Final countdown to 6th Sharm El-Sheikh Int'l Theatre Festival for Youth

Ahram Online , Friday 5 Nov 2021

The sixth edition of the Sharm El-Sheikh International Theatre Festival for Youth (SITFY) will be held between 6 and 11 November.

Sharm El Sheikh Festival

In its sixth edition, the festival will showcase a total of 14 performances across three categories: Main Competition (six plays), Monodrama Competition (four plays) and Plays Performed in Unconventional Spaces (four plays), chosen from 302 performances from local, regional, and international troupes.

The troupes participating in the festival represent Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Romania, Sri Lanka and a coproduction between UK, USA and Poland.

Six of the plays in the programme will have their world premieres. They include The Last Flower (Italy), Quarter Time (Tunisia), Grey World (Spain), Safeya (Egypt), Pirosmani (Georgia) and Tram (UK/USA/Poland).

The festival will present ten awards including best play, best director, best actor, best actress, best scenography, alongside jury special prizes.

The festival will also hold several workshops and seminars led by Egyptian and international theatre makers, mainly focusing on topics such as acting skills, playwriting, and musical theatre.

During the festival's days, winners of the playwright competition will be announced. Carrying the name of late playwright Lenin El-Ramly, who passed away in February 2020, the award recognizes young Arab writers who wrote either monodramas or a play with multiple characters and whose works have not been published yet. 

The festival will also announce winners of the directing competition, which invited professional directors to submit their first work only, while amateur theatre practitioners could submit first, second, or third theatre plays they directed between 2019 and 2021.

Held annually, the SITFY is the first of its kind to be organised in Sinai. It was launched with the aim of providing opportunities to young theatre practitioners while decentralising the artistic scene and reviving tourism in South Sinai.

The SITFY's founder and president is Mazen El-Gharabawy, and the artistic director is Ingy El-Bastawi.

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