Karina Holness, Ambika Sharma, and Skye Witney Will Lead SHE'S ROYAL at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Blackstory Partnership has announced casting for the brand new stage production revealing the untold relationship between Her Majesty Queen Victoria I and two extraordinary women of colour, Sarah Forbes Bonetta and Sophia Duleep Singh, SHE'S ROYAL, which plays at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on Tuesday 1 November 2022.

Karina Holness will play Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Ambika Sharma will play Sophia Duleep Singh and Skye Witney plays Queen Victoria.

The production is written by Tonia Daley-Campbell, directed by Lorna Laidlaw (Doctors/Coronation Street) and produced by Audrey Hayles-Parkes (Blackstory Partnership).

Karina Holness is a West Midlands actor, born and raised in Dudley. Karina trained in Acting and Stage Combat at East 15 drama school. Karina has had the pleasure of working at a variety of local theatres including Birmingham Hippodrome, Old Rep Theatre, Old Joint Stock as well as on television in BBC's Doctors, SeaView Series and variety of other short films.

Ambika Sharma is an actor based in Coventry, UK. Over the years, she has taken part in immersive theatre, stage productions and many short films, many of which have been shown at film festivals, including Cannes Film Festival in 2019. In 2021, she co-founded UnMute Theatre with four other brilliant creatives, who put together a devised and completely improvised live Zoom showing of In This Together in January 2021. Her most recent credits include Theatre of Wandering (Coventry City of Culture 2021, alongside Entelechy Arts, OiBokkeshi and Belgrade Theatre), Hear My Voice (Stamp Productions, University of Warwick), A Christmas Carol (Albany Theatre) and Kiran (BlueBell Films). Ambika is represented by Red Talent Management.

Skye Witney is a relatively recent graduate of The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She has enjoyed working in different media but her first love is definitely the theatre. She has appeared with Rooftop Theatre Company and the Crescent Theatre Company in various roles ranging from comedy to drama. She feels excited and privileged to be working on SHE'S ROYAL, playing Queen Victoria, bringing these women's stories to life for a new audience.

Producer Audrey Hayles-Parkes said; 'I am intrigued with the history of these women of colour who held a close relationship with the monarchy of that time. One can only imagine the journey these women endured within the queen's court. Bringing their stories to the stage will inform and educate the audience, highlighting how important their accomplishments formed part of the fabric of England'

SHE'S ROYAL is the journey of how the extraordinary women of colour became subjects of the Queen's court, how they were nurtured to become aristocratic high society English ladies, and became so close to one of the world's most powerful monarch's that they were referred to as the Queen's god-daughters.

Tickets for SHE'S ROYAL are now on sale at grandtheatre.co.uk.

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