Under Her Excellency, the Minister of Social Development and the Head of the Authority’s Department, Eng. Ahmed bin Suleiman Al-Rajhi, the activities of the Sixth Theater Festival for People with Disabilities in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries kicked off in Riyadh yesterday evening. It is hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in conjunction with the International Day of People with Disabilities, as it lasts for seven days on the red stage at Princess Nourah Bint AbdulRahman University.

Qatar is participating in the festival with the theatrical work "From the Chair to the Top", written and directed by Ibrahim Lari. Next Wednesday evening, it will be shown among the six competing performances in the festival: the play "Al-Markaz" for the host country, which was shown at the opening, and written by Al-Awn Center and directed by Dania Ghandour, and the play "Journey" to the Kingdom of Bahrain, written by Yaqoub Youssef and directed by Muhammad Al-Saffar and Jasim Muhammad, and the play "Journey of Suffering" for the Sultanate of Oman, written by Saad Allah Wannous and directed by Bader Al-Nabhani, and the play “Nour Aini” for the State of Kuwait, written by Khaled Al-Qattan and directed by Rashid Al-Mutawa.

This festival, which is held every two years with periodic hosting, aims to integrate people with disabilities into social events, and cultural and artistic activities, and provides them with the opportunity to realize their dreams and share their talents and abilities in the arts of theatrical acting.

The Ministry of Social Development is always keen to pay attention to the talents of people with disabilities and works to integrate them into the community and cultural activities and events internally and externally.

Director Ibrahim Lari said that the theatrical show participating in the festival "From the Chair to the Top" is produced by the Department of Elderly and People with Disabilities at the Ministry. He declared that the director does not like what the actors offer because they do not feel what they are presenting, and through this, the message that he wants to convey to the audience through his theatrical text does not reach. Thus, the conflict begins between the director and the actors. At the end of the show, the director’s basic idea has been modified and delivered differently.

Furthermore, he added that the team prepared to present distinguished work that can compete creatively with our Gulf brothers. This festival is an affirmation and continuation of the GCC countries' approach to supporting and developing people with disabilities. It is seen as an opportunity to demonstrate and develop the abilities and talents of this group in a competitive atmosphere on stage, thus contributing to the refinement of their characters.

While working to achieve several direct and indirect objectives, this festival also includes instilling and developing the trust of the disabled and refining these talents through training, accumulating experiences, stimulating, and developing cultural and theatrical mobility in the field of disability in the GCC States, as well as providing the opportunity to express their issues in all matters in their communities theatrically.

Every two years, this festival is organized for people with disabilities, and it is being hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its sixth session this year. Before that, it was hosted by the State of Kuwait in its fifth edition, within the framework of the common Gulf interest in the issue of disability and its problems and its transfer from care to empowerment, including the need to build the capacities of people with disabilities, empower them and integrate them into society.

The participation of the Qatari delegation is an important contribution to this festival, which is classified as one of the most important theatrical stations to read and reflect on the reality of theatrical artists with special needs in the Arab Gulf.

Perhaps the most important of these stations are the practical seminars that are held after each theatrical performance. Through it, the theatrical experience is read, the extent to which it relates to the theater for people with special needs or not, and the problems facing this experience, and how to avoid and overcome them by anchoring to the visions of researchers in this field, from It would develop the experience and elevate it to more broad spots in accommodating this type of theater and its multiplicity of forms and artistic contents.