Pooja Ghai to lead Tamasha Theatre Company as new artistic director

Actor and director Pooja Ghai has been named new artistic director of Tamasha Theatre Company.

Ghai will take up the role immediately, replacing Fin Kennedy, who is leaving after seven years to start his own company and return to freelance writing.

Valerie Synmoie – currently executive director at Tamasha – has been announced to step into the newly created role of chief executive. The executive director role will cease to exist for the foreseeable future.

Ghai is co-chair of Artistic Directors of the Future and Stage Directors UK, and a trustee of Pop-Up Projects CIC, which aims to help young people access literature.

She is also an associate artist of Kali Theatre and was formerly associate director of Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Her directing credits include Tanika Gupta’s Lions and Tigers at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and Ishy Din’s Approaching Empty with Tamasha.

Ghai said: “Tamasha has been an incredible platform for showcasing and touring marginalised voices and creating pipelines for ethnically diverse talent.

"I look forward to continuing and developing that mandate and further growing the impact we make, especially at this critical moment in time.

"The past 18 months have tested us all and, despite the challenges that we have endured, I also see an opportunity burgeoning."

She added: "There is a growing awareness of the deep-seated inequalities in the sector and society at large, which we can leverage as a catalyst for change by building authentic and ongoing collaborations that celebrate our differences and firmly establish the global majority as an integral part of the theatre landscape."

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