SILENT HANDS
Silent Hands is an amateur theatre company that was first established in 2001 as a theatre support group to provide support English theatre productions in Sri Lanka. Progressing from there Silent Hands Productions staged its first Production "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2003. Since then Silent Hands have produced several well received productions including: The Legend of Excalibur - a script written by Neidra Williams based on the works of J Adams Carr. Yes Hon Minster a localized version of the Ray Cooney Farce "Two Into One"; "Tom Dick and Harry" by Ray and Michael Cooney which was very well received by Colombo audiences prompting a rerun 6 months after the original dates. Nest was the Marc Camellotti classic Boeing Boeing, followed by Move Over Mrs Markham once again by Ray Cooney. Then the much loved Dickensian classic "A Christmas Carol" with the ELDS of St. Peter's College Colombo 4 in 2010.
Although not a group that limits itself to comedy as a genre SH believes that comedy is what audiences in Colombo want the most and have endeavored to stage a show at least one every year! Most productions are directed by Neidra and Jehan and produced by Miranga Ariyaratne. Silent Hands believes in nurturing young talent and have launched the careers of several young actors in the English theatre scene in Sri Lanka, some of the have gone onto become sought after actors for commercial shoots and even tele-dramas.
Silent Hands now comprises of - Neidra Williams, Jehan Bastians, Miranga Ariyaratne and Gehan Blok Among our regular actors are: Neidra Williams, Gehan Blok, Miranga Ariyaratne, Sulo Perera, Bimsara Premaratne, Roshni Goonaratne, Dmitri Gunatilake, Naresh Anthony, Charith De Silva, Kanishka Herath and finally Jerome De Silva - all of whome acted in two or more Silent Hands productions.
Part of our plans include setting up a theatre school which will help young actors by giving them an opportunity to get on stage and find their feet at a full scale public performance, giving them the much need confidence even in the corporate world.
JEHAN BASITANS
Jehan was introduced to theatre by Jerome De Silva and played the role of Steven Kumalo in the very first production of the Workshop Players - "Lost in the Stars". He also worked with Indu Dharmasena helping Indu direct St Peters College for the Interschool Shakespeare Competition in 1996 and 1997 - Thereafter jehan worked with several other directors on amateur theatre productions including Jith Peiris, and Feroze Kamardeen before setting up Silent Hands Productions with (wife) Neidra Williams.
NEIDRA WILLIAMS
Neidra has been in theatre for over 25 years both in Sri Lanka and Australia, and has worked under the directorship of Jerome De Silva, Rudi Corenz, Indu Dharmasena, Jith Peiris, Nafeesa Amiruddeen, Mohamed Adamally, Ruana Rajapakse and Hans Billimoria. Her theatre experience extends from musicals "Cats" and "South Pacific" to thrillers "Death-Trap", tragedies "The Legend of Excalibur" to comedy "Tom, Dick & Harry", "Boeing Boeing", "Move Over Mrs. Markham", and "Run For Your Wife". Together with husband Jehan Bastians and under their theatre company Silent Hands, Neidra has produced, directed and acted in the plays she gets involved with.
Javin Thomas
Javin has dedicated a major part of his life to theatre having got on stage for the first time in 2003. Javin was an integral part of the Peterite cast of 2oo6 who emerged winners of the Interschool Shakespeare Competition (2006). Since then he has been involved with theatre as an actor in the SH production of Tom Dick and Harry and with several plays directed by Indhu Dharmasena and Equous directed by Steve De La Silva. He is howeer best known as a stage hand and stage manager having stage managed many SH productions. Javin has also taken to directing school productions winning the Royal Interact Drama Competition and the coveted Interschool Shakespeare Drama competition winning with Newstead Grls School in 2010.
Stephan Anoj
Young Stephan Anoj was discovered while at St. Peters College and made his stage debut at the Peterite production of "A Christmas Carol" (2010) He played the role of the Young Scrooge and impressed the directors and the senior members of the cast. Anoj has been involved with SH for the 12 Days of Christmas and Yes Hon Minister (2012). He also played the role of Namal (Elvis) in "Rag the Musical" (2012). Anoj is also in charge of managing the SH website as he is a Graphic Designer by Profession.