Ghalia's Miles
Fleeing her family in Lebanon in the hope of building a new life in Europe, Ghalia, a pregnant teenager, makes an extraordinary journey through the Arab World. On her way, she encounters several women who guide her, and she sacrifices almost everything she has to make the crossing. Borrowing elements from mythological characters and archetypal figures of women warriors and nurturers, in addition to stories inspired from real women who were active in the upheavals of the Arab World, the play attempts to draw the changing map of our region through the innocent and feisty eyes of Ghalia and the strong women she meets. Ghalia slowly becomes the representation of the youth’s ability to adapt to the changing and harsh environments of our world today.
Written By: Maya Zbib
Maya Zbib is a theatre director, performer, writer, and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company.
She studied theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts, the Lebanese University (2003) and pursued her MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London (2007). In 2011 she obtained a postgraduate degree in International Cultural Cooperation and Management from IL3, the University of Barcelo- na. Her works were shown at international festivals and venues in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and South Asia.
Commissioned by the city theatres of Krefeld and Monchengladbach in Germany, she co-adapted and directed Mahmoud Darwish’s A Memory for Forgetfulness with the theatres’ ensemble (2013). She was artist in residence with Zoukak at the Sundance theatre Lab, in Utah (2017), at the BAC in London, as part of LIFT festival (2014), at NYU Abu Dhabi (2015), at Schwindelfrei Festival in Mannheim (2014-2016) and at Houston University’s Mitchell Center (2015-2016) as part of CounterCurrent Festival. A staged reading of her play Ghalia’s Miles was read at the Royal Court in London (2016) and at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (2017). Her installation Limbo of the White Sea was presented as part of On The Move within LIFT 2016 at the Royal Court.
Since 2008, Maya leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak in marginalized contexts in different Lebanese regions. She has given talks and workshops and taught at universities and in non-academic contexts, in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Africa.
Zbib is a Chevening/KRSF Alumni (2007), a Cultural Leadership International Alumni (2010), a fellowship recipient of ISPA, New York (2010), was selected as the protégé of Peter Sellars, American theatre, opera and festival director, as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (2011), and she’s a finalist nominee in the Gilder/Coigner International Theatre Award, New York (2014).
She was selected by the International Theatre Institute as one of the 5 message authors for world theatre day 2018, her message was translated into 20 languages and read for tens of thousands of spectators before performances in theatres throughout the world.
