Artistic Directors
Kristine Landon-Smith
Director / Writer
Kristine is joint founder and Artistic Director of Tamasha and has directed all of the company’s shows.
Her 1996 production, East is East, was nominated for an Olivier award and her original production of Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and A Funeral won the Barclays Theatre Award for Best New Musical. Her production, Strictly Dandia, was a sell-out success at the Lyric Hammersmith in both 2004 and 2005.
Kristine’s freelance credits include directing with the Royal Court Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Palace Theatre Westcliff, Nitro, Yellow Earth Theatre and with the Royal Danish Theatre, where she directed the Con:FUSIONS workshop in 2005, aimed at developing cultural diversity in Scandinavian theatre.
Kristine has also been a regular guest director at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and has also taught at East15 Acting School, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, Australia, the National School of Drama in India, Central School of Speech and Drama, London and L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris.
Her first short film Midnight Feast, was screened at the 11th Raindance Film Festival. Kristine’s radio credits for BBC include A Yearning; Women of the Dust, which won CRE Race in the Media Awards; and an adaptation of Lysistrata by Ranjit Bolt for the BBC World Service.
More recently, Kristine has directed The Trouble with Asian Men (artsdepot, Soho Theatre and UK tours), A Fine Balance (Hampstead Theatre and UK tour), Tamasha’s first children’s play, Child of the Divide (Polka Theatre, artsdepot and UK and US tours) and Tamasha’s first play with a youth cast, Lyrical MC (London tour). In October 2008, she directed Sweet Cider, a new play by TDA writer Emteaz Hussain, the new musical Wuthering Heights (national tour March - June 2009),The House of Bilquis Bibi (national tour 2010) and most recently an R&D period and student showcase for The Arrival, inspired by Shaun Tan's graphic novel in collaboration with Circus Space.
Kristine jointly won, with Sudha Bhuchar, the 2005 Asian Women of Achievement Award for Arts and Culture and the 2010 First Women Award in the Tourism and Leisure Category.
Sudha Bhuchar
Writer / Actor
Sudha is joint founder and Artistic Director of Tamasha, and is both an actor and playwright.
She played Rabia in Emteaz Hussain's Sweet Cider at the Arcola Theatre in October 2008. In January 2006, she played Dina Dalal in Tamasha’s A Fine Balance (based on the novel by Rohinton Mistry) at Hampstead Theatre.
Her many acting credits include, Murder (BBC) by Abi Morgan, EastEnders (BBC), Doctors (BBC), Holby City (BBC) and Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Royal National Theatre), and she is a regular on the BBC Radio drama Silver Street.
Her writing credits for Tamasha include Balti Kings, Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and A Funeral, Strictly Dandia and A Fine Balance in which she also performed, in May 2006, her first children’s play: Child of the Divide (Polka Theatre) and most recently her adaptation of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba - The House of BIlquis Bibi.
She writes regularly with Shaheen Khan and their many credits include three series of Girlies for BBC Radio 4 and Balti Kings (the stage play, as well as a six part series for Radio 4). Their screenplay, The House Across the Street, has been shown on BBC4 as part of a new writers initiative, and they have co-written an episode of Doctors for the BBC. Sudha also co-wrote a short film Midnight Feast, which was screened at the 11th Raindance Film Festival.
Sudha jointly won, with Kristine Landon-Smith, the 2005 Asian Women of Achievement Award for Arts and Culture and the 2010 First Women Award in the Tourism and Leisure category.