Marina Barham is co-founder and general director of Al-Harah Theater and Performing Arts Training Center (PARC), Palestine. She has produced many theatre productions and organized Yalla Yalla International Children and Youth Theater Festival in Palestine. 

Her experience includes management of several Euro-med projects funded by the EU. She is vice president of Palestinian Performing Arts Network, Euromedinculture Network, and TAMASI Collective for Performing Arts. 

Marina is a trainer in the field of cultural management in the Arab world and an active cultural operator in Palestine, the Middle East and in Europe. She has spoken on the importance of performing arts in Palestine and the Arab world at several European conferences, festivals and events. 

She holds an M.A. in teaching English and an M.A. in media studies.

Marina participated in the Sharing Places Lab in Blanca, Spain.

Founding member and co-artistic director Aurelien Zouki studied theatre in Paris, where he worked as an actor with different directors such as Gilles Zaeppfel, Bruno Thircuir, Jean Bellorini, and Nathalie Garraud. He has also participated in choreographic creations in France and Italy, where he was a performer with Rafaella Giordano. In 2007, he moved back to Beirut and co-founded Collectif Kahraba, with whom he created several theatre, dance, and puppet performances (Landscape of our tears, Origin of a Tale), that toured in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Qatar, Russia, Romania, UK, France, Belgium, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland... 

Always interested in body language and all forms of dance expression, Aurélien participated in mask, butoh, and contemporary dance workshops in Europe and Lebanon. In 2010, he took part in Takween Contemporary Dance Intensive Training. Since 2011, he has also been the co-director of Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran, a multidisciplinary outdoor festival organized by Collectif Kahraba. 

Aurélien’s path has also led him to give workshops to all kinds of groups, amateurs or professionals, as well as marginalized populations or domestic workers in different contexts all around Lebanon. In parallel to his artistic activities, he attended several workshops and training sessions in cultural management.

Aurelien participated in the Atelier Beirut 2022 (as partner and expert) and in The Island Lab.

Omar Abi Azar is a theatre director and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company.

He was the dramaturge and director of several of Zoukak’s performances that toured in various cities in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, South Asia and Africa.

He was commissioned by international festivals, theatres and universities to create original work: NYUAD’s Performing Arts Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center, University of Houston, Texas, Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei Mannheim, Williams College, Massachusetts, among others. He was artist in residence with Zoukak at the Lift Festival, London, Sundance Theatre Lab, Utah among others.

Since 2008, Omar leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak, targeting various communities in different regions of Lebanon and abroad (in Serbia and in Calais’ Migrants’ Camp, France); giving drama-therapy workshops and creating collective performances with various groups.

Since 2013 he co-curates “Zoukak Sidewalks” an international performance festival, and “Focus Liban” a platform showcasing and supporting the work of artists residing in Lebanon.

Omar holds a BA in Theatre from the Lebanese University, Institute of Fine Arts (2006).

Omar participated in the Atelier Beirut 2022 (as partner and expert).