Philippa Vafadari – Creative Director

Anglo/Iranian in origin, Philippa trained as an actress at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She created the roles of Regan, Seven Lears ,(1989) and Goodgirl, Golgo , (1990) for Howard Barker's The Wrestling School at the Royal Court Theatre , London.

She went on to work in regional rep and with Asian theatre company, Tara Arts. Since training as an aerial artiste at The Circus Space, London, she has worked as an actress/aerialist/choreographer in Boilerhouse Theatre Co's Circus (1999/2000), V.amp Productions' Burning Bright (2001) and Communicado/Sounds of Progress' Brave (2002). For BandBazi, her work as producer and performer includes the self-penned Pussy Galore's Flying Circus (1999) ( Scotland , England and Germany ), the Iranian/Scottish R&D project, Suzy=Soraya (2000), In Audrey Hepburn's Arms (2004/5) (SE regional tour) and The Persian Cinderella (2005/6). She ran BandBazi's Above & Beyond project with young refugees and asylum seekers aged 15-25 (2006-2007) and is Artistic Director of it's youth circus theatre. She has just finished playing Audrey Hepburn and Holly in the company's award winning Breakfast at Audrey's (2005/6) ( UK and German Tour).