Courageous, inspiring and enlivening are just some of the words we’d use to describe theatre director and arts leader, Abdul Shayek. We recorded this episode of Clearer is Faster at the height of urgent demands for racial justice, a pandemic and a looming crisis for the arts. So it felt even more prescient to learn how clarity of conviction has continued to shape and drive Abdul as an individual, an artist and as a leader for his industry.
We talk about how Abdul’s personal life has created clarity in his work, why it’s more important to clarify what matters than how you’ll achieve it, and how clarity of conviction can help you navigate extremely choppy waters. (Listen out for some evocative seafaring analogies!)
Abdul Shayek is the newly appointed Artistic Director & Joint CEO of Tara Arts. Founded in 1977, Tara Arts was the first Asian, Black and ethnically diverse-led theatre company in the UK, and has an award-winning theatre in Wandsworth. Tara Arts delivers world-class productions and works with a range of partners, from the grassroots to cultural powerhouses.
Abdul was previously founding Artistic Director & CEO of Fio, where he directed productions like Swarm to critical acclaim. Most recently, Abdul directed and toured The Orchard of Lost Souls, Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman, and Athol Fugard's The Island. Abdul is also an opera director with the ENO and WNO, a Clore Fellow, and sits on several boards and steering groups for cultural institutions. In 2020 Abdul co-founded the Wales Race and Culture Task Force to address systemic racism in the Welsh arts sector.
You can tweet Abdul, find him on Instagram and Facebook, and find out more about Tara Arts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can also follow the Wales Race and Culture Task Force on Twitter.