Shubbak: Writing in Europe: experiences, opportunities and risks

Writer and Director Wael Ali was born in 1979. He was graduated from the Higher Institute for Performing Arts of Damascus in 2004, and continued his studies in Lyon, France, where he was graduated from University Lumière Lyon with a Master of Performing Arts. Between 2003 and 2006, Wael Ali has been involved in several projects as a dramaturge, from which an interactive theatre project in Syria where he was organizing trainings in several regions in Syria. In 2014, he wrote and directed the show ‘Je ne me souviens plus’ presented in Shams Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon, and in several places and festivals, such as Gorki Theatre in Berlin, the House of Europe and Orient and Confluences in Paris, Toneelhuis in Antwerp, Belgium, and Journées Théâtrales de Carthage, Tunis. In 2016, he directed ‘Titre Provisoire’ with a text written in collaboration with Lebanese Actress Chrystèle Khodr.

Sara Shaarawi is a playwright, translator and performer from Cairo who is now based in Glasgow. She developed her first play Niqabi Ninja after a staged reading at Mayfesto 2014 at the Tron Theatre, and after receiving funding from Creative Scotland to put on a work-in-progress showing at Platform (Easterhouse, Glasgow). She took part in Playwrights Studio Scotland's 2015 Mentoring Programme where she received mentoring from playwright Isabel Wright. She also was chosen to be part of the National Theatre of Scotland's Breakthrough Writers programme, where she developed  Lelah. Other credits include dramaturg, performing and translation for David Greig on One Day in Spring (Oran Mor/NTS) and Here's the News from Over There (Northern Stage). Sara completed Arabic to English translation for both shows. She is currently co-writing,  Haneen, a stage adaptation of Alasdair Gray's novel 1982, Janine set in contemporary Cairo.

Born in 1981 in Syria, Wael Kadour is a playwright and a theatre director and a journalist. He currently lives in Paris. After graduating from the Damascus Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2006, he obtained a writing residency in the London Royal Court Theatre in 2007 within the framework of the 19th edition of the program of International Dramaturgy Residences. Since 2008, he works as an artistic collaborator in various projects in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. He has created and animated several writing workshops and has taught theater in Amman in 2012-2013. In 2011, he cofounded Ettijahat, an independent organization launched by a group of Syrian cultural activists. He is also editor of the website Internet Cultural Policy in the Arab World (ARCP) and Communication Director of Ettijahat. He is currently the dramaturge of two projects: Days In The Sun of Mudar Alhaggi, for Theater an der Ruhr in Germany, and X-Adra of Ramzi Choukair in France. He staged his latest play ‘Chronicles of a city we never knew’ in France in January 2019 produced by the National Theatre in France. As a theatre director, he directed Samuel Beckett’s Ohio Impromptu in Damascus in 2011, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away in 2012, and then his own play, The Small Rooms, in Beirut and Amman in 2013. In Amman in 2015, he made a reading of Rituals of a metamorphosis of the well-known Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous. He is a regular collaborator with Arabeska Teatern in Stockholm. In 2016 he adapted The Little Prince, and in 2018, he adapted Don Quijote. To date, he has published five plays: - Virus, published in 2008 in Damascus and in 2009 in Cairo, received the second prize of stage writing Muhammad Taymur. - Out of control was published in Beirut in 2010. It was the graduation performance by students of the acting department at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 2014. - The Small Rooms was published in a bilingual edition (Arabic-French) in 2013 at Elyzad editions. It was presented in in March 2018 in Egypt/Cairo in D-Caf Festival directed by Hassan El Greitly. - Chronicles of a city we never knew, published in 2018 and staged in France in 2019 directed by Wael and Mohamad Alrashi. - The Confession was published in Arabic in November 2018 in Beirut.

Hassan Abdulrazzak’s plays include Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre, 2007, Belvoir St Theatre, 2009, Akvarious productions 2010), The Prophet (Gate theatre, 2012), Love, Bombs and Apples (Arcola Theatre, 2016 and UK tour. Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, 2018, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC 2019) and And Here I Am (Arcola Theatre, 2017 and UK and Middle East and Europe tour). He is currently commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Synergy Theatre. His play translations include Chronicles of a City We Never Knew and The Confession by Wael Qadour, Jogging by Hanane Hajjali, Mrs Ghada’s Pain Threshold by Abdullah Alkafri. Baghdad Bathhouse by Jawad Alassadi, Voluntary Work by Laila Soliman and 603 by Imad Farajin. The translations were commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre, the Lark Theatre and Heinrich Böll Stiftung amongst others. He has contributed to several anthologies including Iraq+100 (Comma Press, 2016) and Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic (Saqi books, 2017). He is the recipient of George Devine, Meyer-Whitworth, Pearson theatre awards as well as the Arab British Centre Award for Culture. Love, Bombs and Apples won the Bay Area theatre award for outstanding production in 2018.

A writer of Palestinian-Irish heritage, Hannah was the recipient of the Arab British Centre’s Award for Culture in 2017. Her stage plays include the acclaimed Scenes from 68* Years - shortlisted for the James Tait Black award and Interference for National Theatre of Scotland. Her new play A Museum in Baghdad will open at the Royal Shakespeare Company in October 2019.  Hannah's radio plays include Last of the Pearl Fishers and The Deportation Room for BBC Radio 4. She is currently under commission to Shakespeare’s Globe.

Enkidu Khaled (born in Baghdad, 1985) is a theatre maker and performer. He studied theatre until 2007 in the Institute of Fine Arts of Baghdad and began working in cinema. He has contributed in several feature and documentary films such as "War Love God & Madness" and "Dreams" by Mohamed Al -Daradji. In 2008 he had to flee Iraq because of the emerging war. Later settling in Belgium, Khaled created several internationally recognized theatre productions including “Crash”, "Kid Nap", "12 Isolations" and “Dreams of Environment”. In 2016, his solo performance “Working Method” won the “Big in Belgium” Award and was presented at the Edinburgh Festival. In 2017, he graduated from DAS Master of Theatre in Amsterdam. His last performance was a documentary theater piece "Baghdad" presented more than 20 times in Holland, Belgium and international festivals. For this work he got awarded with the Best Acting Performance at the MESS International Theater Festival Sarajevo in 2018.