Playwrights Residency German Syrian eatremakers

Focused Support & Mentorship Program Culminates in Public Performances at Maxim Gorki Theater



Berlin and Neuklostersee, Germany Six Europe-based Syrian playwrights will create new work in Arabic as part of Sundance Institutes Playwrights Residency in Berlin and Neuklostersee, continuing the Theatre Programs mission-driven tradition of nurturing and amplifying emerging and established playwrights at the cutting edge of their craft, and furthers their support of work from the Middle East and North Africa.

Table reads for the selected projects will take place May 3-4 at Berlin's HAU Studio ; casts will be drawn from the Exil Ensemble , a troupe of performers-in-residence at the Gorki Theater who are themselves newcomers to Europe, as well as other Syrian actors from the Berlin theatre community. Operations then move to Neuklostersee for six days of workshops and development-focused conversations with an international cohort of mentors and professionals. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker and Janice Paran will act as Creative Advisors; Chryst le Khodr, Amir Nizar Zuabi and Rania Mleihi , as dramaturgs. The residency is led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program's Artistic Director Philip Himberg , Producing Director Christopher Hibma, and Middle East / North Africa Manager Jumana Al-Yasiri, with support from Ignacia Delgado, Literary Manager and Roberta Levitow, Senior Program Associate. Two evenings of performance, Sundance Syria 1 and Sundance Syria 2, will showcase the works-in-progress at the Gorkis Studio on May 12 and 13.

Many of the works address a very specific set of circumstances and places associated with the artistic diaspora, said Himberg, but the stories are deeply personal, rather than overtly political, as is the case in the best theatrical writing. Time and space to create are essential to global culture, especially in times of conflicts and major transformations; preserving and cultivating independent voices and storytelling enriches societies. We're excited to convene these artists in Berlin, with its dynamic and thriving metropolitan community which includes many Middle Eastern & North African artists.

Sundance Institute's Theatre Program has a long history of supporting the development of U.S. and international new work for the stage, including projects such as Appropriate, Fun Home, A Gentlemans Guide to Love and Murder, Taha, Circle Mirror Transformation, An Iliad, The Lilys Revenge, Happy New Fear, The Good Negro, The Light in the Piazza, Passing Stranger, Spring Awakening, Boredom, The Laramie Project and I Am My Own Wife and artists such as Amar Al Bojrad, Amer Hlehel, Anna Akkash, Hamza Boulaiz, Kamal Khalladi, Raeda Taha, Rima Najdi, and Zoukak. Their International activity supports mentorship and cross-cultural exchange, focused on artists from the Middle East and North Africa, and has included Labs, workshops and retreats in Morocco, East Africa, France and the U.S.

The playwrights and projects selected for the Residency are:

Terror

By Liwaa Yazji

A man enters his hotel room, angry. He calls his wife to tell her that he will be late because his flight had to stop in Amman shortly after taking off from Beirut because of the terrorist attacks in Paris. While on the phone, someone knocks on his door. Its his ex-girlfriend, who was on the same flight to Paris. The game starts the moment he opens the door. She is here and she wont leave until she gets answers to old questions, and perhaps this is her only chance for closure

Filmmaker, poet, playwright, screenwriter & translator, Liwaa Yazji, is a graduate in both English Literature and Theater Studies (Damascus Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts). Her first play Here in the Park was published in 2012, followed by a collection of poems titled, In peace, we leave home, and her Arabic translation of Edward Bond's Saved, both in 2014. Liwaa's play Q&Q was produced by The Birth Festival at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 2015, and her play Goats will open at The Royal Court in London in March 2017. Her first documentary Haunted was released in 2014, and she's now co-writing HEIM, a TV series to be produced in Germany. In 2015, Liwaa was a poet-in-residence at the New Yorks Poets House. Shes also a Board Member of Ettijahat-Independent Culture.

Wind The Wind

By Mudar Al Haggi

Wind The Wind chronicles the story of Mudar Al Haggi, a Syrian playwright, and his move to Germany as a refugee. Mudars arrival to Germany in the second half of 2015 coincides with the height of the refugee crisis in Europe. Shortly after arriving to Germany, Mudar applies for asylum, embarking on a long and complicated journey of bureaucracy and life in several refugee camps. Through this journey Mudar encounters different people, stories, details, and incidents. Al Haggi tells these stories from his own perception, reflecting on topics like identity, borders, the other, and revolution. These concepts become the source of a story of alienation and displacement emblematic of our times.

Dramaturg and playwright, Mudar graduated from Damascus Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in 2004. For several years, he designed interactive activities for children, and trained trainers in interactive theatre methods. He participated in several writing workshops and residency programs in Europe and the Arab region. In 2013, Mudar launched So On And So Forth, a series of writing and documentation workshops for Syrian refugees. Mudar's work include: Just an Enemy of the People - an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People (2008), The Don Juan (2008), Six Days No Less (2009), Bronze (2010), and Your Love is Fire, to be brought to the stage in Berlin by Raafat Al Zakout in 2017.

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