TANWEEN - Key Persons

Ziad's works comprise staging theatre, involvement in academia, and leading workshops on acting and writing techniques. After graduating from The Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 1998, he moved to London and stayed there till 2008, working and studying theatre. He studied for an MA in Text and Performance Studies at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and King's college in London, and then took a PhD in Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway University of London; his thesis was "Mistakes and Making Mistakes in Cultural Performance". He taught Performance Theory, System of Rehearsals and Mask techniques at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus/ Syria. Mistakes in theatre became central in Ziad's artistic and academic work. Normally, the audience questions the authenticity of mistakes when they occur in theatre ‘did the mistake really happen, or is it made up?'. The question of reality extends in most of his plays, exploring the difference between the truth and the believable. In the context of the current power imbalance in politics and arts, mistakes and pretending mistakes associate the question of reality with the topics of misrepresentations, misperceptions, cliches, stereotypes, and artistic and political expectations. Are these stereotypical and inferior events really happening or are they made up? Ziad was affiliated with several academic projects, including the German Research Foundation-funded project ‘Global theatre histories', and the European Research Council-funded project ‘Developing theatre: building expert networks for theatre in emerging countries after 1945' at the University of Munich. His papers explore theatre as an institution in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf, covering aspects of theatre developments such as theatre academies, individual and governmental initiatives to disseminate theatre, purpose-built theatre houses, national theatres, festivals, and drama periodicals. He also contributes to academic projects on performance theory, theatre and interculturalism, and theatre and protests. Ziad also acted in several European and American film productions. He was the artistic director of Invisible Stories, a series of street theatre events that took place in different places in Damascus. He runs different workshops on writing and acting techniques, as well as other workshops with cultural activists. Ziad has also served as a board member of several cultural institutions such Mamdouh Adwan Publishing House, and Al Share' Media.