“The Cairo International Forum’s harvest of university theater from the beginning until the era of the epidemic”
كتب محمد فَجَل | In the seventh issue of Bulletin Cairo International Gathering for University Theater In its third session (The Delight Maker Course / Samir Ghanem)
للمسرح الجامعي طبيعة خاصة وحالة فريدة من نوعها لدى الشباب الممارس للنشاط المسرحي، فهو بالنسبة للطلاب ليس مجرد نشاط يتم ممارسته داخل الحرم الجامعي أو أسرة يتم الانضمام إليها أو حتى أحد الأنشطة التابعة للاتحادات الطلابية التي تتم بشكل دوري.
When you join a theatrical team inside the university, you discover that you have entered another world that is larger than what you imagined, as if it is a door that takes you to other worlds and universes, and not much time passes until this world forks in your connections, suddenly you feel belonging, that you have found your true self, learning good principles and values. You learn how to have a word and a message and how to present it, you get tired, find and bring out the effort and time inside you with all love and happiness, you feel at home, until the product of your effort and those around you arrive when your newborn takes his first steps on the stage.
Here you discover something new - you are not alone - on that wood there is more than one baby and more than one dream, you learn from yourself and those around you and your thirst for more increases.
You are no longer concerned about racing within your university or with universities around it. Rather, what really concerns you is what happens in those events from the beginning of the training until the end of the curtain and your constant thirst for more.
ومن هنا كان ملتقى القاهرة الدولي للمسرح الجامعي، ففي أكتوبر 2018
The Egyptian Artists Foundation for Culture and Arts launched the Cairo International Forum for University Theater under the auspices of His Excellency Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, as the first event of its kind in Egypt that sheds light on a strong artistic sector that is considered an essential tributary of art and culture in any society, which is the university theatre. This is to provide an opportunity for many Egyptian and international university students, artists, and researchers in the field of university theater to meet, discuss, train, and develop their artistic abilities through contact with different cultures and getting acquainted with the artistic creations of others.
But the matter did not stop at that point. After the end of the first session and the results it reaped, there was an urgent need to continue and hold another session of the forum.
ففي أكتوبر 2019 ووسط حضور أعداد كبيرة من محبي وعشاق المسرح ولفيف من الفنانين والمدربين والكوادر المسرحية الهامة بمصر والوطن العربي والغربي، شهدت قاعة إيوارت بالجامعة الأمريكية – تحت رعاية الدكتور مصطفى مدبولي رئيس مجلس الوزراء المصري، والدكتورة إيناس عبد الدايم وزير ثقافة مصر، والدكتور أشرف صبحي وزير الشباب والرياضة – حفل افتتاح فاعليات الدورة الثانية من ملتقى القاهرة الدولي للمسرح الجامعي.
ثم حدثت الجائحة. توقفت الحركة في العالم أجمع، ومعها بالطبع النشاط المسرحي الذي مر عليه موجة أولى وثانية وثالثة وهو في حالة سكون بدأ يتخللها الحراك بشكل طفيف في بعض الجامعات والمحافل الفنية.
Until the dream returned to its track again, and the activities of the third session of the forum were launched from inside the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat
Three roundabouts in which the Forum grows and its steps increase towards a future and a new reality for the university theater, not only in Egypt, but in the whole world.
Among those important steps are the escalating achievements, cycle after cycle - even in light of the epidemic era - whether in the numbers of participating universities, countries, the number of presentations, international workshops, and even the numbers of viewers and participants in the forum.
We present it to you in a statistical way as a documentation of history, hoping that we will see more developments in the upcoming courses, and that the creativity of university youth will continue and flourish with each session.
