ABOUT

Arun is a Sri Lankan playwright, actor and director. Born in Helsinki, Arun has lived and worked in Colombo, London and New York and his work is representative of an international, intersectional world-view. He served as Associate Artistic Director at the Mind Adventures Theatre Company from 2011 to 2017. His Sri Lankan works include Paraya, Only Soldiers and, The One Who Loves You So, for which he received the Gratiaen Prize for Literature and was published by Perera Hussein books. 

 

In New York, he has received the Judith Champion Launch Commission from the Atlantic Theatre for his play The House is Burning, he is a member of the Clubbed Thumb Emerging Writers Group and the Page 73 Writers Group. His play The Present was performed at the Roundabout Underground Readings Series, he received the John Golden Playwriting Prize upon graduating from NYU Tisch School of Arts, and his screenplay Rangoli is currently being developed with the Lower East Side Film Festival’s Stay Indie Project. He was also part of the Roundabout’s Space Jam Writers Residency.

 

As an actor, his performance in The Joyous Farmer received the Best Actor Prize at the Amarcord Chicago Film Festival. 

 

His work focuses primarily on queerness, class and our relationships to national histories. ​​

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