The Masterclass with Fiona Shaw, A workshop for playwrights was held on 23rd November 2019 at the British Council, with the participation of 15 playwrights. The class was voluntarily conducted by Irish actress, Theatre and opera director, Ms. Fiona Shaw, known for her roles in Harry Potter movie series, True Blood and TV series Killing Eve. All other expenses were born by the John Keells Foundation. The MasterClass went beyond catering to the Sri Lankan English theatre as actors and playwrights working in Sinhala or bilingually or trilingually (English-Tamil /Sinhala-Tamil /English-Sinhala-Tamil) were also present.

The playwrights, selected were last year’s Gratiaen Prize winner Arun Welendawe along with Sumathy Sivamohan, Seneka Abeyratne, Jehan Aloysius, Delon Weerasinghe, Prematilleke, Ruhanie Perera, Jake Oorloff, Nadee Kammallaweera and Visakesa Chandrasekaram.
They were assisted by actors Kaushalya Fernando, Bandhuka Premawardena, Imesha Athukorale, Brandon Ingram, Rajinda Jayasinghe and Akalanka Prabashwara.

“Thanks for organising an excellent and useful masterclass. I’m very glad I was part of this first session and look forward to future sessions of this nature. This is exactly what we need to stimulate creativity and also shake up and break up those old notions of text, language and performance.” – Jehan Aloysius

Gratiaen Trust conducts