Beyond The Canon is an organisation committed to increase the visibility and accessibility of ground-breaking yet lesser-known classics, masterpieces and gems by British and international culturally diverse playwrights. Working in collaboration with theatres, academia and publishing houses, Beyond The Canon produces UK and international revivals, monologue showcases, workshops, publications and podcasts. Founded and led by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway with executive producer Sarudzayi Marufu, Beyond The Canon aims to support, empower and inspire culturally diverse artists, and enrich the artistic industry in the UK and across the world. www.beyondthecanon.com, @beyondthecanon Simeilia and Sarudzayi Discuss Beyond The Canon’s Plays for Young Activists Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway - Founder and CEO at Beyond The Canon
Simeilia is a Black British author, producer, director, arts activist and visionary.
Founder and former CEO and Artistic Director at Artistic Directors of the Future, under her artistic leadership she designed and produced ground-breaking initiatives including, ADF Innovators: Artistic Directors Development Programme, Up Next: a leadership takeover initiative in partnership with Bush Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre, and The Stage: Innovation Award-winning initiative Board Shadowing Programme.
Currently, the Curatorial Consultant and Creator and Creative Lead Producer of Scale Up at The Factory International (formerly known as Manchester International Festival), Simeilia also co-curated the Under the Radar Festival, as part of the partnership between UTR and the Factory International, in which she selected UK artists to present work and network at the Under The Radar Festival 2023 in New York City.
Simeilia is an internationally acclaimed arts leader, film/theatre director, producer, black plays specialist, dramaturg and author. In 2020, Simeilia became an entry in the Who’s Who Directory of noteworthy and influential people who impact British Life. In 2019, TED in partnership with Google selected Simeilia as one of the five Emerging Innovators, she has been listed for seven consecutive years in The Stage: Top 100 Power List, and named in the London Evening Standard Newspaper’s The Progress 1000: London’s most influential people for Theatre in 2018.
Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway Co-Founder and Former Creative Producer at Black Lives Black Words International Project. At Black Lives Black Words, Simeilia has played a significant role in designing, curating and producing events and programmes such as the I AM Fest at the Goodman Theatre and most recently the Films for the People project in partnership with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Stellar whereby Simeilia is also the Executive Producer of two upcoming hybrid films.
She is also the former troubleshooter, researcher and Project Manager of the National Theatre's Black Play Archive (a Kwame Kwei-Armah brainchild project). Editor of the first monologue anthology for Black Actors inspired by Black British Plays: The Oberon Book of Monologues for Black Actors: Classical and Contemporary Speeches from Black British Plays which was followed by a second first-of-its-kind monologue anthology published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama: Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors.
Most recently Simeilia won the Young-Howze Director of the Year Award for the Black Lives Black Words, in partnership with Writers Theatre (Chicago) hybrid film Ride Share, written by Reginald Edmund which was nominated for Best Diaspora Narrative Feature by the Africa Film Academy and noted as the best theatre event in 2021 and ‘essential viewing’ by The Wall Street Journal. Simeilia gained international recognition for the commission and direction of The Interrogation of Sandra Bland by Mojisola Adebayo, performed by 100 women of colour at Goodman Theatre (Chicago) as part of Black Lives Black Words: I AM Fest.
Former Trustee at the Directors Guild of Great Britain and Boundless Theatre (formerly known as Company of Angels Theatre Company), she also worked across the UK and internationally as a lecturer, audience development and leadership consultant.
Sarudzayi Marufu - Executive Producer at Beyond The Canon
Sarudzayi Marufu is a platform agnostic BAFTA Connect Producer, Writer, Director, Actor and Creative Entrepreneur whose work exists in Theatre, Film, TV, Community Engagement Initiatives and Traning and Development Programs. She is the Executive Producer at Beyond The Canon, which promotes plays by writers from the global majority in order to redefine classics and shed light on groundbreaking, yet forgotten plays. Beyond The Canon’s work includes showcases, workshops at top tier drama schools and theatres to diversify their curriculum & theatre programming with Sarudzayi co-editing their 1st book published by Bloomsbury April 2023 (Beyond The Canon’s Plays for Young Activists). As well as her extensive work as a freelance producer, Sarudzayi is also the Founder of the Film Production Company, Euras Films. It is the manifestation of her vision, passion and a desire to see more accurate representation on screens, leading to the creation of a production company that champions and celebrates marginalised communities. The Company’s main ambition is to tell diverse stories and celebrate diverse creatives in bold, fearless and innovative ways whilst serving to enrich, inspire and challenge using their practice as a provocation, whether it be with stories, cast or crew. Current goals include forward-looking storytelling, both in content and method and to do so whilst representing diasporic communities that are essential to the British artistic landscape, on the international stage. The company has produced multiple short films and web series including Pieces (2022), a four-short film catalogue that commissioned and developed calling on black artists to excavate their thoughts on ‘black love’. Pieces tackled disability and sexuality, LGBTQIA+ love, friendship, identity and self-love in four very different thought-provoking narratives. Other titles include All The Wives in Attics, Brown Sugar and Celibate - all due in 2023. Euras Films is currently developing feature films and HETV projects including the feature film Recipes for Mica Halliday, which was selected by Film London for its London Film Festival Production Finance Market New Talent Strand and the British Film Institute’s European Film Markert Cohort 2023. Sarudzayi is also the Business Development and Quality Assurance Director of a healthcare company and has been successfully running it since 2014. Growing the company from a staff of 3 to a team of nearly 200 very capable individuals that share in an organisational vision and work hard together to ensure it succeeds. She is well versed in the creation and implementation of goals and objectives, as well as ensuring an organisation's sustainability. Running small businesses has equipped her for most situations, as well as re-enforced in her an appreciation for a capable and well-led team.
