Solo Acts II (A Masterclass on Film Direction & Help the Diffierently Abled Thrugh Arts and Theatre)

Rahila Gupta is a writer and journalist. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and New Humanist among other papers and magazines. Her books include, From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters ed. (Zed Press, 2003), Provoked (Harper Collins, India, 2007) and Enslaved: The New British Slavery (Portobello Books, 2007). Her much acclaimed book ‘The Ballad of my son’ is based on true story of her tireless battles and inspiring triumphs in her struggle for her disabled son’s rights. This book is now adopted in a play called ‘Don’t Wake me up’ .

She trained at the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris and is a trained pedagogue from the London International School of Performing Arts. She worked for Opera North, UK’s leading opera company, as Movement Director on their production of Mozart’s Magic Flute. Her debut feature film as co writer and actress won an Audience Choice Award at the Anchorage International Film Festival and the Royal Reel Award at the Canada International Film Festival. She co-founded Dur Se Brothers – a collaborative arts based company that creates boutique performances in alternative spaces. They conduct regular workshops in theatre, writing, storytelling and create bespoke workshops for corporate clients.

Guy Slater was born in Lahore in 1941. He has won a coveted British Petroleum Apprenticeship Award to go to Cambridge. At university he discovered the theatre and embarked on a very different journey. He began as an actor and then further started writing TV and directing in the theatre. In 1974 he took on his most ambitious project, the founding of a professional theatre company in what was then the new town development of Basingstoke. He ran the Horseshoe Theatre Company, mainly operating out of the Haymarket Theatre, for seven years and subsequently remained on the Board for many years. He has directed the play, “In a Cottage Hospital” at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and has also directed most acclaimed solo theatre play ‘Don’t Wake me up: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong”