Preparations are underway in the Department of Culture and Information in Sharjah to launch the 22nd edition of the Sharjah Theatre Days Festival; which will run from March 18 to 28, 2012. The new edition of the Festival will feature many parallel cultural activities; such as workshops, forums, and critical seminars.
Director of the Sharjah Theatre Days Festival; Ahmed Abu Rahima said that this year's session of the Festival will celebrate Arab theatre Actors; and that the audience will feel this on various levels especially at the Intellectual Forum that has been dedicated to highlight the great contribution of actors to Arab theatre throughout its history. Moreover, Mr. Abu Rahima pointed out that very few conferences or intellectual forums have given theatre actors the attention they deserve.
The Forum will shed light on the presence of the actor in the history of Arab theatre and will discuss the various methodologies adopted by critics in tackling and theorizing about the innovations and trends of Arab theatre, and how they perceive the contribution of theatre actors. Moreover, the Forum calls for an Arab theatre that can provide the Arab theatrical library with new visions about theatre actors, and that can motivate Arab critics to give more attention to actors and to highlight their role in the aesthetic and intellectual image of our theatrical productions.
The agenda of the Forum will revolve around four main themes: "The Actor and Theatre Criticism: Methodologies and Approaches", "Actors and the Celebrative, Narrative and Entertaining Trends of Arab Theatre", "The Academic Formation of the Actor in the Arab World: Reality and Horizons", and "The Actor: an Entity and a Tool".