# Walid Kowatli

Walid Kowatli aka Walid Al-Kowatli or Walid Al-Quwatli (Arabic: وليد القوتلي‎) is a Syrian theatre director and playwright, known for directing the Lak' bin Lak' written by Emile Habibi and Waiting for Barbarians an adaptation of Waiting for the Barbarians poem by Constantine P. Cavafy.

## Early life and education

Kowatli was born and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He obtained his degree in Theater Direction from the Institute of Art Studies (Krystov Sarafov, formerly) in Sofia, Bulgaria, class of 1973.

## Career

Kowatli headed the Acting Department at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus from 1991 to 1992, before heading the acting department he joined the institute as a teacher in 1979 to teach the art of acting, the basics of directing and the theater laboratory.
From 1976 to 1999, he was appointed as director at the Department of TV drama in the Syrian Arab TV, where he directed skits and plays the TV a number of them were directed to children and young.
In March 2012, he headed the jury for theater days for the Colleges of Applied Sciences in Oman, and in the sixth Kalba Festival plays short in the UAE in 2017. In the same year, he received the Golden Shield commemorating the Syrian meeting in Dubai.
During the period from 2013 to 2017, he worked on a number of documents addressing Syrian children lost during wartime. His work was presented on stages such as the Syrian National Theater and Al-Kabbani Theater in Damascus and the Sorbonne Theater in Paris.
Kowatli directed nearly 30 predominantly experimental and poetic plays during his tenure in the theater career, and has worked with the rising generation artists in amateur bands such as Waha Al-Raheb.

## Work
### Theatre

Plays in Syria :
| Number | Stage name | Author | General presentation | Place of presentation |
| 1 | Topaze | Marcel Bagnol | 1974 1974 | Al-Shabiba Theater Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 2 | The Zoo Story | Edward Albi | 1978 | Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 3 | Lak' bin Lak' | Emile Habibi | 1981 | Workers Theatre - Damascus |
| 4 | The Frogs | Aristophan | 1981 | Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 5 | The Story of Vasco | Georges Schehadé | 1982 | National Theater - Damascus / graduation project |
| 6 | January | Yordan Radychkov | 1983 | National Theater - Damascus |
| 7 | Peace | Adaptation by Walid Kowatli | 1985 | Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 8 | The King Will Die | Eugène Ionesco | 1990 | Workers Theatre - Damascus / graduation project |
| 9 | The Fox and the Grapes | Guilherme Figueiredo | 1991 | Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus - Damascus |
| 10 | Inspired by the Improvised Comedy | Walid Kowatli | 1991 | Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus - Damascus |
| 11 | The Lesson | Eugène Ionesco | 1992 | French Cultural Center |
| 12 | Kaspar | Peter Handke | 1992 | National Theater - Damascus / graduation project |
| 13 | The Origin of The Story | Bakr al-Sharqawi | 1992 | National Theater - Damascus / graduation project |
| 14 | Crazy Days | Nikolai Gogol | 1994 | Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 15 | No Comment | Walid Kowatli | 1996 | Al Qabbani Theater - Damascus |
| 16 | Stories of the Body | Walid Kowatli | 1997 | Workers Theater - Damascus |
| 17 | Eye of the Moon | Walid Kowatli | 2004 | National Theater - Damascus |
| 18 | Waiting (playing with Beckett) | Walid Kowatli | 2006 | National Theater - Damascus |
| 19 | Flight Attempt | Quote Walid Kowatli | 2008 | Damascus Opera House - Damascus |
| 20 | Waiting for Barbarians | Adaptation by Walid Kowatli | 2010 | Opera House - Damascus |
| Plays outside Syria |||||
| Number | Stage name | Author | General presentation | Place of presentation |
| 1 | Lak' bin Lak' | Emile Habibi | 1981 | Tunisia: Carthage theater |
| 2 | Crazy Days | Nikolai Gogol | 1995 | Arab World Institute - Paris |
| 3 | Very Happy Woman Days | Walid Kowatli | 1995 | Stuttgart - Germany Theater "Camel Sand" - Paris |
| 4 | As You Like | Walid Kowatli | 1999 | Theater of the Sorbonne - Paris Mediterranean Festival: Monfalcon - Italy |
| 5 | As You See | Walid Kowatli | 2000 | The Opposite Bank Festival: The wooden Sword Theater - Paris |
| 6 | Curtains and Colors | Walid Kowatli | 2003 | Sharjah Sixth Interchange: Beit Al Shamsi - Sharjah |
| 7 | Violence | Walid Kowatli | 2003 | A theater workshop for the Department of Culture and Information - Sharjah |
| 8 | Waiting (playing with Beckett) | Quote by Walid Kowatli | 2006 2008 | Amman Theater Festival - Jordan Okinawa Theater Festival - Japan |
| 9 | Waiting for Barbarians | Walid Kowatli | 2010 | Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theater |
| 10 | The Seven Days of Time | Nouri al-Jarrah | 2012 | Doha - Qatar |
| 11 | We and the World | Walid Kowatli | 2016 2017 | Gaziantep - Turkey Istanbul - Turkey |

### Television and documentaries

* 2013: The Children of Syria Ascend to Heaven
* 2014: Bird of Fire
* 2015: Baptized with Fire
* 2016: Maram: The Assassination of a Dream

### Translations

* The Fox and the Grapes — play by Guilherme Figueiredo (translated from English)
* Crazy Days — play by Nikolai Gogol (translated from Bulgarian)
* January — play by Yordan Radychkov (translated from Bulgarian)
* The Art of Theater — book by Boris Zakhava (translated from Bulgarian)
* With Water — poet by Salah Stétié (translated from French)