The Lights, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (co- production with The Shakespeare Company). She has worked with Theatre Calgary, Calgary Opera, Vertigo Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, Rosebud Theatre and others. At the Shaw Festival she designed Flush; a new work based on the novella by Virginia Woolf. Also at Shaw, she designed costumes for The Glass Menagerie. During the pandemic she created a design-led Experiment Lab with her installation piece For Design’s Sake. Her design work can be viewed online at www.hanneloosen.com Hanne would like to dedicate this production to Baba Ahmed, who regained his vision in India last summer.



Ajay Badoni - Lighting Designer

Ajay Badoni is honoured and exited to have this opportunity to work on his first show at ATP. Ajay is mostly Calgary based Lighting Designer. Ajay has had the opportunity to work with many different companies as Lighting Designer, his past credits are, The Herd, at Persephone Theatre, Heaven and Shark Bite with Lunchbox Theatre, Sherlock Homes and the Vanishing Thimble, Vertigo Theatre, A More Sparkling Version of Ourselves, with VERB theatre, Real Bio (or The Tragedie of Pinocchio in Five Comedic Acts), A Little Princess, Much Ado About Nothing with CYPT, and Screwball Comedy, with Stage West Calgary. Up next for Ajay is Teenage Dick right back here at ATP. Ajay would like to thank his Family and Friends for everything. Enjoy the show.



Lindsay Zess - Costume Design

Lindsey is a Métis director, designer, maker, and arts educator born and raised on Treaty 7 territory, primarily Mohkinstsis / Otoskwunee / Calgary. She creates work for both film and theatre, specializing in scenography, movement, puppetry and new Canadian work. Her devising and design methodology places a strong emphasis on the material, mythological and metaphysical. Recent design credits include John Ware Reimagined (The Blyth Festival), Heaven (Lunchbox Theatre), The Canterville Ghost (CYPT), and Wastelands (CAOS Festival of Animated Objects). Lindsey is thrilled to be a first-time collaborator at ATP with this incredible team of artists.



Kalaisan Kalaichelvan - Sound Design

KALAISAN KALAICHELVAN is a composer and pianist based in Toronto, Canada. His compositional practice spans multiple disciplines, drawing from film, dance, theatre, installation and deals with themes of translation and transference.
Named by Ludwig Van as one of “six emerging Canadian composers to keep an eye on”, his music has been performed and premiered by renowned ensembles such as Pro Coro Canada, the Dior Quartet and Duo Concertante. Kalaisan is a 2021 Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab and is one of the awarded grantees of the Sundance Institute’s Art of Practice Fellowship. He has held residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and was an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre as as one of the 2021 Slaight Music residents. In 2022, Kalaisan has scored feature films that have premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (“This Place”) and the Fantasia Film Festival (“The Protector”). Kalaisan’s music is defined by its genre-bending boldness, its refined classicism and musical ingenuity. Having worked across various disciplines and communities of thought, Kalaisan seeks to bring together incongruous institutions to build novel structures that reflect his artistic upbringing.



Ashley King – Visually Impaired/Blind Consultant

Ashley King is a Mexican-Canadian visually impaired actor, playwright, and accessibility consultant based in Mohkinstsis. She is a graduate of Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio, having completed their Master Class actor training program. As the Artistic Associate at Inside Out Theatre, a Deaf and Disability theatre company, she works to educate and improve patron and artist accessibility within Canadian theatre. Through her artistic consulting, board work and artistic practices, she strives to advocate and to center her work around equal representation, accessibility, and inclusion. Using her lived-experiences, she has consulted on accessibility with artists, theatre companies within the city, and organizations nationally. Ashley is also a consultant for Audio Description and described Video for both stage and television, and has worked to improve and train those who describe media to the blind and low sighted community.



Claire Bolton - Stage Manager

Claire Bolton is thrilled to be joining the ATP team! She is a graduate of the University of Calgary’s Drama department (BFA ’09), and has made her career as a stage manager, performer, producer, and educator. Upon graduating she was granted an internship with Quest Theatre, and has remained a part of the company as a member of their Artist in Residency Program and Camp Coordinator. Along with being a member of these programs Claire is a teacher for Puddle of Mud Productions, a member of Calgary Opera’s Let’s Create An Opera Program, and Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theatre. Past Stage Management credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest (ASM) (Theatre Calgary), O’kosi; Time Stands Still; 509 (ASM); Kaahsinnoniks (ASM) (Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society), Girl Discovered; UNGANISHA (Woezo Africa Dance Theatre), Sherlock Holmes and the Vanishing Thimble (ASM); Sherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse (ASM) (Vertigo Theatre), Hamlet: A Ghost Story (Vertigo Theatre/The Shakespeare Company/Hit & Myth Productions).



Ferne Hudson - Assistant Stage Manager

Originally from the UK, Ferne graduated from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with a degree in Stage Management. Ferne worked as a Stage Manager in London for 10 years before moving to Canada last year. Stage Management credits include :- A (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Midsummer Nights Dream, The Magic Flute, Cinderella, Twelfth Night, Once On This Island, Much Ado About Nothing, A Christmas Carol, Sleeping Beauty, The White Card, Little Red Cap, Jack And The Beanstalk, On McQuillan’s Hill, Rapunzel, As You Like It, Hello and Goodbye, Saturday Night, Floyd Collins, First Lady Suite and The Wall.