The fifth edition of the Sharm El-Sheikh International Theatre Festival for Youth (SITFY), scheduled to take place between 1 and 7 April, has announced details of the award for the best play by an Egyptian or Arab playwright. The jury deciding on the winner will include renowned writers and playwrights from the Arab theatre scene: Ayman Salama (Egypt), Sami Al-Gamaan (Saudi Arabia), Mufleh Al-Adwan (Jordan), with the coordinator, writer and critic Dalia Hamam.
This year, the prize will be dedicated to the late academic and theatre writer Ahmed El-Sakhsoukh, who passed away in 2019.
The submissions to the competition for the best play are open until 30 January.
The festival's director Engy El-Bestawy stressed that all submissions should be theatrical texts, written either as a monodrama or a play with multiple characters. The writers whose age does not exceed 40 in April 2020 are welcome to submit their works, putting in mind that the texts should have not been published by any online or printed publication. The festival accepts authors who hold Egyptian or any other Arab nationality, regardless of their place of residence.
The festival's president, director Mazen El-Gharabawy, revealed that the award aims to encourage the Egyptian and Arab playwright movement and to reinvigorate the production of new texts for theatre, something that has seen a decline over the past years. El-Gharabawy stressed that Egyptian theatre suffers from a lack of texts written by young and emerging playwrights.
"We hope to see new texts which will communicate the many ideas of the contemporary youth, point to their creativity, as well as concerns," El-Gharabawy commented.
The prizes for the winners total EGP 10,000 and the winning texts will be published in book format and promoted in the Arab theatre scene.
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