Zoukak Sidewalks 2018 - The Festival presents:
Designing the Artist's Experience
Public Conversation
Christopher Hibma (Sundance Institute) with Omar Abi Azar (Zoukak)
Wednesday 7 of November at 7:00 p.m. at Zoukak Studio, Beirut
Free Entry
Tickets available through ihjoz.com and at the door
Join Sundance Institute Theatre Program Producing Director Christopher Hibma and Omar Abi Azar for a conversation about how environments for Sundance artists are designed. Learn more about how creativity and community are expressed both in physical space and in the relationships producers have with artists. Introduction by Jumana Al-Yasiri.
Artist's Biography
Christopher Hibma is a dedicated producer with over 20 years of nonprofit leadership in program development and organizational management, and an expertise in facilitating partnerships across cultural and institutional divides and between public and private sectors. Since joining the Sundance Institute Theatre Program in 2005, he has overseen the Program's diverse and expanding roster of artist support activities in the U.S. and internationally. In addition to producing Sundance's annual flagship Lab in Utah and its ongoing residencies in partnership with MASS MoCA and the Ucross Foundation, he has implemented numerous niche residencies, director retreats in France with LUMA Foundation, and play development intensives in East Africa. He is currently producing the Theatre Program's international engagement with the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, including Labs & Residencies in Morocco and Germany. Prior to joining Sundance Institute, he served as Managing Director for Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis as well as General Manager for the Minnesota Boychoir. He has been on the directing staffs for Broadway's The Lion King and numerous productions at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theatre. He has worked as a graphic designer for a boutique firm in the Twin Cities, and maintains an active interest in design, urban planning and architecture. He lives with his husband and little girl in Brooklyn.
Omar Abi Azar is a theatre director and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company. He was the dramaturge and director of several of Zoukak’s performances that toured in various cities in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, South Asia and Africa.
He was commissioned by international festivals, theatres and universities to create original work: NYUAD’s Performing Arts Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center, University of Houston, Texas, Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei Mannheim, Williams College, Massachusetts, among others. He was artist in residence with Zoukak at the Lift Festival, London, Sundance Theatre Lab, Utah among others.
Since 2008, Omar leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak, targeting various communities in different regions of Lebanon and abroad (in Serbia and in Calais’ Migrants’ Camp, France); giving drama-therapy workshops and creating collective performances with various groups.
Since 2013 he co-curates “Zoukak Sidewalks” an international performance festival, and “Focus Liban” a platform showcasing and supporting the work of artists residing in Lebanon. Omar holds a BA in Theatre from the Lebanese University, Institute of Fine Arts (2006).
Zoukak Sidewalks – The festival 2018 is supported by: Drosos Foundation, AFAC – Arab Fund for Art and Culture, the Sundance Institute, the Goethe Institute, the British Council, the French Institute – Paris, the French Institute – Lebanon, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Beirut Office, Salon Du Livre Francophone.
