MAHARAT: Building Careers in Performing Arts 2025

 4th Edition | Sept 2025 – December 2025

Ettijahat – Independent Culture has launched the 2025 edition of MAHARAT: Building Careers in Performing Arts, targeting technicians residing in Lebanon, regardless of nationality, who work within the performing arts sector and wish to further develop their technical skills. The programme aims to enhance the existing level of professionalism among technicians in the performing arts by advancing their skills and knowledge to Level Two of the Maharat Technical Training. It is designed to support their established career paths, strengthen existing technical capacities, and enable participants to contribute more effectively to public life and the labor market.

The programme offers the opportunity to engage in a specialized training curriculum facilitated over 14 weeks, at an average of three hours daily in the afternoon, divided over three days per week. Designed by a group of experts in the performing arts field, the programme includes both general and specialized theoretical and applied knowledge, in addition to an advanced practical training component conducted in collaboration with a number of artistic venues and institutions in Lebanon.

This programme is in partnership with DROSOS Foundation.

Selected Participants

Lighting Techniques

Ibrahim Khalil

Ibrahim is a theatre artist and facilitator whose work focuses on collective storytelling and the use of theatre as a space for expression and human connection. His practice spans Playback Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed and devised theatre, blending performance and facilitation to foster dialogue, empathy and social change. A member of the Laban collective since 2017, he has written and directed two theatre productions and participated in a range of community-based theatre projects. He holds a degree in NGO Management and training-of-trainers certification in Drama-Based Facilitation and uses theatre as a tool for healing and collective transformation.

Antonella Rizk

A Beirut-based technical director, lighting designer and theatre performer, Antonella holds a BA in Theatre from the Lebanese University. She has been working in theatre lighting since 2019 and has applied her expertise in more than 200 local and international productions and projects. She has performed in several works, including a production selected for the 2022 Carthage Theatre Days. She currently serves as the technical director at Zoukak Theatre while pursuing her work as a lighting designer and performer.

Toufic al Safawi

Toufic Safawi is a lighting designer and technical director who has worked on more than 25 theatre productions staged in Beirut, Dubai and at various festivals. His passion for theatre continually drives him to seek balance between technical precision and artistic detail, and he views every production as a new opportunity to create a distinctive visual signature.

Jamal Yasser Zrki

A Syrian actor, director and theatre dancer based in Beirut, Jamal holds a BA in Theatre from the Lebanese University (2024). His practice blends traditional theatre with modern expressive arts, including mime, tango, contemporary dance, acrobatic performance and puppetry. He is always seeking to develop his artistic and theoretical skills to strengthen his creative abilities.

Houran el-Sheikh Ahmad

A theatre technician specialising in sound and lighting, Houran began his artistic journey at the age of 16. He has worked on various concerts and theatre performances, as well as video and photography exhibitions. He continues to develop his skills in sound and lighting with the aim of enriching his artistic experience and delivering high-quality productions.

Karam Samaan

A visual artist specialising in merging sound with live imagery, Karam delivers performances that synchronously combine music, lighting and video. His work focuses on creating an immersive experience for the audience, where music and live visuals come together as a single cohesive light-based identity. Houran is known for his innovative work in live VJ performances, laser shows and digital theatrical imaging, marked by precision and artistic creativity.

Mazen Basel al-Ammari

Mazen is a Syrian theatre lighting artist who began working in the field in 2018. He has extensive experience in designing and implementing lighting systems and stage sets. He has worked with Khayal on multiple projects and is committed to developing his professional skills through specialised training programmes in order to strengthen both his artistic creativity and practical expertise.

Michelle el Feghali

Michelle is a multidisciplinary artist and a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lebanon, specialising in theatre arts. She began her career as an assistant director and stage set designer, and has taken part in several theatre productions, stage projects and a short film. Besides studying dance for seven years, Michelle has worked as a lighting artist, set designer and assistant director. She continues to develop her skills in stage design and artistic creation for the theatre.

Sound Techniques

Vana Zeitounian

An artist and sound engineer passionate about music and singing, Vana started as a drummer before discovering her vocal abilities. She has participated in various cultural events and has focused on developing her skills in sound recording and production. She aims to produce fully integrated musical–theatrical works that combine live performance with advanced sound techniques.

Shadi Bayan Safi

Artist, actor and musician, Shadi is a graduate of the Lebanese University and Kafaat University in Cinematic and Fine Arts. He is a member of several music groups and has taken part in a variety of theatre performances in Lebanon. He is currently a student of Middle Eastern Music and Arabic Language and is interested in developing his abilities in live music and theatre as tools for artistic expression.

Marc Rajji

Marc is a Lebanese artist, photographer and theatre director who holds a BA in Economics and an MA in Cinema. Having launched his career in theatre and with the MAHARAT programme in 2021, he is currently working as a stage manager and videographer. He is interested in developing his skills in stage lighting and sound and aims is to create integrated audio-visual theatrical performances.

Marwa Marwan Dandan

A theatre artist interested in human and social expression, Marwa has participated in projects that blend art with lived experience. Her training in stage management enables her to effectively coordinate between the technical and administrative teams. She seeks to develop a professional artistic practice that carries a meaningful message and creates a space for dialogue with the audience.

Production Techniques

Abigail Whitney Carroll

An international production manager and theatre artist, Abigail has worked on theatre and film productions in Berlin, Tunis, Cairo, San Antonio and Beirut. She combines live theatre with multimedia storytelling to craft immersive audio-visual experiences. She seeks to develop her skills in theatre production to better support artists and enable them to present original and innovative work.

Roba Shahadi Areej

A set designer and visual director, Roba holds a BA in Interior Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts and a certificate in scenography from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts. She designs theatre and television spaces that blend creativity with technical execution to offer immersive and well-crafted audience experiences.

Raja Al Zein

Raja is a Lebanese theatre artist and performer interested in cultural and community storytelling, with a focus on empowering women in the Arab region. She has designed and led community storytelling workshops and has presented theatre performances at local festivals and venues. She is fluent in Arabic, English and French, and uses her artistic practice as a tool for cultural communication and audience engagement.

Reem Maroun

Reem is an actress, writer and photographer with a BA in Radio, Television and Film. She has acted in productions for audiences of all ages and has co-written a number of theatre productions. She was the first to introduce audio-description services for theatre in Lebanon, helping to improve accessibility for people with visual impairments. She draws on her expertise to develop innovative arts and education projects.

Selection Committee

Hagop Der Ghougassian – Lighting Techniques

Actor, Director, and Lighting Designer, Hagop Der-Ghougassian holds a PhD in Film Directing and Film Research from IESAV-USJ. He began working as a lighting designer in 1994 with more than 100 lighting credits in theatre, in addition to being the technical manager of Monot Theater since 1997. He is also the founder of the Mephisto Group and Collectif de l’ACT and has directed various plays and short films. Today he is a professor at the Institute for Theater, Audiovisual and Cinematographic Studies (IESAV) and at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University.

Jawad Chaaban – Sound Techniques

Sound engineer, Professor, and Composer, Jawad Chaaban has worked with local and international venues and performers, managing over 2000 live performances and composing sound for a variety of theatre and film productions. After moving to Canada to study Electroacoustic Music in 2007, he designed sound, composed and collaborated on works earlier at the national film board of Canada, and later like feature documentaries “Underdown” and “Kash Kash”.Since 2013, he has been involved as a hands-on innovative educator, for instance developing and teaching a special course at the Lebanese American University, forming a laptop orchestra with the students, and to this day regularly invited to develop and conduct sound design workshops across the region. In 2014, he founded the One Hertz music studio to accompany and support independent audio and musical projects in the Arab Region with well over 100 credits recording, mixing and collaborating with a vast number of local and international award-winning artists and projects.

Marielise Aad – Production Techniques

Holder of a Master’s in Theater Research from USJ and a degree in Acting and Directing from the Lebanese University with distinction, Marielise has toured Lebanon, the Arab world, and Europe for 20 years. She has collaborated with leading local and international artists and worked in diverse settings including prisons, hospitals, orphanages, and elderly homes. She is the executive director of Hammana Artist House and she enjoys being at the service of the global picture of the cultural scene, a supporter for the artists, and a catalyst of change. She enjoys cultivating hope in the future and taking all the inventive means to concretize that in action, while continuing to pursue her engagement as a performer: her latest creation Vol Terre, is a one on one performance of a clown, a wanderer, searching for love in homes of elderly.

Mohammad Farhat - Lighting Techniques

Mohammad Farhat is one of the most prominent technical directors in Lebanon. He is a lighting designer and technical consultant in theatres with more than 25 years of experience. He participated in many Lebanese and Arab festivals as a lighting designer. He designed and implemented lighting for more than 100 theatrical productions to date.

Selection Committee Statement

This is the fourth edition of Maharat’s Technical Training Programme – Advanced Level. The jury observed a clear improvement in the quality of applications submitted by candidates. Despite Lebanon’s recurring crises, it is evident that the performing arts sector plays a fundamental role in sustaining the broader arts sector, underscoring the importance of investing in a new generation of technicians.

This investment contributes to developing the skills of technicians, enhancing the quality of artistic productions locally, ensuring the sustainability of the performing arts sector, and opening new horizons for innovation and artistic experimentation. This would positively impact the cultural landscape as a whole, and society at large.

The jury noted the diversity of backgrounds and experiences in the technical and artistic field, along with a clear appetite among applicants for professional training and development in sound, lighting, and production techniques. The jury sought to assess all applications with precision, taking into account the wide diversity of backgrounds and the opportunities previously available to each applicant.

Some common gaps in general artistic culture were observed among a portion of applicants, particularly regarding familiarity with the evolution of artistic movements and visual references. Nonetheless, this presented an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of developing shared modules that strengthen practical expertise and contextual knowledge of local realities, and that provide broader space for direct engagement in artistic production and contemporary practices.

The jury extends its congratulations to those accepted this year, and encourages all participants, whether selected or not, to deepen their artistic and cultural knowledge and to cultivate creative sensibility alongside technical skills, emphasizing that continuity in learning and practice is the best path toward building a solid professional trajectory and contributing to the development of the performing and technical arts field in Lebanon and the region.