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The Trial snags several major awards at National Theatre Festival The Egyptian National Theatre Festival comes to a close, as the 'The Trial', a play staged by the National Theatre Troupe garners several major awards
The seventh edition of the Egyptian National Theatre Festival came to an end on Monday 25 August with the closing ceremony held at the main hall of the Cairo Opera House. ‘The Trial,' a play staged by the National Theatre Troupe, garnered five major awards: the Zaki Talimat Award for Best Play, the Aziz Eid Award for Best Director, the Hamdy Ghaith Award for Best Actor, the Hussein Gomaa Award for Best Scenography and the Abdel-Azim Oweida Award for Best Music Score. Culture minister Gaber Asfour, along with many other artists and celebrities were present at the closing event where awards were given. Addressing young theatre producers in his speech, Asfour expressed that he was very pleased as their performances reopened many theatres. He added that despite being challenged by terrorism, Egypt has managed to host a 15 day festival that included a total of 53 state and independent troupes. Asfour also told the audience that everyone has the right to be proud of this festival. Asfour referenced Egypt's renowned late poet Salah Abdel-Sabour when underlining that "freedom and justice will come to life." "For freedom is not only freedom of creativity, but it is the freedom to establish all that is new and beautiful, and justice is not only social justice but the dissemination of knowledge and culture," Asfour elaborated. The culture minister also added that he hopes that the citizens of smaller towns – giving examples of Halayeb and Shalateen – would have the same access to culture as citizens in Cairo, and that theatres would open everywhere. He asked the youth to dream with him for tomorrow and to work towards that dream. He emphasised that his role as a minister is to hand-over this responsibility to the youth to create something beautiful on this great land. Nasser Abdel-Moneim, the festival's president, asserted that there is no end to Egyptian's ambition for cultural life and that theatre brings people from individualism to cooperation. He also stated that the festival was extended to move some plays to hospitals to lift patient morale. Abdel-Moneim extended his gratitude to all the artists, technicians and the Culture Development Fund for the success of the festival. The awards distributed for the 12th Egyptian National Theatre Festival are as follows: -- The Zaki Talimat Award for Best Play: 'The Trial' staged by the National Theatre Troupe. Among other nominees for the award were 'Wanted' by the Arts Academy Troupe and 'The Double Bill for Doctor Balmy' by the Palace for Culture of Sidi Gaber were also nominated. -- The Tawfik Al-Hakim Award for the Best Script: withheld this year, -- The Aziz Eid Award for Best Director (worth LE15,000, equivalent to over $2,000: Tarek Doweiry for the Trial, Gamal Yakout was also nominated for the award for 'The Double Bill for Doctor Balmy'. -- The Hamdy Ghaith Award for Best Actor (LE15,000 LE): Ashraf Abdel-Ghafour for 'The Trial'. Ahmed Said was also nominated for his role in 'The Double Bill for Doctor Balmy' -- The Amina Rizk Award for Best Actress (LE15,000): Iman Imam for 'The Double Bill for Doctor Balmy' and Noha Lotfy for 'The Rituals of Life and Death' by Al-Talea Theare. -- The Shafik Nour Award for Best Supporting actor (LE10,000): Ahmed Serag for 'Balady Cafe' by Al-Midan Theatre troupe and Islam Abdel-Shafiea for 'The Double Bill for Doctor Balmy'. -- The Sanaa Gamil Award for Best Supporting actress (LE10,000): Samia Atef for 'Passion of the Madames' by Al-Ghad theatre and Fatma Mohamed Ali for 'The Rituals of Life and Death' -- The Hussein Gomaa Award for Best Scenography (LE10,000): Ahmed Abdel-Aziz for 'Wanted' and Mohamed Gaber for 'The Trial'. -- The Best Lighting Award - (LE5,000): Ramy Benjamin for 'Wanted' -- Abdel-Azim Oweida Award for Best Music Score (LE10,000): Tamer Karawan for 'The Trial' -- The Mahmoud Reda Award for Best Choreography: Monadel Antar for 'His Grace' by the National Culture Center -- The Award for Best Supporting Director (LE10,000): Tamer Karam for 'Macbeth's Night' by Al-Hanager Center for Arts and Mohamed Mahran for 'Wanted' -- The Best Emerging Actor Award: Mohamed Salam for 'The Black Monk' by the Hussein Dawood troupe and Khaled Abdel-Hamid for 'Laila and the Insane One' by the Higher Institute for Theatrical Arts -- The Best Emerging Actress Award: Tharaa Gamil for 'Wanted' and Riham Abdel-Razek for 'Maiden' by The Kabbary Culture Palace http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/109241.aspx
