Awni Karoumi

Awni Karoumi ( Arabic عوني كرومي, DMG ʿAunī Karūmī ; * July 22, 1945 in Mosul , Ninawa Province ; † May 27, 2006 in Berlin ) was an Iraqi director , theater scholar . Until 1990 he was assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, then full professor at Yarmuk University in Jordan.

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Karoumi studied acting and directing at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad between 1962 and 1965. He graduated with a degree in theater arts. In 1972 he received his diploma in theater studies, section Aesthetics and Art Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1976 he received his doctorate as Dr. phil. in Theater Studies, Section Aesthetics and Art Studies at Humboldt University.

He then worked from 1977 to 1981 as theater studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, where he was promoted to assistant professor for theater studies in 1981. He held this post until 1990 and then took over a professorship for theater studies at the Faculty of Education and Fine Arts of the Yarmuk University in Irbid (Jordan) from 1991 to 1995 . Since 1995 he has worked as a freelancer at various theaters and universities, including the Theater an der Ruhr .

At that time he and his family applied for asylum in Germany, after being targeted by Islamic fundamentalists first in Baghdad and later also in Jordan because of his productions.

His focus was on the teaching of acting, directing, theater studies, interpretation and analysis, theater criticism and theater history. He was also involved in the scientific supervision of the MA theses of several students.

Own productions

Karoumi staged mainly in Baghdad, later, from 1996 also in Germany, especially in Berlin. In addition, he also appeared in other countries, primarily in the Arab world. In particular, during his time at Yarmuk University in Irbid, he staged several plays.

As an actor

As an actor, Karoumi mainly appeared in 1997. He played in the Theater an der Ruhr under the direction of Roberto Ciulli in the play "Schlangenhaut" and in Berlin in A Report for an Academy by Franz Kafka under the direction of Saleh Husseini. In the same year he played in Bahrain in the pieces "at-tawarbuk" ("The Floors") by Fauziya asch-Shuwaish, "al khiyûl" ("The Horses") by Ibrahim Abdallah Ghuloum and "dschuwîra" by Aqîl Suâr. In 2002 he appeared again in Bahrain in "The performance has not yet begun" by Ismael Fehat.

Scientific lectures

Karoumi also became known for his theater studies lectures held around the world, which took him throughout the Arab world, but also to Europe and even to Cuba.

List of publications in Arabic

Books

• 1979 turudsch tadrîs at-tamthîl (methodology of acting classes), Baghdad
• 1980 fann-al-tamthîl (The Art of Acting), Baghdad
• 1982 al-masrah al-madrasî (The School Theater), Baghdad
• 1993 muqadima fî-l-masrah (introduction to the theater), Irbid; hawl an-naqd al-masrahî (On theater criticism), Irbid
• 1998 Rûbîrtû Giûllî wa-masrah ar-rûr (Roberto Ciulli and the Theater an der Ruhr), Ministry of Culture Syria, Damascus
• 2001 Roberto Ciulli and twenty years at the Ruhr -Kairo Germany Contemporary theater- Qatar
• 2006 Theater Labor - United Emirates
• 2006 the School Theater - United Emirates

Typewritten titles (in Arabic)

• 1983 Acting, 3rd year, Baghdad
• 1984 Directing in the theater, Baghdad
• 1984 Draft for the methodology of work at the People's Theater, Baghdad
• 1989 Research program on experimental theater, Baghdad
• 1989 Acting - Language of Movement in Theater, Baghdad

items

• 1974 wazifat al-muhridsch fî-l-masrah (role of director in the theater), in: Madschalla al-Mataqqaf al-Arabî, No. 4;
• awrâq ghair mansûra ´an Taufîq al-Basrî (unpublished papers on Tafiq al-Basri), in: Madschalla as-Sînima wa-l-Masrah, No. 3;

al-film at-tasdschîlî (The Documentary), in: Madschalla as-Sînima wa-l-Masrah, No. 4

• 1978 al-masrah fî-riyâd al-atfââl (The theater in kindergarten), in: Madschalla al-Aqlâm, No. 2;
• Hypotheses in the ancient Iraqi theater, in: Madschalla al-Aqlâm, No. 3
• 1979 Krotowski and the poor theater, In: Madschalla al-Aqlâm, No. 2;
• Heiner Müller's theater, in: Madschalla al-Aqlâm, No. 2
• 1987 The Movement in the Theater, in: Madschalla Fadâ´at Masrahîya, No. 3
• 1991 About the 1st Jordanian Theater Festival, in: al- Fanûn, No. 10
• 1992 Questions of the Alienation of Arab Theater, in: Masrah al-Urdunî, No. 1 fann at-tamtil (The Art of Acting), in: al-Fanûn, No. 1
• 1994 asch-shaklaniyîn wa-tadschrîb fî-l-masrah (Problems of Formalists and the Situation of Experimental Theater), in: Dirasât Masrahîya, No. 3;
• al-haraqa-lughat al-masrah (The language of movement in theater), in: al-Hayat al-Masrahîya, Volume 47

List of publications in German and English

• 1974 Jawad Salim, a modern artist from Iraq, in: Bildende Kunst, issue 3;
• New plays in the Syrian theater, in: Theater of Time, No. 8;
• Story by Nureddin al-Sadiq, in: ibid.
• Brecht im Irak, in: Theater der Zeit, No. 9;
• The significance of the staging of Brecht's “Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti” in Baghdad, spring 1973, in: Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Ges. Sprachw. R. XXIII, 1974, 3/4
• 1977 On the problems of depicting social reality in the Iraqi theater, in: Theater and Social Reality, Berlin
• 1980 Brecht in Iraq, in: Brecht 80. Berlin
• 1982 Problems of the development and the current situation of the Arab-Iraqi theater, in: Material zum Theater, Nr. 165, series: * Internationales Theater, H. 12, Berlin
• 1998 The scandal in Damascus surrounding Brecht's petty bourgeois wedding, in: INAMO No. 14/15, summer / autumn 1998
• 2000 A director about Arab theater - theater of the time

Membership in organizations, functions

In Baghdad, Karoumi was a member of the University's Scientific Council and a member of the Theater Faculty Council for fourteen years from 1977. From 1975 he was also artistic director of the Volksbühne and from 1977 belonged to the Iraqi artists' union. In 1987 he also became a member of the Iraqi International Theater Institute (ITI) and in the following year a member of the High Committee of the Baghdad Theater Festival.

In 1989 in Kuwait he was a member of the Arab Theater ensemble.

During his time in Irbid he was a member of the Council of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Yarmuk University and from 1992 head of the Drama Department of Yarmuk University.

In 1998 in Berlin he was one of the founders of the “Masrah Theater Association”.

Awards and recognition

In 1978 Karoumi received a first prize for the production of "The Life of Galileo Galilei" at the Mosul University Festival and a recognition medal for "The Silence and the Wolves" in Havana . A year later he was honored with the 1st prize for “Don't look through the keyhole” at the Festival of the Workers' Theater in Baghdad. Also in Baghdad in 1980 he received the title of “Best Iraqi Director” for “Theatrical Poems” and “Above the Line of Rejection”.

In 1987 the Carthage Festival in Tunis honored Karoumi with the 1st prize for directing "Melody of the Rocking Chair" and he received the "Silver Medal for 25 Years of Theater Work in Iraq". In 1991 he received a gold medal for "recognition as an avant-garde theater maker" at the Carthage Festival in Tunis. This was followed in 1999 by a certificate of honor for directing the play “The Floors” by Fauziya asch-Shuwaisch at the “Festival of Poetry” in Bahrain.

Web links

• Obituary on the website of the DGB Berlin-Brandenburg
• Spiegel interview with Karoumi
• Publisher Theater der Zeit
• Sabine Kebir: What Awni Karoumi could give us. In: Ossietzky 13/2006