The festival’s opening ceremony will take place on 1 September. The following six days, between 2 and 7 September (and partly on 8 September), will include a large number of activities across theatres and other venues. The closing ceremony, during which the winning performances will be announced, will take place on 8 September.
The 29th edition of CIFET, headed by Gamal Yakout, bears the name of the world renowned theatre maker Peter Brook. Held under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, the festival also has Saeed Kabil and Mohamed El-Shafei as its artistic directors. It is the second year that the same management is in charge of the festival’s organization.
The festival will honour a number of renowned figures from Arab theatre, namely Kamal Eid (Egypt), Intessar Abdel-Fattah (Egypt), Saudi playwright Fahd Rada Al-Harthy, Tunisian scenographer and director Anouar Chaafi, and a director from Canada, Dominic Champagne.
44 theatrical performances compete in three competitions including 14 performances participating in the main, international competition. This segment includes plays from Egypt, Tunisia, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Italy, Canada, Austria, the United States of America and Greece.
The jury of the official competition is headed by the theatre maker Khaled Galal and will include Jordanian artist Aly Alyan, Kuwaiti writer Nermin Al-Houti, Swedish artist Karl Birger Leonardo, Italian director Danil Cremoonte, Polish artist Dawid Tomasz Zozlowski and English artist Richard Talbot.
In the competition of short performances, 16 works with a duration between 15 and 30 minutes, will be presented. The countries participating in this segment include Egypt, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
The experimental theatre club, which welcomes performances by independent and student troups from a variety of Egyptian governorates, will present 14 shows coming from Beni Suef, Ismailia, Red Sea, Assiut, Minya, Giza, Cairo, Mansoura, Sharqiya, Beheira, and Alexandria.
Apart from the plays, the festival will hold numerous workshops and seminars focusing on the theatrical practices.
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