Damascus-Sana
A playwright and critic who wrote many texts for adults and children and specializes in writing for the father of the arts. The experience of writer Joan Jan is considered one of the important experiences in contemporary theater writing, and his texts have been transformed into performances inside and outside Syria.
But Jan, who graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, Department of Criticism in 1993, was not satisfied with dedicating his literary output to Al-Khashaba, but rather rolled up his arm to prepare numerous works in criticism and theatrical documentation, recalling influential personalities such as Farhan Bulbul and Abdel Fattah Qalaji and highlighting important phenomena such as his book “Readings in the Text” Syrian theater.
Although Jean has been writing for theater since the year 2000, he finds no objection to some directors quoting from Western texts, confirming during an interview with SANA that the theater experience in Western countries extends for more than 500 years, while our age does not exceed 150 years. There is a huge difference. In practice and tradition, theater in Syria is an immigrant art and not original like poetry. That is why the national theater in Syria began its work in 1960 from international texts of Kashkaspir, Mollier and Chekhov, with the aim of informing the public about this art.
Among the reasons that also limit our directors' sufficiency in our local texts in the opinion of Jan is the presence of many Arabic texts that were written for reading and not for presentation, and this hinders their access to directors, some of which are mental or philosophical and purely literary and have nothing to do with the theatrical scene, given that most of our writers are far from the theatrical kitchen in which it takes place Making work.
But on the other hand, Jean calls on any director or playwright who wants to quote a foreign text to rewrite it again to suit the environment in which he wants to present any text within.
Regarding his opinion of the Syrian theatrical movement, Jan indicates that he was affected during the last ten years by what Syria was subjected to, as most theater festivals stopped for several years, but life began to return to Al-Khashaba, and the audience followed many performances in various governorates and new activities were launched for the first time, such as the Sweida Theater Festival.
As for his opinion of young playwrights, whether they are writers or directors, he pointed out that there is official support to help them start, such as the Youth Theater Support project that was launched by the Theaters Directorate in 2017 to attract talented young people and give them the opportunity to participate in theater festivals that are held in most governorates.
The author of the "Night of Honor" play stops at some playwrights who combined composition with directing and succeeded in that, such as the late writer and director Talal Nasrallah, writer Samer Muhammad Ismail, artist Hisham Kafarneh, and director Faisal Al-Rashed, stressing that he encourages this subject provided that the director is able to find a good theatrical text that parallels his work As a director.
A member of the Sharjah Theater Days Festival jury expresses his hope for the return of the Damascus Theater Festival, even on a small scale, for the shows of Syria and neighboring countries.
On achieving more prosperity in the theatrical movement, Jan believes that it needs more theatrical platforms, expressing his hope that all the timber in the governorates, in addition to the halls of institutions and ministries, especially the Ministry of Education, will be invested and activated through a contractual formula between it and the Ministry of Culture in order to attract the audience more .
Regarding the Theatrical Life magazine, which he occupies as editor-in-chief most of his time, Jan explains that it has a rate of reading locally and in the Arab world, despite the passage of more than 40 years since its founding. Facilities to continue its work despite the various crises, as it did not stop paper or electronic, stressing that this magazine is a continuation of his theatrical project.
Shatha Hammoud
