Yemeni playwrights and actors honored, new festival unveiled [Archives:2006/936/Culture]

A mass honoring for some 60 Yemeni theatrical writers, actors and actresses took place Friday evening, April 9, at the Sana'a-based Cultural Center with Minister of Culture Khalid Al-Rowaishan presenting awards to actors and actresses from various parts of Yemen.

The celebration included both deceased and living Yemeni theater pioneers like Ahmed Al-Zurqah, Ra'oofah Hassan, Zahrah Talib, Hamoud Al-Amrani, Farid Al-Dhahiri and others.

The evening's festivities kicked off with television shows of famous old Yemeni plays. Ali Sa'eed Yafi'ee delivered a speech on behalf of the honorees wherein he set forth the theatrical community's wishes to construct a theater house and a cultural center for the city of Aden, as well as increase actors' wages.

Al-Rowaishan announced that his ministry is studying a plan to organize a new theatrical festival in addition to “Aden Theatrical Nights Festival” and “Sana'a Theatrical Nights Festival,” both of which were announced recently.

The new festival is to be named the “Bakathir Theatrical Festival” after Ali Ahmed Bakathir, the late Yemeni playwright and thinker who was born and lived in Hadramout and moved among Yemen's various provinces, as well as several Arab countries, before eventually residing in Cairo.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the festival will be devoted to boosting senior and young theatrical talent, as well as concentrate on performing Bakathir's plays. Al-Rowaishan added that the festival will be organized during the next few days.
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