Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Creative Forum for Independent Theater Groups launched its seventh edition this week. Since its inception, it has managed to create a unique mark on Egyptian theater with a host of programs and performances by artists from across Europe and the Mediterranean region.
In a cultural world dominated by festivals, the forum established its identity as an anti-festival, adopting an interdisciplinary approach in which creativity, education, dialogue, knowledge, publications, translation and building joint projects are blended together. This is achieved through a host of dance and theater performances, educational and training programs for students and young artist exhibitions and publication of books and translated plays.
The choice of Alexandria as a host for the forum is not coincidental. The Creative Forum for Independent Theater Groups tries to connect to the essence of the cosmopolitan city that once embraced people from every culture, race and creed.
The Creative Forum is the brainchild of Mahmoud Abu Douma, professor of theater at Alexandria University and the Director of the Forum. He told Daily News Egypt that the forum operates on different levels. It is staging 29 performances including dance shows, plays and children s programs. The forum is also trying to expand its Training and Educational series to cover gaps in the field through programs such as international classrooms for theater students, actors and dancers training workshops and “Training and Forming School Theater Activators.
“This year we felt the demand for Arts Management training, so we offered a new program that would include a long workshop during the forum, followed by other training segments, Abu Douma said.
One of the aspirations of the Creative Forum is opening a dialogue with the other. This year’s Dialogue Program offered a roundtable discussion addressing the creative divide between generations entitled “The Theater between Two Generations: Meeting Midway. The roundtable created space for 30 artists and academics from a dozen countries, in different stages of their professional career, to offer a testimony on the relationship between generations and to search together for meeting points where the veteran artists and the new voices can enrich each other’s experience.
“Braids, this year’s publication program, focus on female Arab playwrights from the Mediterranean. The aim of this program is to connect with a new generation of Arab female dramatists and discover other voices, spaces and emotions that express the Arab female dramatist’s conscience and present the unique flavor specific to the Arab Mediterranean theatre scene. The Creative Forum translated seven plays by Yousra El Sharkawi, Nora Amin, Marwa Farouk, Badia Erradi, Yam Machhadi, Nahil Mhanna, Hayet Al Raies, and published the texts in both Arabic and English.
Abu Douma feels that the main measure of success for the Creative Forum is its continuation and growth which attract more artists, performers and wider audiences every year. He hopes for it to move from a mere art display to culture creation with a wider social impact.
One of the performances that attracted large audiences is Al-Warsha’s production “Troy. The celebrated Egyptian Independent company, led by Hassan El Geretly, has been prepping for four years for this performance. Audiences full of anticipation clamored in the small gallery-turned-performance space, filling all seats, aisles and even the stage itself.
The play is a reworking of Euripides’ “Trojan Women focusing on the suffering of women during wars. The adapted text, written by Girgis Shoukry, attempts to bring the ancient story closer to home by finding connections to the events of our region. Keeping the Greek names and the original story line, El Geretly dressed his female chorus in Upper Egyptian traditional costumes. The chants were steeped in traditional mourning lamentations, and the Greek soldiers were dressed in Egyptian army camouflage.
Yet, the costume choices and cluttered stage did not create the desired impact of familiarity with the play; rather it accentuated the feeling of a mismatched collage of styles. “Troy was weighed down by so many details on stage and around it; numerous cumbersome set changes slowed down the snail-paced performance. The acting of the large cast was very static and lacked energy and passion. The few moments of moving chorus chanting and lamentation could not save a performance that claimed to present the story of women yet eventually resorted to a shallow portrayal of women as helpless victims.
Hopefully, subsequent runs would offer more passion and a faster pace.
The Forum’s activities and performances run daily at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina until February10.
