Bayan Shbib
Actress, Theatre Director & Playwright
Bayan Shbib is a bilingual Palestinian Syrian actress, Theatre director and playwright. She worked as an Instructor of Philosophy, Cultural studies and English Literature in various academic institutions: Birzeit University and Friedrich Schiller University, Germany and Al Kasaba Theater Academy, International Academy of Contemporary Arts, Palestine. She served as a Cultural Attache’; in the Palestinian Embassy in Vienna, Austria between 2018-2020. She holds a Masters degree with distinction in Theater Acting from University of Essex, UK as well as Masters in Comparative Literature from Al-Quds University in 2004; she worked as an in-house actress, director, playwright and drama trainer in Ashtar Theater.
After joining Ashtar Theater in 2005 as a full-time actress and director, she participated in the plays produced by Ashtar Theater, in particular “Twenty Minutes”, “Women under Spotlight”, King Richardii. She directed The Gaza Monologues 2013 an English Version that was recognized for its international tour in Germany and Austria with KinderKultur Karavan. With her autobiographical monodrama“Safad-Shatilla” she won the prize of Best Actress in Cairo Experimental Theater Festival 2006. Her latest works as a playwright are two monodrama plays: “2077- Who wants to Survive” and ×´Ventolin of Return.” She has also been awarded the “Sunbird” jury prize for best film script in 2020 for “Ornina and The Ghoula”. Bayan Shbib is a multidisciplinary artist that brings her understanding of literature, arts and sociopolitical narrative into the theater-making process. For that, she has been a main playwright for many theater of the oppressed plays produced by Ashtar Theater. Recently, she is a PhD researcher studying the role and impact of Victimhood narrative in Palestinian Theater.