Fragmented from a promotional material
CAIRO – 25 August 2017: Four Arab directors participated in one of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival activities at Summerhall.
The participating artists were Hassan Gretley and Ahmed Al Attar from Egypt, Ussama Halal from Syria, and Taoufiq Izzediou from Morocco.
Hassan Gretly is an Egyptian director and artist who directed one of the early independent theatre troupe's El Warsha.
Founded in 1987, it aims to adapt western canonical theatrical texts to the oriental spirit.
The troupe toured and performed in different places in Egypt since 1990. Its activities include different theatre, dance, poetry, writing, storytelling and music.
Ahmed El Attar is the other Egyptian in the event. He is the founder of D-Caf Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, Emad Eddin Studio, and Orient for Drama and Theatre Production.
As an independent theatre director, he is the director of a famous theatrical troupe called the Temple.
His work was performed all around the world; he won the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development cultural award for best theatrical text in 2010.
The Syrian director Usama Helal is one of the Arabic participants. He is the founder and the director of Koon Theatre Group.
Koon was formed in 2002 to present contemporary and experimental theatrical arts.
It started performing in Syria to perform something unusual for the audience.
The group is working on producing new texts, storytelling, dances, music and painting.
The group performs in streets, to gain more ideas and themes to present on the stage.
Helal was awarded the best director award at the Cairo Festival of Modern and Experimental Theatre in 2009.
Taoufiq Izzediou is one of the iconic Moroccan calligraphers. He is the director of On March, an international festival of contemporary arts in Morocco.
On March is an important gathering for dancers and performers in Africa.
It focuses on performing contemporary and modern dance in the streets.
It depends on young rising talents from various parts of the world such as Tunisia, Belgium and France.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of the biggest platforms for expressional arts.
It was founded in 1947, and takes place in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh.
A thousand performers from all over the world participate in the festival every year.
Dance, theatre, comedy, music and exhibitions are but some of the arts on display at the festival.
This year’s edition marks the 70th anniversary of the first edition of Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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