Rifco Associates was launched in 2015 to address the lack of opportunity for British Asian artists in the theatre sector. Since then 25 artists have been supported through the programme from a range of artistic practice including writers, lyricists, composers, designers, aerial artists and spoken word performers. The programme is led by Rifco Theatre Company’s Associate Director, Ameet Chana, who himself, came through the Associate programme. As a new writing company, Rifco decided, for their anniversary year, to identify new monologue ideas from new and mid-career writers & writers/performers. A call-out for new scripts and treatments led to their largest ever number of applications. Rifco Theatre Company has got the following new people on board. Among them, are many South Asians.
Nafeesa Hamid is a writer, workshop facilitator, performer, and creative producer active since 2012. She was born in Pakistan, bred in Birmingham.
Radhika Jani is a British-Indian writer-performer from North London and works as the Digital and Creative Learning Assistant at Jacksons Lane.
Naomi Joseph is a theatre-maker, actor and writer. Across her artistic practice she playfully explores how big feelings manifest in our everyday lives.
Rupi Lal trained at Rose Bruford College. As an actor his credits include two Rifco productions: Meri Christmas and The Deranged Marriage. Other credits include Tamasha Arts’ Strictly Dandia and BBC Asian Network’s radio drama Silver Street.
Guinder Maini recently returned to her interest in writing and acting having originally studied drama at college.
Mahesh Parkar is a musician whose interest in writing has developed over the last 18 months. He was also part of a theatre company which performed a modern rendition of Macbeth at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Apinder Sahni’s writing journey started at school while studying A-Level English Literature. In December 2010, he created a blog and wrote his first piece for public consumption called Letting Go – The Father of the Bride.
All candidates receive a £500 bursary alongside mentoring support, writer-in-residence days and masterclasses with industry leaders to develop their monologue over the next year. Each of the new Associate pieces will be filmed and made available online as well as be performed in a live showcase event as part of the Rifco 21 celebrations.
