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Playwrights from Qatar and the Arab Gulf praised the theatrical performance “Al-Mughassil”, which was presented by “Tezkar” artistic production team, during a feedback session at the Drama Theater in (Katara), where the performances and events of the 35^th Doha Theater Festival are being held.

 

The Yemeni theater director, Safwat Al-Gashed, praised the work, starting with the script. He said that: The beginning of my fascination with the play “Al-Mughassil” was when I read the text, especially since the text was written by a new Qatari writer, which prompted me to ask: Who is this writer? Who taught him? Who has read? What did he study? Where did he study? Did he read to Dr. Hassan Rashid, or to Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai, or to Ali Mirza Mahmoud? Did he benefit from the previous Qatari theatrical experience? Then, I wondered: why does he write theatre? What motivated him to write theatre? We all know that playwriting is a very difficult art, and it is different from the rest of the arts because it is a qualitative art, and whoever writes this art must be the son of the theatre. Al-Gashed referred to the duality of death and life in the work, stressing that it is a duality that no writer dares to address or approach. He explained that the text carries many values, including the values of honesty, rebellion, and morals. Al-Gashed stressed that the writer Tamim Al-Borsheed possesses the elements of a playwright, and that he should see, research and read.

The work aroused the admiration of the playwrights and those interested, in addition to the audience, which attended in large numbers. The feedback session witnessed rich discussions and interventions from the audience. Most of the interventions touched on the elements of the theatrical performance such as: the decoration that was employed well, and served the dramatic escalation in events, in addition to lighting, music and technology. A flashback that showed the main characters in the play, in addition to the performance of the actors on stage and their ability to impersonate the characters with a lot of craftsmanship and proficiency. The guests of the festival expressed their fascination with the performance of the actors and their embodiment of the characters, especially the hero Munther Thani, who identified with the character to a great extent, a skill that only a great actor can possess.

Qatar Charity concluded the sixth edition of the “Future Writers” program by announcing the names of the winners and honoring them, as well as honoring the sponsor of the program, partners and work teams in a ceremony attended by officials from Qatar Charity, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Qatari Forum for Authors, Qatar University and Dukhan Bank.

 

In his speech at the beginning of the ceremony, Mr. Faisal Rashid Al-Fahida, the Assistant CEO of the Programs and Community Development Sector at Qatar Charity, said that: Please allow me to congratulate the winning male and female students in this version at the level of schools and universities, and express my pride in their talents and potentials, hoping that they will continue the journey of developing their writing abilities and their giving in the field of creative writing, to contribute to the service of their society, and the development of our beloved country, Qatar, in the creative and literary fields.

Al-Fahida extended his sincere thanks and appreciation to the program’s partners, considering that they are partners in achievement and success, as they have worked with Qatar Charity side by side over the past months, and they are: the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Qatari Forum for Authors and Qatar University, and the sponsor Dukhan Bank. He also expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the program team. From the supervisors, trainers, arbitrators and coordinators who exerted tireless efforts until the program reached its final stage represented by announcing the names of the student winners and honoring them.

At the end of his speech, he stressed that the development in the next version of this extended program will continue to achieve a wider spread that provides an opportunity for greater discovery of the capabilities of the talented and their participation in it, and to strengthen cooperation with the current partners, and with other relevant parties, in addition to continuing to pay attention to the winners in the previous versions, developing their capabilities and highlighting them. Lights on the development of their successful experiences.

The ceremony program also included a speech by Mrs. Maryam Al-Ali, the Head of the Culture Department at the Ministry of Culture, in which she considered that the presence of the Ministry of Culture in this event is a message of gratitude for the efforts of those in charge of the program and a call for more cultural work, whose implementation has become required from all sectors and at all levels, noting that the Ministry encourages launching Cultural initiatives and programs to facilitate the right to culture for all members of society, especially children and youth, because it is an affirmation of optimal investment in the capabilities of future generations.

She expressed the Ministry of Culture’s pleasure with the great interest in culture by civil society organizations, especially Qatar Charity and its partners in this program, because it contributes to the growth and development of societies. It considered Qatar Charity a major and distinguished partner due to its role in organizing and implementing such a program, and expressed its thanks and appreciation for its efforts in achieving Qatar Vision 2030 in the cultural field, expressing its hope that the association would present more meaningful initiatives in the future.

At the end of the ceremony, the list of winning students in the sixth edition of “Writers of the Future” was announced and honored. They are: In the primary stage / girls: Hamda Abdullah Al-Mannai, Maryam Al-Yarmani, Lujain Anwar, and in the primary stage / boys: Youssef Wael Hussein, Karam Ashraf Khalil, Amir Al-Sahrawi, and in the preparatory stage / girls: Maryam Iyad Abdel Rahman, Amra Mawlana, and in the preparatory stage / boys: Al-Bara’ Majdi Khair El-Din, Mohammad Faisal Al-Ansari, Baraa Hossam El-Din Muslim, and in the secondary stage / girls: Aya Al-Qasrani, Roua Saleh Al-Rawaida, Raghad Abdel-Latif, and in the secondary school / boys: Ahmed Abdel-Salam Al-Saadi, Saad Siraj Al-Islam, Saud Mohammad Ali Salem Al-Ahbabi. At the undergraduate level, girls won: Noura Salem Abu Sharida, Lalla Aisha Ahmed, Aisha Othman Saad, and at the undergraduate level, boys, Ahmed Jadallah and Fahd Jalal Al Kuwari won. As for the field of people with special abilities / girls, the winners were: Hind Mohsen, Lina Farouk, Rama Hatem Obaid, and in the field of people with special abilities / boys, the winners were: Abdel Qader Abdel Khaleq, Fahd Iqbal, Khaled Abdel Raouf. As for the winners in the previous versions of the program, the student Mohammad Al-Marri was honored.

Last night’s activities of Doha Theatrical Festival witnessed the presentation of the play Al-Mughassil on the stage of the Drama Theater in Katara, where the play opened the performances of the companies and civil teams participating in the festival. Tamim Al-Borsheed, the author of “Al-Mughassil” play said that the show is completely different and may be “shocking” for the audience. Al-Burshaid indicated that the show discusses several social issues in a theatrical format that is not widely known by the audience, hoping that it will find success and acceptance, and that the surprise will be positive for the audience, and that it will accept it with open arms and achieve what is expected from it and satisfy the audience.

Today, Tuesday, the play “The Shoe Wiper” will be shown as part of the activities of Doha Theater Festival. The play is considered a human epic at the level of challenge in the proposition, dialogues, monologues, scenography and music. In addition, it reflects the bewilderment of the tragic, surreal situation in which the societies of the Arab world and the people within them flounder in an attempt to search for oneself and deal with the other. The play is characterized by the fact that it combines politics, tragedy, realism, literature and art, and it is the first theatrical artwork written by Dr. Khaled Al-Jaber and directed by the able artist Ahmed Al-Muftah, and produced by Q-Fun for artistic production.

Today, the activities of the 32^nd session of Abu Dhabi International Book Fair kicked off with the participation of the Ministry of Culture and a group of Qatari publishing houses, including Dar Al-Watad, Dar Al-Watad, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and Qatar University.

The activities of the exhibition, which will host Turkey’s pavilion as the guest of honor at this year’s edition, will continue until May 28. In its edition of this year, the exhibition celebrates the concept of sustainability as a pivotal idea, as the exhibition witnesses various initiatives, events and seminars aimed at highlighting global best practices to support sustainability trends in the field of publishing, in addition to organizing dialogue sessions and discussions on climate change and enhancing food security. Its current edition celebrates the achievements of the Arab world Ibn Khaldun, the founder of sociology, as the “pivotal figure” of this course. Dr. Fatima Al Suwaidi, the Director of Qatar University Press, said that: The participation of Qatar University Press is represented in more than (50) publications in various disciplines, most notably museum studies, legal studies, studies in social and human sciences, and proposals for translation. The participation of the house this year is marked by more than 10 recent publications, most notably the book (Architecture, Imran, and the City after the Corona Pandemic), the book (Political Geography of Sports) and the book (Encyclopedia of Surprisingness) as the first encyclopedia in the Islamic world that monitors the West. Through its participation in the exhibition, in an integrated role aimed at highlighting the name of the house as a leading publishing house at the international level, by meeting academic authors from all over the world to discuss opportunities for publishing their scientific works with the house, and participating in side workshops to exchange ideas and experiences with international publishers and owners. This will contribute to the acquisition of expertise and raise the level of the house’s work, and enhance the possibility of concluding agreements and partnerships with regional and international distribution centers.”

His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture, honored a group of theater pioneers and a number of members of theatrical groups in Qatar, during the official night of the 35^th Doha Theater Festival, which witnessed the performance of “Fifty Years of Theatre”, the idea and poems facilitated by Abdullah and Abdul Rahim Al Siddiqi, composed by Talal Al-Siddiqi, directed by Nasser Abdel-Reda, sung by Rehab Malouk and Mishaal Al-Dosari, musical arrangement and execution by Nader Abdel-Salam, recorded at Al-Matar Studio, graphics by Abdel-Karim Abu Tayem, lighting by Omar Atrous, and sound by Aziz.

The ceremony began with a special video showing the harvest of the Theater Affairs Center during the past year 2022, followed by the “Fifty Years of Theatre” show, which reviewed the march of theatrical art in Qatar during the past 50 years, through some archival footage of a number of the most important and prominent works presented by theater stars in Qatar During his career, the show included lyrical and showy segments. The singer Mishaal Al-Dosari and the artist Rehab participated in the lyrical segments that permeated the show.

Afterwards, His Excellency the Minister of Culture honored each of: The artist Mohammad Abu Jasoun, the artist Ghazi Hussein, and the artist Hamad Abdel-Ridha. His Excellency also honored a group of artists who are members of the civil theater groups, who are they: Dr. Hassan Rashid, and the artist Saad Bakhit, and the artist Rashid were also honored. Al-Shayeb and the artist Ali Al-Khalaf from Doha theater group, and the artist Youssef Sultan and the artist Saadi Al-Shammari from the Al-Watan theater group.

The honorees expressed their happiness with this honor, pointing out to the importance of these honors in the artist’s life, as they serve as a strong incentive that drives the artist to continue and provide the best possible, valuing at the same time the support of His Excellency the Minister of Culture for the theatrical movement and the artists.

Regarding his participation in the singing segment, the singer and artist Mishaal Al-Dosari said that: I was chosen to participate in singing in front of His Excellency the Minister on the stage of Doha Theater Festival, and it is a great honor for me to participate in this important event as an actor and singer as well.

Regarding her participation in the official ceremony, the singer Rehab confirmed that her participation in the “Night of the Festival” is her first in Doha Theater Festival, and she said that: I feel great happiness and pride as I recorded my attendance on the stage of this festival, which was attended by the top theater stars in Qatar, as well as many artists and artistic talents. unique in the State of Qatar and the region.

Rehab indicated that she hopes that the show has won the admiration of the audience and that this night will be distinguished like the rest of the festival’s activities, which have so far achieved positive echoes on the artistic and public level.

During the feedback symposium for the play “Al-Tahesh”, the artist and director Saad Burshid confirmed that Doha Theater Festival in its thirty-fifth edition was able to gather a beautiful constellation of Arab directors and actors through the community theatre, while commenting on the play “Al-Tahesh” by the Yemeni community team.

Borshid praised the play’s team, and its Yemeni director, Safwat Al-Gashed, and said that the play reflected what the Yemeni people want and what they aspire to in terms of unity in their ranks, pointing out that the political projections employed in the work confirmed the same motive and even hinted that the false heroism is destined to disappear, and that the idiot who has become By pure coincidence, a legendary hero is nothing but a lie, which was soon exposed by the people of the city.

The follow-up session witnessed many discussions, as Dr. Hassan Rashid said that: The director, Safwat Al-Gashed, was associated with the writer, Dr. Abdel-Ghaffar Makkawi, and this is the second work in which this writer, who is associated with philosophy and exoticism, enters the field. He added by saying that: We were in this evening with a show in which the director was able to mix the human issue in the happy Yemen, pointing out that Safwat Al-Gashed was able to present to the audience a theatrical show in which he mixed politics, folklore and singing, paintings confirming the true unity of the Yemeni people, and he explained that there is prolongation in some scenes which the director had to shorten it in order for it to be more profound and impactful.

For his part, the Kuwaiti director Mohammad Al-Hamli said that the performance of the actors and the director’s great influence on the group is a musician of the first degree and loves rhythm greatly, and his sense as a director was present between one sentence and another in the play. Stressing that he was impressed by the performance of the actor Ali Saif, along with the artist Mishaal Al-Dosari, and the rest of the actors, with their varying performance.

One of the attendees said that Safwat Al-Gashed repeated the text of Dr. Abdel-Ghaffar Makkawi, in an aesthetic and visual way that pleased the audience and returned to the theater delightful images. One of them asked the following question: What does the “Tahesh” symbolize? Does it symbolize the challenges that Yemen is witnessing today? He added that some characters raise some confusions in understanding or in the projection and symbolism of some vocabulary and pointing out that the central character was not sufficiently present in the work. Impressions and observations about the work ranged from admirers to critics, and the feedback session concluded in an atmosphere of joy, as it was an occasion for playwrights to meet with each other at Doha Theater Festival.

 

His Excellency President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, President of the sister Federal Republic of Somalia, left Doha yesterday evening, after an official visit to the country. His Excellency and the accompanying delegation were seen off upon his departure from Hamad International Airport, by H. E. the Minister of Culture Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, H. E. Dr. Abdullah bin Salem Al Nuaimi, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Somalia, and H. E. Chargé d’Affairs at the Somali Embassy in the country, Ron Saeed Korchel.

His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture, crowned the winners of the fourth edition of the Universities Poet Competition held by the Ministry of Culture, represented by Qatar Poetry Center “Diwan Al Arab”, from May 11 to May 20, in cooperation with Qatar University, which targeted university students. and civil and military colleges. The culmination came during the closing ceremony at Qatar University for the competition, which included the categories of Eloquent poetry and Nabati poetry, in the presence of a large audience, as well as a group of university officials, intellectuals and students.

In the category of eloquent poetry, the poet Mohammad Aflah from Mauritania won the first place, Hamad Salem Al-Rashdi from Qatar came in the second place, then, Adel Mohammad Abdul Hameed from Pakistan came in the third place, all from Qatar University. In the Nabati poetry category, Saeed Ali Al Afeer of Ahmed bin Mohammad Military College won the first place, Hamad Jaber Al-Jarhab won the second place, and Mohammed Saleh Al-Nabit, both from Qatar University, came in the third place. His Excellency the Minister of Culture honored the members of the jury, who are the poets: Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Sada, Zayed Cruz, Ali Al-Masoudi, and Lahdan Sabah Al-Kubaisi.

The last stage witnessed a competition between the poets qualified for the final in creating poems about good faith and neglect of the eloquent poets, while the Nabati poets competed in counting the poem entitled “Your Future” in order to see the angles that the poet sees, and everyone competed impromptu over a video that was presented on the culture of leadership and respecting the etiquette of the road during the ceremony, so that each poet creates three verses on the subject. The poet Shabib bin Arar Al-Nuaimi, the Director of Qatar Poetry Center, stressed in a speech during the ceremony the permanent center’s keenness to make poetry an expression of good qualities and morals, indicating that the competition has adopted an ethical system since its inception, so that this is broadcast in the personality due to the cultural and social environment. The Director of Qatar Poetry Center added by saying that: The value of life is the value of work, moral values ​​that agree with logical values ​​of right, wrong and potential. He also considers popular poetry at the forefront of the important media for spreading and promoting noble concepts and morals. Al-Nuaimi said that: Poetry in general is considered as one of the important historical tributaries for reading the realities of communities and removing the veil from their events.

In the speech delivered by the poet Ali Al-Masoudi, the arbitration committee stressed the importance of the role of poets in society and the adoption of issues that serve their nation, due to their great influence, so that some poets and rhetoricians historically supported their poetry for opinion, even if it was contrary to what they believed, and that was only proof of their linguistic and persuasive abilities.

For his part, Hamad Jaber Al-Jarhab, who was crowned second in the Nabatean category, said that: He is a lover, connoisseur, and lover of poetry, and he started writing young through experimentation in order to discover and refine talent.

The Qatari poet Mohammad Salih Al-Nabit said that: I entered the world of poetry out of love for this world that expresses beautiful ideas in simple words, pointing out that his poems belong to conservative poetry that promotes noble values, while the poet Adel Mohammad Abdul Hameed from Pakistan said that the university poet competition was an opening Good, and he participated in it last year and reached the penultimate stage, through which he got to know many poets and critics.

The Theater Affairs Center affiliated to the Ministry of Culture inaugurated the book “Theatre and the Sea… A Reading in the Works of Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai” by the late writer and theater critic Sebai Al-Sayed, which was recently published by the Center, on the sidelines of the 35^th Doha Theater Festival, which is being held During the period from May 16 to May 29, at the Drama Theater in the Public Foundation for the Cultural Village «Katara».

In a speech by the Center for Theater Affairs in the opening of the book, the center confirmed that in this edition it celebrates Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai, a pioneer of the Qatari theater, a distinguished playwright, a creative director, and a skilled musician.

In the center’s speech, it was not possible to talk about the Qatari theater without mentioning Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai and his theatrical works, which are abundant in quantity and distinguished in quality, indicating that he was aware of the importance of Qatari heritage and the necessity of collecting, classifying and presenting its elements, so he made it a material for radio programs, a topic for specialized magazines, and a field for research centers, but the most important use of heritage was in Al-Mannai’s plays, as we find his theater full of stories of the Qatari fishermen and their songs, and details of pearl hunting trips and the challenges that accompany them, which made his plays sometimes rise to the ranks of tragedy.

The center added in its speech that: Al-Mannai took the spectator in his theater with diving and fishing vessels, and also invited him to tour villages and cities, and drew with his pen the radical transformations that occurred in Gulf societies in their transition from fishing to the age of oil and gas, indicating that he also learned from international literature with What is commensurate with the Qatari environment.

The book is located in 150 pages, including a brief history of theater in the Arabian Gulf, and theater in Qatar, before proceeding to analyze the complete theatrical works of the writer and director Abdul Rahman Al-Mannai, starting with his play Umm Al-Zein, which was presented on the stage in 1975, to be considered by some critics as the true beginning of the Qatari theater. And even the play (Wadi Al-Majadir), which will be shown next Thursday as part of the thirty-fifth edition of Doha Theater Festival.

It is worth mentioning that the theater critic Sebai Al-Sayed Sebai, an Egyptian writer, translator and critic, born in Cairo in 1963, studied theater at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts – the Academy of Arts in Cairo, and obtained a Master’s Degree in the subject of digital technology and its impact on theater in 2017, and published many researches in theatrical periodicals Specialist, translated many theatrical works, and participated in research papers in several conferences and festivals.

 

On the sidelines of the festival, a practical seminar was held commenting on the theater performance “Sizoi Banzi Mat” by the Sudanese community group, based on a text by the South African writer Athol Fujard and directed by Mohammad Al-Sinni, during which the artist Ali Mirza Mahmoud, who commented on the performance, said that: “We are happy to learn about a part from the Sudanese theater”, indicating that the writer was able to convey the suffering of the weak and marginalized, while the director relied on simplicity. And he considered that the actors were able to present a theatrical text that might be heavy on the audience as it was taken from a non-Arab culture, so there was a theatrical necessity to bring the text closer to the audience, which is what the artists Muhammad Al-Suni and Muhannad Mahjoub succeeded in doing. Mirza said that: The Sunni was able to embody for us the suffering of the Sudanese people. He confirmed that through the proposal presented by the director of the work and his reliance on the poor theater we had fun, and the proof of our enjoyment was the interaction we saw in the theater hall.