Ruwanthie de Chickera is an awarding winning playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, actor trainer and cultural activist. She is the founder and artistic director of Stages. She has written and directed over 30 original plays and two screen plays. The first play she wrote, at the age of 19, won her international recognition and pivoted her into Sri Lankan theatre. Her first film, ‘Machan’, is recognized as a watershed moment in Sri Lankan cinema, it has won several international and local awards and was screened in over 50 countries.

Ruwanthie set up Stages in 2000 with a deep passion for developing serious, high-quality, original English Theatre. The company quickly gained a dedicated audience through its plays which addressed local, societal issues on stage. By 2002, it attracted international attention and started showcasing Sri Lankan stories abroad. Over time, Stages expanded to produce bilingual plays - Sinhala and English - with plans to include Tamil, aiming to work in all of Sri Lanka's languages.

Ruwanthie’s work in the arts industry has received local and international recognition. Among other awards, she is a recipient of the Eisenhower Fellowship, the Bunka award by the Japanese Govt and a Presidential Scholarship by the Sri Lankan state for her work in theatre. She is regularly invited to teach and speak at international arts events, and her plays have been shown at festivals in Japan, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Rwanda, the UK, the Netherlands, Malta, USA, Ireland and Australia.

Through Stages she is able to identify and support the development of younger artists – directors, writers, actors – who have a passion for telling their country's stories. She is driven by a deep desire to help establish Sri Lankan theatre as a respected, sustained and unique voice internationally, and to provide a future for aspiring young artists locally.

Shazna has 15+ years in the ICT domain and has now added a theatre company to her repertoire! She continues to work in the field of Telecoms but she’s also decided to manage a bunch of artists and arts-based projects to keep her sanity (or not).

She holds an MSc in Telecommunications from University College London, none of which prepared her for working with Stages, but here we are.

Lihan Mendis is a theatre artist with a background in both stage and screen. He has worked with several local theatre companies including Stages Theatre Group, Mind Adventures, The Workshop Players, The Broken Leg Theatre Company, The Grassrooted Trust, and the Combined Theatre Company.

In addition to his work in the theatre, Lihan has made appearances on screen, including roles in short films produced by Life Broadcasting Pictures and Tuk Tuk Films. He has also been featured in a minor role in Series 3 of the popular ITV show, "The Good Karma Hospital."

Lihan is a Company Director at STG, where he leads the Youth and Junior acting ensembles, and serves as the director of the Drama Circle at S. Thomas' Preparatory School in Colombo.

Ryan is a writer, lighting designer, graphic designer teacher and actor who was once a documentary film maker and then a creative director in the dodgy world of advertising.

He now dabbles in all of the above as a freelancer in between fatherhood duties and responds to the pronoun – Daddy!

Piumi is a multi-roling theatre artist based in Sydney, Australia and Sri Lanka. She is a passionate and proactive theatre director, artist-teacher, writer, and actor striving to create socially conscious theatre. She holds an MA in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School, University of Essex, United Kingdom, Biomechanics actor training from the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts and a BA in English from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Piumi was the Co-Artistic director at Stages Theatre Group and multiroled as an actor-director-writer and arts administrator in the company for over 6 years. She has professional theatre experience inclusive of both local and international exposure; with emphasis on original and research-based devised theatre, improvisation, physical theatre, ensemble acting, community theatre, actor training, workshopped theatre productions, and youth/ children’s theatre.

With her passion and drive to work in making theatre and arts accessible for young people, she is currently working as Program Manager - Children and Young People at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) in Sydney, Australia where she is responsible for the management and delivery of all NIDA's short courses for children and young people aged 2-18 years at Kensington, Sydney.