The Arab Arts Focus (AAF) was born from the belief that arts and culture act as a vehicle for positive social change. Since 2014, AAF has sought to shed light on cultural production in the Arab world, a region brimming with talent and promise. By providing Arab artists with opportunities and platforms to showcase their work, we aim to support the contemporary arts scene, amplify diverse voices from the region, and pave the way for mutual understanding between the Arab world and other cultures.
The 2022 edition of the AAF was incredibly rich, with over 100 delegates representing theatres and festivals worldwide in attendance. We brought programmers and artists from all over the world, including the Arab region, the UK, from across Sub Saharan Africa, as well as Chile, Hong Kong, China, the US, and from all over Europe.
AAF’s rich programme of performances featured this year 7 dance performances, three theater performances, as well as one installation, two exhibitions and a series of talks. The artists came from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine. Two sessions were also held where Arab artists cold pitched their latest works to an audience made up of the delegates. This was an excellent opportunity for them to seek coproduction, residency, or touring opportunities.
Orient for Film and Theatre Productions is a production company based in Cairo. Founded in 2007, its mission is to develop quality projects in the fields of arts, culture, and entertainment with the involvement of practitioners from Egypt, the Arab world, and beyond. Since its inception, Orient Productions has produced and hosted numerous events showcasing innovative works in these different fields.
Orient Productions encompasses a number of art spaces and projects. Oldest among them is The Temple Independent Theater Company, which has been presenting the artistic work of Egyptian director and playwright Ahmed El Attar to local and international audiences since 1993. Orient also oversees Studio Emad Eddin, a one-of-its-kind initiative providing rehearsal spaces as well as workshops and training programs to independent Egyptian performing artists since 2005.
The two latest additions to the group are Maktabi Creative Office spaces, which provides private offices in the heart of Downtown Cairo for creatives in need of a long-term workspace; and Rawabet Art Space. This emblematic venue, Cairo’s first and oldest independent performance space, was renovated by Orient Productions and revamped into a multipurpose, multidisciplinary art space, and reopened its doors in September 2021.
Most recently, Orient Productions has undertaken the Theatre in Translation – Contemporary European Theatre in Arabic project, which aims to translate eighteen contemporary European dramas into Arabic over a period of three years. The texts, which have all been written from 2010 onwards, will be published both in print and online to allow their dissemination to the widest possible audience across the Arab world.
Orient Productions also provides a variety of services to artists and cultural practitioners including marketing, PR, production, stage management and front of house coordination. Orient Productions takes pride in handling a project’s complete journey from conceptualization to completion with an unremitting attention to detail that ensures high quality, successful events.
Since 2012, Orient Productions has been organizing the annual Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF), the largest international, multidisciplinary arts festival in Egypt.
