British Council - Writing for Theatre project - Interview with Arze Khodr - part1

The project started in 2007 when members of the Royal Court team, Elyse Dodgson, Head of the International Department and playwrights David Greig and April DeAngelis, carried out a series of workshops in Damascus, Tunis and Cairo with a group of 21 playwrights to develop and structure their script. Over 100 playwrights applied for the project and 21 of these were selected by a panel made up of Royal Court and British Council staff.

In November 2008, seven of the writers were invited to London to present their work as staged readings in specially commissioned translations. The programme was complemented by a panel discussion with the writers. Each of the five evenings drew a full house and the event was a great success attracting the media, students, members of the Diaspora as well as promoters and programmers from a wide range of UK venues. Another measure of success is the published volume of five of the seven plays by one of the UK's leading theatre publisher, Nick Hern Books, that occur during the same week of writers participation in the World Voices Festival.
 
Last October 2009, Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs at the Martin E Segal Theatre Center which is part of the City University of New York, expressed interest in inviting the Arab playwrights to be part of the PEN World Voices Festival as he was keen to present the work of young and emerging artists from the Arab world.  
The work of five of the playwrights, namely Arze Khodr (Lebanon), Imad Farajin (Palestine), Mohammad Al Attar (Syria), Kamal Khalladi (Morocco) and Laila Soliman (Egypt) was presented as staged readings working with US directors and actors between 26 April and 2 May.

This participation is supported by the British Council under Performance Platforms project in partnership with the Royal Court theatre in London and City University of New York, USA

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