Cast and Creatives
TAJ ALDEEB: LEILA
TAJ ALDEEB is a musician and performer. She is currently studying Music Performance and is working as a presenter at ABC Classic radio. She fell in love with performing arts in early childhood, participating in the international Solhi-al-wadi Academy Piano Competition, and training at the National Ballet Academy in her hometown in Syria. In 2014, Taj fled the Syrian war with her family and settled in Melbourne/Naarm. Motivated by her own journey, Taj tells stories that demonstrate the challenges, triumphs, and diverse experiences of migration. She is particularly passionate about sharing those stories in audio-visual artistic forms, playing lead roles in short films and theatre. Among her credits, the short films Nour (2018, dir. Suzy Sainovski) and The Fall (2019, dir. Mert Berdilek) which was a finalist for the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films category at the Sydney Film Festival and İzmir Kısa Film Festival. For the stage, THEM (2022, dir. Bagryana Popov) and Zaffé (2023, dir. Stéphanie Ghajar). Taj also employs her talents as a storyteller in advocacy work for human rights, leading multiple projects for not-for-profit organisations including Road to Refuge and Red Cross. Taj has a distinguished interest in doing one too many things at once.
Abdulrahman Hammoud: Omar
ABDULRAHMAN HAMMOUD is a spoken word artist based in Melbourne by way of Lebanon. He teaches writing classes and workshops for schools and organizations. In 2013, he became founder of The Dirty Thirty online writing platform, a group for writers to challenge themselves every April. He is also editor and compiler of The Dirty Thirty Anthology, a collection of poetry from the page he coordinates. He made his acting debut in 2019 in Samah Sabawi’s THEM and is excited to join the cast again this season. He is also an avid purveyor of starting books but never finishing them.
Claudia Greenstone: SALMA
CLAUDIA GREENSTONE is a theatre and film actress who is passionate about performing in projects that give voice to stories of marginalised people in society; stories that look at human conduct in all its complexity and examine life and choices in some of the most challenging of conditions. Over the years, Claudia’s been blessed to work with some of Australia’s best and most exciting directors in both film and theatre. Claudia’s television credits include her recurring role as Victoria Lamb on Neighbours and roles on Seven Types of Ambiguity, Upper Middle Bogan, Wentworth, Offspring, Killing Time and Satisfaction. Some of Claudia’s favourite theatre roles include Anna in Closer, Helena in Look Back in Anger and Dove in Features of Blown Youth. Over the years, Claudia has also had many lead and supporting roles in feature and short films. One of her most memorable roles was playing Antonija in the short SBS film, Continental Drift, set in Croatia. Another was playing single mum, Ana, in El Nino, recently seen at the St Kilda Film Festival and many other festivals around the globe. And most recently, Claudia was co-lead in the short film, The Drive, which looks at the complex aftermath of domestic violence. Other films Claudia has acted in include The Dream Children, Silentium, The Little Black Dress and more.
MEHRAN TAJBAKHSH: MAJID
MEHRAN TAJBAKHSH was born in Iran and came to Australia with his family in 2015. He settled into Australian life in rural NSW and moved to Melbourne by himself after a year of hard work. While studying Business, he developed a love for performing and telling stories. Mehran’s passion for theatre and film was developed further over recent years by being surrounded by the arts of Melbourne. He began his formal training at Federation University in 2018, where he was fortunate to work with Peta Hanrahan on Twelve Angry Jurors(Juror 7), Everyman directed by Kellie Tori, Embers (Politician 2 and CFA Vol) directed by Kim Durban, and Out of Joint (Claudius) directed by Melanie Beddie. Mehran looks forward to expanding his acting career, creating his own movie company, and becoming a film director. Mehran speaks fluent Persian and plays the piano.
SAHIL SALUJA: Mohamad
Sahil has studied his craft in India, America and now, Australia, where he calls home. For his work in Declan Furber Gillick's Bighouse Dreaming (directed by Mark Wilson), he and the cast won Best Performance and Best Ensemble respectively at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and the Green Room Awards. He toured in Anthem under the direction of Susie Dee, a collaboration from acclaimed writers Andrew Bovell, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Reeves and Patricia Cornelius. Anthem had outings at Melbourne, Sydney and Perth Festivals to strong reviews. Previous stage credits include Lab Theatre Company's production of North Pool; Elbow Room's Prehistoric; Melbourne Talam for the Melbourne Theatre Company; The Way Out, for Red Stitch Actors' Theatre; Emma's House Special, for Spare Productions; and A Long Way Home, also for the MTC. In 2016, Sahil starred in his first major film production, The Colour of Darkness, which was written and directed by Girish Makwana and premiered at the 2016 Indian Film Festival Melbourne. It was released Australia wide the following year.
MEENA SHAMALY: PIANO MAN
MEENA SHAMALY is a composer, session musician, poet, and radio presenter. His work centres around creating music for stories, through the mediums of film, video games, and theatre, with special attention to true cultural engagement. He can be heard every week on ABC Classic’s Game Show, presenting and speaking on the music of video games to a national (and global online) audience. Meena is the composer of Innchanted, a video game developed in Victoria in collaboration with some of Australia’s finest First Nations musicians. He most recently collaborated with Christopher Tin (composer of Civilization IV’s Grammy-winning Baba Yetu) on his soundtrack to the 2021 game Old World. Meena regularly collaborates with multi-disciplinary art collectives with projects that engage with immigrant and refugee experiences, such as Bukjeh and Ardna by Aseel Tayah and Zaffé by Stéphanie Ghajar. He regularly performs live on and records multiple instruments with spoken word artists, including Australian Poetry Slam champion Luka Lesson, Melbourne poet Joel McKerrow, and screen actress Anna McGahan. Some of Meena’s previous work includes performing on the Australian film The Legend of Ben Hall and the British film Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella. His music has been licensed for The Late Late Show with James Corden, Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown, Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour, several Netflix series, Collegehumor videos, and WWE.
LARA WEEK: PRODUCER AND SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
LARA WEEK is a designer for performance and creative producer. Her design credits include The Cane (Red Stitch Actors Theatre), ANNA (La Mama Courthouse), Make Me A Houri (La Mama Courthouse), Caliban (Western Edge Youth Arts, Malthouse Theatre), 3 Sisters (Metanoia Theatre), South Sudan Voice (Free Theatre), Night Sings Its Songs (La Mama Theatre), and two seasons of Samah Sabawi’s award-winning play Tales Of A City By The Sea (La Mama Courthouse) which she co-produced in 2016 with Daniel Clark and toured to Adelaide, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur. In 2019 she produced and designed the premiere season of THEM at La Mama Courthouse, directed by Bagryana Popov. From 2011 Lara was associate producer for Tribal Soul Arts, working with Patrice Naiambana to produce decolonial arts programs and performances in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the Netherlands, UK, and Australia.
ELISSA GOODRICH: SOUND DESIGNER
ELISSA GOODRICH is a musician, sound artist & composer with an abiding interest in contemporary music across idioms & collaborative arts-making. Elissa’s sound-art works have played in festivals including; New Media Festival (Berlin), Soundwaves Festival & International Lightworks Festival, Sonorities Contemporary International Music Festival (UK), Sonori Sguardi, & Tempo Reale, (Italy), Melbourne International Arts Festival (Australia). Elissa records & performs in contemporary classical, jazz & pop groups & co-led world-jazz Shannon-Goodrich Ensemble with 2 nominations for Australian Jazz Work of the Year. Elissa also works in independent theatre including long-term collaboration with Bagryana Popov (1998–current). Elissa created major soundart work ‘Between Footsteps’ (2016 - 2020) (Heide Museum of Modern Art). In 2017, Elissa performed her work Forgotten Songs of Flight with cellist Caerwen Martin at the National Opera Center (New York, USA). Following on from Elissa's 2016 City of Melbourne - Artist Residency with evolutionary biologist Dr Anna Syme and Nadja Kostich (dramaturg), Elissa is currently composing a large-scale work Gene Tree: Listen.Now.Again. in partnership with St Martin's Youth Performing Arts Centre and The Royal Botanical Gardens - Victoria and with a composer's commission from the prestigious APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund 2018-2022. Elissa’s newest music composition project – The Waves Project is supported by Australia Council for the Arts and is, by invitation, in partnership with Professor Richard Manasseh’s “Surf Sounds” ARC climate science project (Swinburne University, University of Melbourne Australia) (2020 – 2023).
SHANE GRANT: LIGHTING DESIGNEr and production manager
Shane has been acknowledged as an “Absolute Genius” (Theatre People, 30/7/16) for his lighting design of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis. Shane earned a Bachelor of Arts (Performing Arts) from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, some time ago! Shane has: toured the world; operated venues (Gasworks, Mechanics Institute Brunswick, St Martins); written shows; performed shows; sold tickets to shows; produced shows; sold drinks in the foyer at shows; built sets; built theatres; and given the St Crispin’s Day speeches that get everyone over the line on opening night—sometimes all with the same production. Some recent notable shows that Shane has designed are: Samah Sabawi’s Tales of a City by the Sea (La Mama Courthouse and tour), Underground (Gasworks Theatre), Scream Bloody Murder (Abbotsford Convent), The Omission of the Coleman Family (Metanoia Theatre at the Mechanic’s Institute), Toorak Rules (St Martins Theatre), Last Words (Kadimah Cultural Centre) and Hotel Sorrento (national tour).
ZSUZSA GAYNOR MIHALY: REMOUNT STAGE MANAGER
ZSUZSA GAYNOR MIHALY is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) with a Bachelors in Fine Arts (Production), majoring in Stage Management (2019). They have worked professionally across companies such as Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), Lucy Guerin Inc (LGI) and The Australian Ballet. They have been involved in productions such as LGI’s premier of Pendulum, (2021) as a part of Rising Festival, MTC’s adaption of Cyrano (2021) by Virginia Gay and have toured as the Stage Manager for the Storytime: The Nutcracker (2020) and as Assistant Stage Manager for Alice in Wonderland (2019, Brisbane) and the premier of The Happy Prince (2020, Brisbane). They have also worked professionally with companies such as The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (2020), The Women’s Circus (2017), Red Stitch Actors Theatre (2018) and Polyglot Theatre (2019). While attending university they have contributed to such works as August: Osage County (2018) Directed by Leith McPherson and Dance On (2019) with Choreographers Brianna Kell and Alexandra Dobbs. In addition they were involved in the first season of devised graduate works at the VCA in 2019. They are passionate about creative, collaborative environments and works that are innovative and exciting.
RAIN IYAHEN: TOURING STAGE MANAGER
RAIN IYAHEN is a freelance Stage Manager and Production Manager born and raised in Spain. She has lived across the UK and the US in the last 10 years and she relocated to Australia in 2019. Since then she’s been working in Melbourne’s independent theatre scene. Some Stage Manager credits include: Stage Manager at Red Stitch Theatre’ production of Fast Food directed by Bridget Balodis (2022) and Grace directed by Sarah Goodes (2022); 2022 development of Zaffé directed by Stephanie Ghajar; The Darkening Sky at Theatre Works written and directed by Richard Murphet (2021/2022); Anthropocene Play Company playreading of Ignis directed by Bronwen Coleman (2021); Red Stitch Theatre’ Production of Single Ladies directed by Bagryana Popov (2020) and The Cane directed by Kirsten Von Bibra (2021). Other credits also include: Production Manager of Security directed by Alice Qin (2022); and St Martin’s production of Gene Tree directed by Nadja Kostich (2022). Lighting operator at Watch This’s Production of Into The Woods directed by Sonya Suares and Mel Hillman (2022); and Thomas Carr College production of Matilda the Musical (2021).
LARA CHAMAS: PROP MAKER
LARA CHAMAS is a Lebanese-Australian artist based in Narrm (Melbourne). Fleeing civil war, her parents migrated to Australia, where she was born. Lara’s practice investigates postcolonial and migrant narratives within the context of her cultural identity, using both humorous and poetic notions. Through narrative and experience documentation, storytelling, transgenerational trauma and memory and tacit knowledge, her research explores meeting points between narrative theory, cultural practice, current political and societal tensions, and the body as a political vessel. Lara’s work has been exhibited widely including at Gertrude Contemporary, Warrnambool Art Gallery, KINGS Artist Run, Bus Projects, West Space, The Substation, Incinerator Gallery, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Photo Access, May Space, at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and Griffith Regional Gallery as part of the National Emerging Art Glass Prize, as well as in Ramallah, Palestine, during a residency. Lara had eight years of community theatre experience before working on the premiere season of THEM at La Mama Theatre.