Every Brilliant Thing - Ahmed El Attar

Ahmed El Attar (Director and Playwright)

Ahmed El Attar is a theatre director and playwright. He is the founder and artistic director of the Temple Independent Theatre Company; founder of Orient Productions for Film and Theatre; and founder and General Manager of Studio Emad Eddin Foundation that provides rehearsal, residency and training space to performing artists in Cairo. His works, which address socially relevant themes, have been performed to critical acclaim throughout the Arab world and internationally. El Attar earned a BA in Theatre from the American University in Cairo (1992) and an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle (2001), and was a Chevening scholar on the Clore Leadership Programme, UK (2009).

He was born in 1969 in Cairo, where he continues to live and work.

Nanda Mohammad

Graduate of the Higher Institute of the Dramatic Arts in Damascus-acting, 2001. Since then, Syrian actress Nanda Mohammad worked in Syria with a large number of Syrian theater directors, mainly with Naila Al-Atrash and Omar Abu Saada. Though deeply involved in the Syrian contemporary theater scene as an actress, but also as a theater pedagogue, Nanda Mohammad is regularly casted by regional and international theater directors, such as Tim Supple (UK), Jean-Michel Pesenti (France), Nullo Facchini (Danmark), Ariane Mnouchkine (France), Khaled Al-Tarefi (Jordan/Palestine), Catherine Schaub Abkarian (France), Laila Soliman (Egypt), Henri Jules Julien (France), Ahmed El Attar (Egypt), Pascal Rambert (France), and Daniel San Pedro (France) among others.

She performed in many prestigious international festivals and theaters such as: Festival d’Avignon, Edinburgh International Festival, Festival d’Automne, LIFT festival, Lincoln Center, World Theater Festival Shizuoka, Onassis Cultural Center, Zurich Theater Spektakel, Perform Sharjah, Festival Les rRencontres à L’échelle, Kennedy Center, Theater de Vidy, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, La batie, Schaubuehne Theatre, Teatro Arena del Sole, Napoli Teatro festival, Bozar, Ozasia festival, DCAF, Dramaten, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Adelaide Festival, MC93 Bobigny, Schlachthaus Theater, Singapore International Festival of Arts, Wiener Festwochen, Festival Les Vagamondes, Sharjah Biennale , Seoul Bo:m International Festival, among many other important festivals and theaters.

She has also worked as a voice and acting coach in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Switzerland, and Italy since 2004. Besides theater, she has also pursued a career in cinema and television. She has been based in Egypt since 2012 and works regularly with the Egyptian director Ahmed El Attar in addition to acting in various international performances. In 2020, she was awarded the French National Order of Merit for Arts and Letters, Knight Degree.