Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
Gerda Alexander was a German / Danish teacher who developed a "bodymind technique" or "somatic practice" known as Eutony. As a young woman, Gerda was in contact with the vanguards of the arts, education, and movement culture in the early 20th century. From the 30's on, she started to develop her innovative method through her studies between movement and musicality, new pedagogies and neurosciences. Through Eutony, she collaborated with many medical centers, pedagogical institutions, and artistic training in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East.
Applied drama is an umbrella term for the use of theatrical practices and creativity that take participants and audience members further than mainstream theatre. It is often in response to conventional people with real life stories. The work often happens in non-conventional theatre spaces and social settings. There are several forms and practices considered to be under the umbrella of applied theatre.
Khaled Muhammad Samy Abol Naga, credited as Khaled Abol Naga and by the mononym Kal Naga, is an Egyptian actor, director and producer. He is recognized primarily for his work in Egypt and the Middle East, but has increasingly ventured into American and British film and television roles. He started acting and directing plays and musicals in Egypt while studying theatre at The American University in Cairo. Beginning his professional acting career in 2000, Naga starred in several movies through the next decade with roles encompassing several genres, from musicals None but that! (2007), action Agamista (2007), Eyes Of A Thief (2014), thrillers Kashf Hesab (2007), art-house Heliopolis (2009), Villa 69 (2013), Decor (2014), and slapstick comedy Habibi Naêman (2008). Additionally, he has participated in several European film festivals, where he received a range of awards as an actor and producer. Since 2016, he has acted in several English-speaking roles, such as Tyrant on FX, History Channel's Vikings, and the BBC's TV mini-series The Last Post, and announced to appear in the upcoming Netflix Show Messiah 2019. In a film festival in 2016 that celebrated Arab film submissions to the Oscars, he was noted as being the most submitted actor in Arabic films submissions to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is often tagged in western media as "Egypt's Brad Pitt", and he has also been described as "the next Omar Sharif" especially after his American debut movie Civic Duty in 2007. Chosen as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 2007, Naga played a pivotal role in child rights awareness, as well as the very first HIV awareness campaigns in Egypt and the Arab world, and participated in several international causes, including advocating for democracy in his home country Egypt. He is one of the most recognizable celebrity faces of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, taking part in mass demonstrations in Cairo that led to the removal of President Mubarak. He faced defamation campaigns against him by the state-owned media during the Mubarak era before the January 25th, 2011 revolution in Egypt, and several times again from the 2013 "coup d'etat" General Sisi government in Egypt in retaliation for his advocacy about the deterioration of human rights situation in Egypt.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
Tayeb Saddiki was a Moroccan theatre director and one of the most iconic and prominent Arab artists, and is considered among the foremost Arab dramatists of the twentieth century. Trained in classical Western theater, Saddiki also embraced traditional Moroccan theatrical styles, fusing the two into a path-breaking combination of Western and traditional Moroccan theater. Known for staging spectacles played to large crowds in big arenas, Saddiki developed a style of festive theater that became a popular in the Arab world.
Jurij Leonowitsch Alschitz or Jurij Al'šic is a Russian - German theatre director, acting pedagogue and researcher specialising in applied theatre practice. He is known for developing a comprehensive artistic methodological approach for 21st century dramatic arts, ‘Training as Method’. He is the artistic director of the European Association for Theatre Culture and the World Theatre Training Institute AKT-ZENT/ITI, appointed by the International Theatre Institute as research centre for theatre training methods.
Maroun Bagdadi was a Lebanese film director known for his vivid portrayal of Lebanon's civil war. Bagdadi was internationally the best-known Lebanese filmmaker of his generation. He worked with American producer/director Francis Coppola and made several films in French that became hits in France.
Najwa Barakat is a Lebanese Arab novelist, journalist and film director.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival, was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015.
Catherine Fitzmaurice is the originator of Fitzmaurice Voicework, whose purpose "is to support people in finding and using their unique voices — in healthy, clear, and creative ways — while developing greater freedom and presence" and which is taught in acting schools, studios, workshops, and private lessons throughout the United States and the world. The January 2010 issue of American Theatre magazine calls Fitzmaurice one of "the great lions of the field of voice work in the U.S." and one of the "visionary innovators in the craft" of voice training for actors. Over the past thirty-five years, she has "become one of the half-dozen most influential voice teachers in the theatre," whose "legacy and enduring influence are secure." The Voice and Speech Trainers Association invited Fitzmaurice to its 2009 National Conference—along with Arthur Lessac, Kristin Linklater, and Patsy Rodenburg—as one of the "foremost vocal teachers of our time."
Mounir Rachid Maasri (born. Aley, Lebanon; April 23, 1940), born to Rachid Maasri and Shafiqa Haddad, is an actor, director, writer, and teacher for the Performing Arts. Maasri completed his early education in Lebanon, and travelled to the United States at a young age to continue his studies in the field of Performing Arts.
Farouq Abul-Aziz is a well known TV presenter, interviewer, writer, producer and director in the Arab World.
Theatre in Lebanon has its origin in passion plays. The musical plays of Maroun Naccache from the mid-1800s are considered the birth of modern Arab theatre. Some scholars, such as Abdulatif Shararah, have divided Lebanese theatre into three historical phases centered on 1) translations of European plays, 2) Arab nationalism, and 3) realism.
Najwa Najjar is a film writer and director. She was born to a Jordanian father and Palestinian mother. She began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999.
English Between Me and Me, There Was She, Bayna Ana Wa Ana Hya, is a play written and directed by Jean Daoud. This experimental play denounces violence against women.
Kadour Naimi is a film producer, play wright, filmmaker, and writer.
Eliane Raheb is a documentary filmmaker and director from Lebanon. She made her debut as a director with her 2012 film, Layali Bala Noom.
Roger Assaf is a Lebanese playwright, director and actor.
Nidal Al Achkar is a Lebanese actress and theater director, hailed as "The Grande Dame of Lebanese Theater".
