Sheena Khalid is a theatre director, writer, and actor based in Mumbai. She is a founding member of the theatre company – Patchworks Ensemble, where she co-directed and co-devised the shows “Ila” and “The Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape”.
Sheena Khalid is a director, writer, and performer based in Mumbai. She has completed a two-year full-time course in theatre creation from the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). She is the co-founder of the theatre company known as The Patchworks Ensemble, whose first production Ila was named as one of the `top five productions of 2014` by the Indian Express. She has also been part of the acclaimed show Tape AKA the Gentlemen`s Club which has been touring since August of 2015. She has collaborated with The Welcome Trust UK and The Asia Society to create specifically commissioned works of theatre. Sheena has been associated with Rajat Kapoor`s Cinematograph on two shows – Nothing like Lear (technical team) and Macbeth (performer). Sheena conducts drama training workshops for adults, children, and corporate organizations.
Career
With Patchworks, she has co-directed and co-devised the shows “Ila” and “The Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape”. Ila won the Laadli award in 2016 for Gender Sensitivity. Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape is a unique cabaret-style theatre performance about the lives of various drag-kings. Both Ila and The Gentlemen’s Club have traveled to various prestigious theatre festivals around the country. Her latest production “Shikaar” opened in August of 2019 and continues to play at venues around the city. As a freelance director and performer, she has worked on numerous collaborations both within the country and internationally.
She is a drama facilitator at the Drama School Mumbai where she teaches improvisation and devising.
She has spent a lot of time exploring ideas of solo storytelling. She has developed modules that she now takes into classrooms and offices around the country.
She has conducted training workshops for Axis Bank, Piramal, Kotak Mahindra Bank, BNP Paribas, HUL, S P Jain School of Global Management, Bestseller, and other independent workshops for non-actors and working professionals. These training workshops include group building, public speaking, gender sensitivity, creativity in the workspace, and understanding body language.
She also conducts personal one on one sessions for private clients on public speaking and presentation making. More recently she has developed a workshop series called “Captivate” which focuses on public speaking and confidence-building skills for working women.
Sheena is a storyteller with Kommune, where she also works part-time. At Kommune, she is part of the curatorial team of Spoken Fest (Indian’s largest storytelling, spoken word, and poetry festival).
She was one of five fellows (in the year 2016) for the “Tendulkar-Dubey Fellowship” for young theatre artists of outstanding talent. In the summer of 2017, she attended the “Lincoln Centre Directors Lab 2017” in New York (fully funded thanks to the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts).
On a personal note, Sheena Khalid continues to deepen her exploration into performances and stories about and by women. She strives to create content that is relevant, engaging, and humorous.
