Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ihab Zahdeh is a Palestinian theatre director and actor , born in Hebron . He and his colleagues graduated from the Guest House in Gaza City , in the presence of the late symbolic President Yasser Arafat , four years later. This was a turning point for him, and he then worked on training a number of theatre cadres in Palestine. He also obtained a higher diploma in acting from the special training program at the Dutch-Palestinian Theatre Day Institute (1997-2001), and obtained a higher diploma in a complementary study entitled Measuring Drama in Education and Its Impact from the University of Gdańsk in Poland in 2006.
Its beginning
Zahida worked in the field of musical and audio instruments as a sound technician , in addition to renting this equipment to those who requested it. Ihab did not complete learning to play the guitar in Bethlehem , due to the dangers on the roads between it and Hebron. Then, with time, he began to take it upon himself to organize the sound effects accompanying some irregular theatrical works. He was even responsible for the sound equipment for the visit of the late President Yasser Arafat to Hebron for the first time after his return to the homeland, before Zahida reached the age of twenty.
After that, he was offered to join courses in theatrical training and practical education in theatrical arts with a Dutch artist and expert who paved the way for him from Palestine to Europe through artistic residencies to accumulate experience and learn about theatrical experiences there, such as the Netherlands , Belgium , and Germany .
His professional life
Ihab's first theatrical directing work was in 2003, for a group of young people, based on the texts of a collection of short stories by Ghassan Kanafani , which bore the name of the collection "Bed No. 12". Before this experience, he was an actor, assistant director, or even a supervisor. Throughout these years, the circumstances were difficult, but it was the passion that drove him to act in about sixteen to seventeen theatrical works between the years (1997-2008), in addition to directing several works for children and youth , in addition to a complementary study in Poland specializing in measuring drama in society and the foundations of the art of performance and movement and others in 2006.
Zahida founded the “Yes” Theater in 2008 with artists Mohammed Al-Titi and Raed Al-Shuyookhi. It is the first and only theater in the Hebron Governorate. They worked as a theater group before establishing the theater to build its audience. In 2013, the theater made its first Arab appearance with a performance at the Carthage Theater Days Festival . Zainab Farhat, the wife of the great Tunisian director Tawfiq Al-Jabali, was the first to know and introduce “Yes”’s works in the Arab world. In addition, they presented the play “Lost Horses” for the first time in 2014 at the Jordanian Theater Festival, which was and still is a gateway for Palestinian theater to launch their works in the Arab world. The play then won the Best Theatrical Work Award at the Arab Theater Festival in 2015.
He also acted in many theatrical works that achieved a remarkable local presence, such as “The Walking Boy”, “ The Other Half ”, “The Madman”, “In the Place”, “Untitled”, “The Visit”, and others, some of which exceeded one hundred shows, so that the creative journey continued as a director, actor and playwright as well, reaching “Lost Horses”, “Three in One”, “The Same Problem”, “Games in the Camp”, and finally “ Pedro and the Captain ”, and the list goes on.
He is also a member of the Palestinian Performing Arts Network, a member of the Supreme Committee of the Palestinian National Theater Festival, the second session in 2019, and a member of the jury of the Arab Theater Festival of the Arab Theater Authority, the twelfth session in 2020 in Jordan.
Difficulties in his beginnings
Since the beginning, Ihab has suffered from many difficulties, including the difficulty of working as an artist in the city of Hebron, which also suffers from clear occupation targeting , from settlements that are expanding blatantly and at an accelerating pace, and from military checkpoints that prevent the arrival of an audience not only from other Palestinian cities, but often from towns and villages that are geographically close, but their slogan that they still follow is determination and conviction.
In addition, when he decided to present his first theatrical work with his friends in Hebron, only four people came to attend the play, despite the crowd they had gathered, but they still performed the show. But little by little the pace increased, and they worked to influence those around them, and then expand their circle, and thus we were able to reach what they are now.
Zahida confirmed that one of the difficulties he faced in his first theatrical works was presenting female and male roles that might not be suitable for his age, including roles for the elderly while he was young, but after intensive education and training for no less than eight hours a day, the picture changed, and he began to search for what was better, what was sophisticated and profound, so his first professional directing experience was in 2006 in “The Guard” by Harold Pinter.
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Achievements and Awards
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