She plays Cassandra in The Big Wooden Whoopsie. For nearly two decades, she’s been part of Dubai’s theatre community, performing across English and Hindi productions in the UAE and beyond. She loves theatre for the chance to live many lives in one lifetime, especially the strange and unexpected ones. She’s thrilled to add Cassandra to that list and be part of this wonderfully unhinged production with its stellar and suitably eccentric cast and crew.

Gabriela has been performing in Dubai since 2018, with experience spanning short and full-length plays, murder mysteries, short films and commercials.

Her theater credits include Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web, where she took on the lead role of Clarissa; The Welkin, in which she portrayed Emma Jenkins; Dracula, in which she portrayed Van Helsing and many others.

For her, the stage is where creativity, emotion and connection come together. She is passionate about bringing characters and stories to life, and continues to be inspired by the energy and connection of live performance. In The Big Wooden Whoopsie she'll portray a Helen intoxicated by pragmatism and wine.

He has been acting and singing on stage with ensemble casts and music bands since childhood, while cosplaying as an engineer and project manager to make his parents happy. He spent his first Greek language role in the UAE feeling sorry for himself in “The Rails Behind Me” and he then proceeded to suck the literal blood out of his poor victims in “Dracula”, sang Queen in “Romeo & Juliet”, went on to solve mysteries in “Black Coffee” and had a revelatory mental breakdown in “Jake's Women”. He is currently looking for his wife and swinging his sword as Menelaus in “The Big Wooden Whoopsie”. Who knows what's next?

Glenn is an actor and singer who has performed in musicals and plays in London and Dubai since 2004. Favourite roles include Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls, Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, Richard in Book of Will and Don in Eureka Day. He has appeared in all ten MTDXB productions and regularly performs with H2 Productions at The Junction. Most recently seen as Bishop Brennan in Father Ted on the QE2, Glenn is delighted to be playing Odysseus, the as-yet unappreciated, real hero of The Big Wooden Whoopsie.

A veteran of Dubai’s theatre scene, John’s acting credits include Rumors, Blackadder, Bull, There’s a Zombie in the Garden and The Reading of the Will. He has also directed The Craft for Short+Sweet and Perfect Stillness at the Al Quoz Arts Festival. Despite this impressive range, he is most often cast as a disillusioned husband or a moody bloke, roles requiring very little method acting, thanks to being routinely ignored by his wife and daughters. By day, he works at LEGOLAND; by choice, he watches football and drinks far too much. He is delighted to join The Big Wooden Whoopsie, where he can bring his usual weary pessimism to the Trojan War.

Nikita has been acting, directing and hosting TV since 2013. Now he is running his own acting school for non-actors in Dubai, where he teaches grown-ups to stop hiding and start playing. He spent over 8 years introducing audiences to immersive shows all over the world playing multiple characters along the way. In UAE he brooded his way through Chekhov's "The Seagull", and created the improvised show "How We Got Here", which proudly won an award for Best Music from The Junction. Nikita even got to work alongside with Sir Kevin Spacey, and proudly claiming that his left arm was in a Hollywood movie. But he is keeping the details about it to himself

He is a born performer and artist who has had a passion for acting since his early childhood. Being a third culture kid, raised in Saudi Arabia, with Palestinian and Emirati roots, he brings a nuanced and cultural technique to each of his performances that is signature to his particular style.

 He now enjoys a thriving career in scripted film and TV in the GCC region, playing diverse roles in both English and Arabic driven projects. As part of his formal education, he completed a Bachelors in Filmmaking and works as a full-time editor and producer at Dubai TV, the UAE's largest broadcast network.

Rasheed also extends his passion for all things film and performance by taking on the role of director and has led two plays to consecutive success at the Short+Sweet Theater festival 2021-2024.

Sadiq Saboowala is a Dubai-based Indian comedian, actor and theatre performer.
Theatre & Acting: Sadiq has worked extensively in theatre, with credits including The Ice Hole, The Ugly One, Blackadder Goes Forth, The Play That Goes Wrong and 39 Steps. He has also starred in the short films The Unwritten and the soon-to-be-released Baba. He will next be seen on stage at The Junction, playing Agamemnon in The Big Wooden Whoopsie.
Comedy: Sadiq has performed across India, Dubai, Berlin, Barcelona and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is currently performing his new solo show, Say My Name, in Dubai, with plans for performances in other countries to be announced soon. His comedy blends storytelling, observational humour and takes on culture, relationships and everyday life.

Siddarth’s relationship with theatre began sometime around Grade 5, when someone made the questionable decision to put him on a stage. He’s clearly been smitten by the magic of stage lights ever since.

Theatre became a serious passion through high school and university, and continued with his move to Dubai, where he has been part of Dubai’s community theatre scene since 2001, appearing in numerous productions and ensemble casts along the way. A particular highlight was being part of a production that won Short+Sweet Dubai and subsequently travelled to Los Angeles to perform at the Stella Adler Theatre as part of the launch of Short+Sweet LA.

In the hours when he isn’t pretending to be someone else, Siddarth has spent over two decades in advertising, creativity and marketing. But theatre remains his favourite form of creative self-expression—teaching him a thing or two about trust, vulnerability, collaboration, relationships and the peculiar joy of making a fool of yourself in front of a room full of strangers.

After a ‘longer than he’d have liked’ hiatus from the stage, he’s back—this time as Achilles: the greatest warrior of all time, now seemingly quiet-quitting heroism and embracing life as an influencer who never misses an opportunity to peddle his products.

For a marketer returning to the stage, the typecasting is frankly concerning.

Ana is nine years old and making her stage debut in The Big Wooden Whoopsie, where she co-hosts the talk show alongside Jeremie Fortes. She is the youngest member of the cast and, by several accounts, the least nervous. She secured the role through a rigorous audition process held mostly at the dinner table. The writer of the play happens to be her father, a connection she mentions only when she needs a lift to rehearsal. She learned her lines faster than some of the adults, and she would like that noted.

He likes to think of himself as a full-time creative, but the realities of the world (expectations from Indian parents) have pushed him down on a different path. Much like masked vigilantes, he is a university instructor by day and a performer by night. He occasionally sneaks away into every stage that UAE has to offer, from Expo City to Dubai Opera. He has donned the striped suit of Gomez Addams in “The Addams Family” and nursed a man-eating plant as Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors.” With every other role in between, he is dangerously close to giving up his identity. Now, he has crawled onto the Trojan side of the war as Bob in “The Big Wooden Whoopsie.” It is only a matter of time before Vighnesh is unmasked.

26 years of theatre across Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and now Dubai. Aarti has acted, taught, produced, programmed and run theatres, and also wandered into films, ad films and audiobooks along the way. Currently directing The Big Wooden Whoopsie and hoping it’s not, in fact, a big whoopsie. Also making theatre, raising humans, lifting increasingly heavy things and questioning her life choices. So far, she thinks it all seems to be working.

Longtime writer, first-time co-director of the thing he is also writing, which several people have pointed out is a conflict of interest and which he has chosen to ignore. His directing philosophy was formed roughly 3 months ago and consists mainly of “well, I know what I meant when I wrote it.”

Co-directing with Aarti has meant someone in the room is allowed to overrule him, which has been the best thing for the play.

Following a sudden vacancy on the throne of Troy, he is now also playing King Priam, bringing the conflict of interest to a full three.

He does not have prior directing credits.

He does have opinions about every single line in this script, unfortunately for everyone involved.

Please do not let him rewrite anything during tech week.

Too late.