BEFORE THE FENCE WENT UP
BEFORE THE FENCE WENT UP [created by Drew Taylor-Wilson, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Adam Kashmiry and Kirsty Pickering] will be an intersectional contemporary performance; a black comedy created to question heteronormative, neurotypical, white supremacist responses to domestic conflicts.
The production puts the issues facing people living with multiple intersections front and centre, explored in a challenging, humourous, athletic new production – vital for a current theatre audience.
THIS PROJECT IS CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT - for further details email: drew_taylor@hotmail.co.uk
TEAM BIOS:
NAZLI TABATABAI-KHATAMBAKHSH [she/they] is an Iranian bisexual BSc. Hons, MLitt, MA is a practice-based opera doctoral researcher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London where she also teaches. Her research engages with the opera “Carmen” drawing on the Tehran Opera Company to forecast what new socio-political futures could be dreamt through opera. Her new libretto of “Carmen” in 2025 will coincide with the 150th anniversary of “Carmen’s” premiere in Paris.
Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh is an experienced transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary artist with a portfolio spanning live and recorded arts, both place based and touring. Currently she is associate director of the Glasgow based Queer Sanctuary Arts with a focus on future artistic planning. She is a member of the Governance Committee for the New York based International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), of which she was an Arts Council England Fellow. At the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama she is the Deputy Chair of the inaugural Independent Equity Committee.
https://twitter.com/nazli_tabatabai
ADAM KASHMIRY [he/they] is a Neuro-Divergent Performer, Experimental Mover, Drag Artist, Story-teller and a Queer Activist, originally from Alexandria, Egypt.
Credits include: As you like it, Shakespeare – Northern broadside – Currently on tour. ADAM (Fringe Festival, Battersea Arts Centre, Shedinburgh 2020 Online Festival, BBC & BBC Arts), Everyman (Bombito Productions), Who We Are (Bombito Productions). Ghost Light (National Theatre of Scotland & Edinburgh International Festival), The Years That Changed Modern Scotland (BBC), The Unseen Child (Hopscotch Theatre), Take Me To A Place Of Safety (Sanctuary Queer Arts), Life In The C*ntry (Glasgow Buzzcut), Here We Stay (Citizens’ Theatre Community Company & Scottish Refugee Council), Time for T.E.A (LGBT Youth Scotland. TedX Glasgow 2018.
The stage version of ADAM, was awarded a Fringe First, Herald Angel Award and was shortlisted for Amnesty’s International Award for Free Speech, then nominated for an Offies Award London 2019. The production was adapted to a solo show as part of the Shedinburgh Online Festival, and Kashmiry was awarded The Infallible Theatrical Excellence Award for his Performance. Adam remained in the title role for the film version, which went on to win the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Scripted Television in 2021.
https://twitter.com/adamkashmiry
KIRSTY PICKERING [they/she] is a queer, bi-polar, non binary, working class actor/theatre maker from Dalbeattie in Dumfries and Galloway. They are interested in creating multi-art-form performance highlighting mental illness in young people as well as work that has strong physical/sound aspects and engages audiences politically.
Kirsty currently features as Jessie McAllister on BBC’s ongoing drama “River City”. Further performance credits include: And Then We Said...(Emergence Festival), Unconventional (Websters Theatre), Balisong (Strange Town, 6 month tour) Bless This Acid House (Kasabian – Music Video), Life, Love & All the Crap in Between (Tron Theatre), Glasgow Girls (BBC Three).