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19 TUESDAY
DECEMBER 2017 18°C
NEWS BUSINESS OPINION SPORTS ARTS & ENT LIFE
| The Daily Star
Summary
Zoukak Theater
Company celebrated
the opening of their
new theater space in
Karantina, Wednesday,
and with it their 11th
anniversary and the
start of new projects.
The venue is situated
inside Art Lounge – the
erstwhile factory
warehouse that was
...
Maghie Ghali
Play that confronts
double standards
Dec. 16, 2017 | 12:03 AM
Culture
Zoukak raises the curtain on newtheater
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Maghie Ghali
BEIRUT: Zoukak Theater Company celebrated the opening of their
new theater space in Karantina, Wednesday, and with it their 11th
anniversary and the start of new projects. The venue is situated
inside Art Lounge – the erstwhile factorywarehouse that was
retooled and, for the past decade or so, has served as an
exhibition/cultural/partying space.
Zoukak are now the proprietors – working in collaboration with Art
Lounge’s previous owners, with whom they will share its profits.
Over the last year, Zoukak have turned it into a fully functional
theater, while retaining the industrial aesthetic.
“We now have a theater space that can seat over 100 people and a
lounge that can be turned into a performance space, [thanks to]
technical installations over the whole venue,” Zoukak member
Mohammad Hamdan told The Daily Star. “We also have a space on
the other side for workshops and rehearsals.”
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Zoukak has received many awards for their work, including the
Culture for Peace Award from the Chirac Foundation and the
Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists from the Japan Art
Association, both in 2017.
Cofounded in 2006 by a group of likeminded theater enthusiasts,
the troupe is known for performance works that tackle such
pressing themes as gender, violence, power and religion, as well as
their work offering drama therapy workshops among economically
and socially marginalized groups.
“It’s a great pleasure to open the new theater,” Hamdan said.
“We’ve been working for one year to make this happen and it’s a
magical moment but at the same time it’s a challenging moment.
“It’s a big responsibility to manage such a space and to find means
of sustainability, so the space can exist beyond the [financial]
support that we have today.”
The funding for the new venue has been derived, in part, from the
financial support of the Drosos Foundation, a Swissbased non
profit organization that aims to promote education and creative
activities for young people.
“We have [Drosos] support ... for two years and [it is] renewable for
two years,” Hamdan explained. “This is a great gift. It is very rare in
the cultural field to find opportunities where people can fund a
structure – usually they only fund projects.”
Zoukak has a number of initiatives and projects they hope to
complete by 2020, focusing their efforts on three main lines of
intervention.
“The first is the drama therapy workshops and psychosocial
interventions, targeting socially and economically marginalized
communities, such as youth, domestic workers and refugees,”
Hamdan said.
“The second is developing the capacity of the practitioners
themselves on the psychosocial side. It could be teachers, social
workers or anyone in the field, but also includes artistic
development for young artists and collaborations or discussions.
“The third is more performative, involving performing in the studio,
touring the region and also hosting other artists to perform in our
space or to show works in progress.”
The first play to be staged in the new theater will be the Lebanon
premiere of “The Jokers.” Directed by Zoukak’s Omar Abi Azar and
Junaid Sarieddeen, the piece had its world premiere last October
during Bordeaux’s Festival International des Arts de Bordeaux
Métropole (FAB).
“It highlights people in the society that make choices that are not
considered normal, making them either marginalized or glorified,
turning them into ‘jokers,’” Hamdan said. “They are then used in
the society as an excuse to say ‘It’s their fault’ or ‘It’s the fault of
the Arabs, refugees, gays or whoever.’”
“You have three characters on stage who are trying to reinvent
their position and redefine their relationship to themselves and
others.”
Back for another showing, Sarieddeen’s onewoman show “36
Abbas Street, Haifa,” featuring Raeda Taha, will be staged Dec. 21
22.
A number of workshops are also on offer, including an artist talk
and master class by British theater director Alexander Zeldin.
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“The Jokers” is running Dec. 1619, at Art Lounge, Saloumi Building
1st floor, Karantina, 8:30 p.m. zoukak.org
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on
December 16, 2017, on page 16.
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