In the Shadow of a Man | Egypt
Playwright: Nesreen Nour
Translator: Dina Amin
Director: Anna Mahow
In Partnership with the Egyptian American Society
Synopsis: Coming soon.
Nesreen Nour, Playwright of In the Shadow of a Man.
Nesreen Nour is an Egyptian playwright and director. She is also a member of the acting syndicate and accredited by the Radio and Television Union. She studied theater at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, and is currently a lecturer in drama at the Higher Institute of Media and Technology in Alexandria. Nour has received many awards from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and festivals: the award for best theatrical script at the International Theater Festival for Youth of the South in 2023 for her play al-haya mina-al-nahiya al-ukhra (Life on the Other Side); best play at the National Theater Center for dhid al-nisyan (Against Forgetting) in 2019; best dramatic script award at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Youth Theater Festival in 2018 for al-hawja (The Upsurge). Her latest work, `ala sath al-wad hamada (On the Roof of Young Hamada), was produced by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 2023 and a radio play, illa rasul-allah (Not the Messenger of God!), with the support of the Swiss Cultural Center and under the supervision of Swiss director Eric Al-Tawfar, in 2020. Fi-qafa ragil, (In the Shadow of a Man), written and directed by her, received the Nihad Selaiha Grant for Arab Creativity, and was presented by the Mesaha Festival in Goethe Institute in 2019. The play was also previously produced at the First Experience Festival on the al-Nahar Theater in 2018. Nesreen Nour’s novel hijrah ila-al-ma’luf (Migration to the Ordinary) was published by Kalima Publishing & Distribution House in 2015, and the collection of plays, tajarib naw`iya (Mixed Experiences), was published in 2020 by the General Authority for Cultural Palaces. Al-hawja and Ibn-souq (The Upsurge and Street Smart) was published by the General Book Authority in 2022.
Dina Amin, Translator for In the Shadow of a Man.
Dina Amin - MFA, PhD, is a stage director and Associate Professor of Theatre and Director of the Theatre Program at the American University in Cairo. She is a co-recipient of the Research Project Award of the Year from Times Higher Education in 2023. She is currently Director General of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre 2014-2019 and again since 2022. Amin is the author of Alfred Farag and Egyptian Theater (2008), co-editor of Salaam: Anthology of Middle-Eastern-American Drama (2009), and From Orientalists to Arabists: The Shifts in Arabic Literary Studies, Journal of Arabic Literature (2010). Amin holds a PhD in Dramatic Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Eng & Comp Lit from AUC the American University in Cairo. She is the recipient of the West Coast Drama Clan Award (in honor of William Ball) for best director at CMU for her production of Ibsen’s A Lady from the Sea. She directs in both the U.S. and Egypt, in Arabic and English. Her latest production is Bank al-Qalaq (Bank of Anxiety) in 2023 and Qanun Antigon (Antigone’ Law, 2022) and Shababik `Attia (Attia’s Windows) in 2021at the American University in Cairo. Amongst her other directing credits are: Hikayat `Alina (Stories About Us, 2019), Al-Farafir (Flip Flop and His Master, 2017), Arden (an Egyptian adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2016), Matsanafneesh (Don’t Label Me, 2015) Segn al-Nisaa (Women’s Prison) by FatHeyyah al-`Assa (2013), Third by Wendy Wasserstein (2012), Beyond Therapy by Christorpher Durang (2008). Dina Amin is published in major academic journals and has translated a number of Arabic plays into English.
Anna Bahow, Director of In the Shadow of a Man
Anna Bahow is a Chicago-based theatre director committed to the development of new work and a diversity of voices. She is an Artistic Associate with Silk Road Rising foregrounding Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern artists, an Associate Artist with The International Voices Project bringing plays from around the world to Chicago, an Associate Artist at Chicago Dramatists and a member of Promethean Theatre. She was honored to have served as a Maggio Fellow at the Goodman Theatre, to be a recipient of a 3ARTS WAVE Grant and several Chicago Individual Artist Grants. Bahow has received awards for her direction and her productions have received JEFF Awards for New Work and Use of Multi-Media.