Javaad Alipoor (Founding Artistic Director) is a Bradford-born and Manchester-based artist, writer, director, actor and political activist, and the founding Artistic Director of The Javaad Alipoor Company. The Company makes innovative multi-platform theatre that explores the complexities and contradictions of the 21st century informed by its Manifesto. Over the past six years, alongside presenting theatre on stages across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia, The Javaad Alipoor Company creations have toured digitally, been broadcast on the BBC and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Javaad’s theatre credits include: The Believers Are But Brothers (co-director, writer and performer); Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (co-creator, director, writer and performer); Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (co-creator, director, co-writer and performer); Made of Mannheim (co-creator and co-director); and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest(director). 

Javaad has served in governance roles for organisations including Arts Council England, Northern Ballet, The University of Bradford, Heart and Parcel, and Artistic Directors of the Future, and helped to found political and social organisations including the UK-based Syria Solidarity Campaign; Bradford Says Everyone Stays, a group working insolidarity with EU migrants post-Brexit; and The International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran. Javaad has written and spoken extensively about politics outside of Europe, with a particular focus on Iran, for media outlets including The Independent, the BBC and Sky News, and in 2021, he launched the podcast series The Colour of Our Politics, together with Tanya Vital,about the history of radical anti-racism in the UK. He has written for The Guardian and The Stage about theatre and cultural policy, and his writing, which includes plays and poetry, is published by Nick Hern, Oberon and art in usual places.