We are grateful to have spoken with Guleraana Mir during today’s episode. 

Guleraana is a British award-winning writer, applied-theatre practitioner, and one half of The Thelmas, a female-led theatre company devoted to empowering women to redress the equality imbalance in the arts. She is passionate about telling authentic stories that celebrate, not stereotype. Guleraana regularly facilitates playwriting masterclasses in schools, community groups, and for emerging writers. She is leader of the National Theatre’s Writing for Theatre programme for 16-21 year olds, and VAULT Festival’s New Writers Programme. She mentors on the MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Writing credits include: ALL THE SMALL THINGS (short, BBC Children’s) 2020, MISFITS (co-writer) Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch 2020, Recipient of an OnComm Commendation, SANTI & NAZ (co-writer), VAULT Festival 2020, Winner of an Origins Award for Outstanding New Work & Finalist for Best Stage Production at Asian Media Awards, THE BIGGER PICTURE (audio), commissioned by Tamasha and SOAS, WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED, Royal Exchange Theatre Young Company 2019, MAKE NOISE (audio) as part of Forgotten Women 2018, MANO’S Mulberry School & RichMix 2018, and COCONUT, Ovalhouse and national tour 2018, nominated for two OFFIE Awards including most promising new playwright.

Information about Guleraana’s Theatre Company, The Thelmas can be found at: https://www.thethelmas.co.uk

Tree Speech’s host, Dori Robinson, is a director, playwright, dramaturg, and educator who seeks and develops projects that explore social consciousness, personal heritage, and the difference one individual can have on their own community. Some of her great loves include teaching, the Oxford comma, intersectional feminism, and traveling. With a Masters degree from NYU’s Educational Theatre program, she continues to share her love of Shakespeare, new play development, political theatre, and gender in performance. Dori’s original plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Boston, including: The Great Harvest, The Principal Stream, Name of a Woman, Six Wings to One, and most recently The Elm Tree with Alight Theater Guild. More information at https://www.dorirobinson.com

This week’s episode was recorded in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket people, and was produced by Jonathan Zautner and Alight Theater Guild, a 501(c)(3) created to advance compelling theatrical endeavors that showcase the diversity of our ever-changing world in order to build strong artists whose work creates empathy, challenges the status quo and unites communities. Alighttheater.org. 

Logo design by Mill Riot. 

Learn more about the podcast at: www.treespeechpodcast.com, and IG: treespeechpodcast