With the inauguration of the 7th Amman Theater Nights Festival, Jordan is embracing, once again, an array of artistic extravaganza brought to the Jordanian audience by renowned international theater groups.
Jordanian, Tunisian, American and French troupes among others will be performing between 27 March till 8 April at the Royal Cultural Center. Theater lovers are set to enjoy two weeks of universal theater performances, according to The Star.
Organized annually by the Jordanian troupe al-Fawanees, the festival is considered as one of most influential around. It will be held in cooperation with the Egyptian al-Warsha Troupe, the Ministry of Culture and the Jordanian Artists Association.
Every year a large number of theater troupes and critics gather in Amman to present their latest shows and perspectives about theater.
Aimed at presenting the universal and boundless language of theater, the festival invites professional troupes which claim a long and reputable experience in theater. The gathering is a unique opportunity for Jordanians to get acquainted with different modes and techniques of theater other than they have been used to.
"This year there will be more troupes, and the event will be highly organized," Nader Imran, director of al-Fawanees group said to The Star. pointing to some gaps and problems in last year's event. Imran said that the program of the 1997 festival is expected to run as scheduled taking into consideration all the organizing problems that might occur.
On schedule, 13 troupes have confirmed their participation in the event while many others who might be participating are not enlisted yet. Al-Fawaness group, who notched up a show in last year's Festival, will be showing their "We Loved Each Other" this year. Among Arab troupes, the Lebanese Theater de Ville will be presenting "the Rituals of Signs and Changes", the Theater Day and Gaza Theater from Palestine, The Rule and The Exception and the Tunisian Shama for Artistic Production, the "32 July."
Among the plays to be performed by foreign troupes are Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo by the Swedish Gotenberg group and Entree Dans Le Theater Des Oriellles by the French La Comagnie De L' Energumene.
The festival includes a number of critical seminars which are going to highlight general aspects of modern theater. In this respect, Arab and foreign theater critics will be submitting papers that are to be compiled and distributed after the end of the event. This is one way to produce up to date perspectives about theater which serve as authorized references for researchers and people interested.
This year's seminars will make use of the audio-visual techniques in presentations as well as a new interpretation system with translation from Arabic into English. Some topics to be discussed will be "Drama Scripts on Stage," Acting and Criticism" and Theater audience." Participants will include such renowned names as Dr Mary Elias, Syria, Hassan Greitly, Egypt, Obeido Basha, Lebanon, Awad Ali, Iraq, etc. Other Arab and foreign critics and media personalities have also been invited to witness the event.
What is new about this year's event is the participation of the Jordanian Artist Society as one of the organizers. It is expected that during the festival, the society will announce its being an association.
In an attempt to provide more administrative facilities for the Festival's board, an online newsletter to be carried through the Internet worldwide is being prepared. This will give the board the opportunity to communicate and deal with all the administrative aspects through the Internet. Beside this, all the information about the troupes and the activities and plans of the Festival can be downloaded – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
