Shawab Iqbal appointed Vice Chair of Tamasha Board of Trustees

We’re thrilled to announce that Shawab Iqbal has been appointed the Vice Chair of our Board of Trustees.

Born and bred in east London, Shawab is currently Executive Director and Joint CEO at the Gate Theatre. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at Rose Bruford, sits on the Arts Council’s London Area Council as a Mayor of London appointment and a Senior Associate at the Bush Theatre.

Prior to this, he was Executive Producer at Eclipse Theatre, Learning and Participation Producer at Boy Blue, Producer at Theatre Royal Stratford East and Administrator at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, as well as building an extensive freelance portfolio working with both established and emerging artists.

Shawab is also the co-founder of the #AllofUs #HeretoStay campaign, designed to support Black, Asian and ethnically diverse arts workers who have been made redundant due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is a former independent governor at Newham Sixth Form College, where he sat on the audit and scrutiny Committee and was the lead for equality and diversity. Shawab is also a qualified teacher and former ChildLine counsellor.

He graduated with a first class honours degree in Sociology from the University of Kent, holds a PGCE in Social Science from the UCL Institute of Education and a MA in Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity from Birkbeck.

On the announcement, Shawab said:

I’m delighted to have been appointed Vice Chair of Tamasha. We are about to enter an exciting chapter with the search for a new, visionary Artistic Director taking place in the coming months. I can’t wait to discover who that will be, and look forward to working with the leadership team and the Board, as we continue to build on Tamasha’s thirty-one year history of touring new writing and working with formidable artists from the global majority. 

Chair of the Board, Deepa Patel added:

I am delighted that Shawab Iqbal has agreed to take on the role of Vice-Chair, his passion, and commitment to creativity and the growth of ethnically diverse Arts sector are vital for at this time. I and the rest of the board are looking forward to working with him in this new capacity. His expertise, guidance, and positive challenge have already bought  so much to our work.