33rd Sharjah Theatre Days with Spectacular Lineup
The 33rd edition of Sharjah Theatre Days is launching on March 2nd under the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah. The event will see the involvement of 12 Arabic theatrical presentations.
The new edition will open at the Culture Palace Theatre with the play “Tikanza.. Toda’s Story” by the Moroccan Fawanees group, on the occasion of its win of the “Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi Award for Best Arab Theatrical Work,” organized by the Arab Theatre Authority, with its last session held in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, last January.
This was announced during the press conference held February 26th at the Culture Palace, attended by Ahmed Bourhima, the Director of Theatre Management, Director of Sharjah Theatre Days, and during which Mariam Al Muhairi, Head of the Media Committee for the Sharjah Theatre Days Festival, and Mariam Makhlouf, a member of the Media Committee, spoke.
The opening ceremony will honor Omani artist Fakhriya Khams with the Sharjah Award for Arab Theatrical Creativity in its seventeenth edition, and will celebrate Emirati artist Abdullah Rashid as the “Local Honored Personality” for this edition. Amin Nasour, the director of the Moroccan performance, will receive the Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi Award for Best Arab Theatrical Work 2023.
Performances
The “Viewing and Classification” committee, which included Khalifa Al Takhloofa (UAE), Ghanem Ghanem (Jordan), and Khaled Raslan (Egypt), screened 12 performances during the period from February 20th to 22nd and selected seven performances to compete for the awards of the 33rd edition of Sharjah Theatre Days. These include: “Mroud Kohl” by Dibba Association for Culture, Arts and Theatre, written by Mohammed Saed Al Zanhani and directed by Ibrahim Al Qahoumi; “Iskan” by Ras Al Khaimah Theatre Group, written by Abdullah Saleh and directed by Abdullah Al Derzi; “Hunting” by Dibba Al Hisn Association for Culture, Heritage, and Theatre, prepared and directed by Muhannad Karim; “Feast of Eid” by the Modern Theatre Group in Sharjah, written by Youssef Muslim and directed by Ibrahim Salem; “The Last Visitor” by Dubai National Theatre, written and directed by Ali Jamal; “Scene Zero” by Khorfakkan Theatre for Arts, written by Ahmed Al Majed and directed by Ilham Mohammed; and “Those are the People of Hell” by Sharjah National Theatre, written by Ismail Abdullah and directed by Mohammed Al Ameri.
A technical committee comprising: artist and set designer Walid Al Zaabi (UAE), director Dr. Masoud Bouhsine (Morocco), director Nasser Abdel Moneim (Egypt), director and writer Ihab Zahdeh (Palestine), and writer Hazza’ Al Barari (Jordan) will judge these performances.
Two performances were selected to be presented outside the “Days” competition: “Zaghrouda” by the Kalba Association for Folk Arts and Theatre, written by Ali Jamal and directed by Abdulrahman Al Mulla, and “Ashes” by the Fujairah Theatre, written by Abdul Amir Shammakhi and directed by Saeed Al Harsh.
Audiences of the 33rd edition of Sharjah Theatre Days will also see two performances from the tenth edition of the Kalba Festival for Short Plays: the award-winning “The Chairs” directed by Hameed Mohammed, and the Best Direction award-winning “The Last Option” directed by Abdullah Al Ali.
The accompanying intellectual forum for this edition is titled “Theatrical Direction Between Influence and Being Influenced,” and will be organized on the morning of March 3rd at the guest residence, with the participation of researchers and practitioners from several Arab countries, including: Faisal Al Dermaki (UAE), Kamal Khalladi (Morocco), Ghazi Al Zughbani and Saif Farshishi (Tunisia), Tarek Al Dweiri (Egypt), Hisham Kafarna (Syria), and Dr. Habib Soualmi (Algeria).
Over 20 graduates from Arab theatre colleges and institutes of the class of 2023, including the inaugural cohort from the Sharjah Academy for Performing Arts, are taking part in the “12th Sharjah Forum for Arab Theatre Pioneers.” This annual event highlights leading theatrical academies and offers participants a chance to engage with the activities of the theater days and network with peers. From March 3rd to 8th, the participants will benefit from a range of activities including lectures, training workshops, and cultural tours, featuring prominent figures and professors from the Arab theater community.
Local Personality Honoured
Additionally, the session’s cultural program features an interview with the artist Fakhriya Khamis in recognition of her receipt of the Sharjah Award for Arab Theatrical Creativity, and another with Abdullah Rashid, celebrated as the “Honoured Local Personality” for this edition of the event.
The program also hosts two cultural symposiums; the first, “The Semantics and Aesthetics of Theater Costumes Today,” is led by Bahraini researcher Zahraa Mansour and includes contributions from Ibtisam Al-Hammadi from Kuwait, Marwa Odeh from Egypt, Sanaa Shadal from Morocco, and Reem Al-Shamali from Syria. The second symposium, titled “Playwriting Techniques in Contemporary Theater: The Bahraini Experience,” is moderated by Anwar Ahmed, with Saleh Ibrahim Abbas from Bahrain serving as the chairperson.
The 33rd session of Sharjah Theatre Days is set to conclude on the 9th March with an awards ceremony at the Palace of Culture Theatre. Initiated in 1984, this event stands as a significant cultural and artistic gathering where Emirati theater groups vie for a range of performing arts awards. It also encompasses numerous cultural activities, featuring the participation of numerous artists from the Gulf and Arab regions. The event’s primary goal is to invigorate and advance the theatrical scene in the country, as well as to foster creativity through workshops, intellectual and artistic forums, theatrical performances, and by promoting and spotlighting local artistic achievements that have set a benchmark in the field.
