In a time where Arabs are at the forefront of news cycles worldwide, theatre plays a vital role not only in recognizing, but also in presenting and creating narratives for Arabs, about Arabs, by Arabs. In an effort towards identifying …

The dramaturgical model I would like to briefly describe to you today is one that I developed with Sahar Assaf at the American University of Beirut over the last five years. We believe that it is a singular model in …

In her book Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance (1997), Ann Cooper Albright situates dance “at the intersection of bodily experience and cultural representation” (Albright 119). However, Albright declares that dance studies and its practices are still, …

The Freedom Theatre, located in the middle of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestine, was started in 2006 with the aim of building cultural resistance against the Zionist occupation of Palestinian land through theatre and arts. The …

There are two things that I know are true.

1.Theatremakers (which includes artists and audiences because you need both to make theatre) hunger for stories because we are so in love with life we are not content to simply live …

In the absence of a developed playwriting tradition, government support, and funding opportunities, and with the presence of prior censorship, theatre-makers in Lebanon find themselves using every accessible artistic method that would get the stories they choose to tell to …

Introduction

‘Alternative Dramaturgies’ in contemporary Moroccan theatres have become highly visible, re-framing our preconceived questions related to both classical and modern dramaturgies. In the present undertaking three case studies will be explored along with their public responses and their potential …

A goat for a life; a factory for a nation. Liwaa Yazji’s  Goats and Mohammad Al Attar’s The Factory both draw on events that have occurred in Syria since 2010, whilst continuously questioning and challenging international politics and, on a …

When it comes to countering the implicit, and sometimes explicit prejudices that the larger society exhibits toward Arabs and Muslims, American theatres are not particularly ahead of the curve. While some theatres have bravely and commendably gone out of their …

The US-led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, and ensuing occupation, was seen by some Iraqis, initially, as an act of liberation from the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein. Such enthusiasm, however, was quickly dampened as the allied forces were ill-equipped …

Tales of a City by the Sea by Samah Sabawi has received critical acclaim in its touring and several stagings in Palestine and Australia. It is an eye- opening play based on real-life experiences from the 2008-2009 Israeli siege on …

Israeli soldiers burst into a Palestinian home in the middle of the night, hurling orders for the residents to “stop filming.” A young Palestinian woman skypes her cousin in London and nervously asks if the cousin can send her a …