Tahrir CultureFest: Day in the Life of Student Performers

When the lights go down in the Falaki Mainstage Theater at AUC Tahrir Square, anything is possible. “I walked in and never came out,” said Ahmed El Attar ’93. “I felt I found my home.” If he had to rank the theaters in the city, El Attar said the Falaki Mainstage Theater comes second only to the Cairo Opera House. “It's not just the stage but also the spirit,” he said. “It’s good to have a well-equipped space, but it’s equally important to have people who know what they’re doing. The Falaki theater is one of the best in Cairo.”El Attar is an independent theatre director, translator, playwright and founder of multiple arts and cultural spaces. His work has shaped contemporary theatre in Egypt and abroad — and it all began by chance.Starting as a computer science major at AUC, El Attar first entered theatre as an assistant stage manager on a friend’s production. “I changed my major to theatre the next semester,” he recalled. After graduating, AUC offered El Attar and two other alumni the opportunity to return and each direct a one-act play. His final production at the Wallace Theater on the Greek Campus was Oedipus the President, before his work moved to the Falaki Mainstage Theater.At the time, El Attar asked the theatre program for permission to use the stage during the summer. “I would produce and rehearse my shows there, then I’d take the project on tour,” he said, eventually returning to the same process at Falaki every two years, until the theater shut down during the 2011 revolution. When the theater reopened in 2012, AUC invited El Attar back in a managerial capacity. At the time, he was already running Studio Emad Eddin, an independent space supporting Cairo’s performing arts scene, and was among the few alumni still working professionally in theatre. He was also preparing to launch D-CAF: Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, Egypt’s largest international multidisciplinary contemporary arts festival.His return helped position the Falaki Mainstage Theater as a hub for international collaboration and contemporary performance in Cairo, closely integrating it with D-CAF’s annual programming. Through this partnership, the theater hosted work across performing and visual arts, music and panel discussions — becoming a key venue in Egypt’s independent arts scene.El Attar’s persistence paid off. In 2015, his work was selected for the Festival d’Avignon in France, one of the world’s most influential theatre festivals. This year, he returns to the Avignon Festival with a new play, Salma, Mon Amour, which will open at the Falaki Mainstage Theater in June 2026 before touring across Europe. “It’s like going to Cannes with a film. You feel confident that you’ve really accomplished something,” he said. Yet even as his work travels internationally, its foundations remain rooted in the spaces that shaped it. Universities, he said, play a role in theatre similar to Broadway in the commercial sector, acting as key spaces for alternative and emerging work. In Egypt, institutions such as Cairo and Ain Shams universities sustain active student theatre scenes, with regular productions and annual performances.Within this landscape, AUC stands out not only for its resources but also for having a dedicated theatre program and the infrastructure to sustain it. “That support made a difference,” he said.In the late 1980s, then-student El Attar worked as an assistant props master on a major production of the Three Sisters by Chekhov. As he described it, the set required a wide range of props: a dining table, chairs, dinnerware and a Russian samovar. “We looked all over Cairo for this samovar,” he said, referring to the traditional metal urn used to heat water for tea. “It was not easy, but I remember finding it in AUC President Richard F. Pedersen’s office at the time. I was really focused on finding this samovar, and he let us borrow it.”Even in smaller, more incidental moments, there was space to experiment and explore. Like the myriad of characters he brings on stage, El Attar said those involved in theatre come from different backgrounds. “It’s not only about theatre majors; it’s about students from other departments who discover their passion later. They succeed even though they started elsewhere,” he said. Everyone’s perspective has value, and there’s no wrong time to get involved. That openness, he added, does not make the path easy because success is not linear. “If you’re a banker or an engineer, if you’re good and you work hard — you can climb the ladder,” he said. “But you could be a great artist and still never make it. In art, there are no guarantees.”Despite international recognition, the Falaki theater holds a special place in El Attar’s journey. “It feels like I never left Falaki,” he said with nostalgia. 

Lights, camera, action! AUC’s Falaki Mainstage Theater at the Tahrir Square campus will be hosting the acclaimed theatrical production Bakathir Museum, as a part of a new partnership between AUC and the Hadhramout Culture Foundation. The play will run on May 1 and 2, 2026, marking 115 years of the visionary writer Ali Ahmad Bakathir (1910–1969) and reviving his creative legacy through a contemporary theatrical vision. To register, click here.Bakathir Museum is part of an ongoing series of cultural events launched at the Cairo Opera House in December 2025 under the theme “115 Years of Influence.” The initiative celebrates Bakathir’s literary legacy by reinterpreting it through contemporary tools to reach new audiences across the Arab world. Poet, novelist and playwright Ali Ahmad Bakathir is widely regarded as one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Arabic literature. He shared Egypt’s State Appreciation Award with Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz and produced memorable works, including the novel Wa Islamah and the epic Omar ibn al-Khattab. He was also the first to present a poetic Arabic translation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.Directed by Ahmed Fouad, Bakathir Museum blends drama, music and modern visual media, sharing the work of Bakathir through a contemporary lens. Performed three times over the coming weekend, the production serves as a theatrical journey inside a “living museum,” where characters come alive and Bakathir’s ideas return to life on stage The play moves beyond conventional documentary approaches to engage today’s audiences through a vivid and intellectually resonant artistic language. “Partnerships like this one with the Hadhramout Culture Foundation are central to AUC’s mission,” said AUC President Ahmad Dallal. “One of the University’s enduring commitments is connecting knowledge across generations. By hosting Bakathir Museum, we bring a rich literary legacy into conversation with today’s students, intellectuals and scholars, bridging the past and the present,” Dallal added."One of the University’s enduring commitments is connecting knowledge across generations. By hosting Bakathir Museum, we bring a rich literary legacy into conversation with today’s students, intellectuals and scholars, bridging the past and the present." Along with the theatrical performances, the Hadhramout Culture Foundation has launched the Bakathir Annual Award in Literature, dedicated this year to Arabic poetry for youth. The award aims to discover emerging poetic talent, connect younger generations with Bakathir’s blend of authenticity and innovation, and provide a competitive platform befitting the stature of Arabic literature.The Hadhramout Culture Foundation is a nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to promoting cultural awareness and supporting sustainable creative projects that connect Arab heritage with a global audience. Through grant programs, literary initiatives and performing arts events, the foundation works to support writers, theatre practitioners and musicians while enhancing their presence locally, nationally and internationally. Their partnership with AUC marks the start of a collaboration that shares values of celebrating Arab tradition through literature, theatre and art. “We are not merely commemorating a figure from the past; we are investing in the future of Arab culture,” shared Abdullah Ahmed Bugshan, chairman of the Founders Board of Hadhramout Culture Foundation. “Focusing on younger generations through theatre and the annual literary award is the true guarantee of sustaining Bakathir’s renewed influence.”

Under the shade of the AUC Tahrir Square gardens, students from Sudan, Egypt, the United Kingdom and beyond shared proverbs in their native languages. The exercise brought together undergraduates from the Core Curriculum Global Studies course — Digital Literacies, AI Literacy and Intercultural Learning — and CASA@AUC fellows studying Translation in the Age of AI to explore sociolinguistics, translation and cross-cultural meaning in Arabic.Niobe Tsoutsouris studies Arabic in the CASA@program, a rigorous, yearlong Arabic-language program designed for advanced Arabic learners; she called the chance to speak with peers her age incredible. “There’s no other way to learn the Arabic I should be speaking as a 22 year old,” Tsoutsouris said. The collaboration is part of the Tuesdays in Tahrir initiative, which supports leveraging the historic AUC Tahrir Square campus for hands-on learning experiences.“During this intercultural encounter, students met for cross-cultural insight building around language and translation,” said Maha Bali ’01, professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching and the Core Curriculum course instructor. Shereen El Ezabi is a senior instructor II in the Department of Arabic Language Instruction and teaches the CASA@AUC course. El Ezabi said the collaboration helped her students "come away with new, nuanced Arabic words and idioms to experiment with, over and above the intercultural understanding they gained and the social interaction they enjoyed."Undergraduate students who hailed from across the Arabic-speaking world were eager to speak with CASA@AUC international fellows, whose advanced Arabic skills enriched the exchange. “I enjoyed just the very different experience of talking to someone from a whole other country and background, yet talking my native language. It was such an unfamiliar experience but in a good way,” said Global Studies student Zeina Mostafa.Bali has taught the Digital Literacies, AI Literacy and Intercultural Learning course since 2017. Her students typically spend part of the semester interacting in English with peers from international universities. Last year, her class connected with an American university in English, “but in this case, it's reversed, since the interaction is with students who are fluent Arabic speakers,” Bali said.In several activities, undergraduate students and CASA@AUC fellows discussed sociolinguistics, sharing cultural expressions difficult to translate into Arabic and explaining how each represents different aspects of their cultures. The activity revealed phrases that AUC student Omar Ibrahim didn’t expect to have in common with foreigners. “We found that there are proverbs in Poland and the U.S. similar to the ones we grew up hearing in Egypt. I could feel the hybridity because we were all speaking the same language even though we all came from different places,” Ibrahim said.For student Ismail Tolba, the experience broke down his preconceived notions of Arabic. “I went in assuming a kind of natural ownership over my own language, and I left humbled. Hearing foreigners speak Arabic at a level that surpassed my own familiarity with the classical roots of the language forced me to question an assumption I hadn’t realized I was carrying — that native speakers are automatically the most competent custodians of their tongue,” Tolba said.Yet even for advanced learners, adapting to the accents of native Arabic speakers was a new challenge. Tsoutsouris remembers adjusting to the accent of a Sudanese student. “It was cool listening to her,” she said. “I could understand her just fine, but I had to shift my brain a little bit to stay attuned to what she was saying.” CASA@AUC fellow Eli Siegel-Bernstein spoke with AUC students about how they approach pursuing a liberal arts education in Egypt. “This characterized my own educational experience at Wesleyan University, which is a classic American liberal arts school,” he said.El Ezabi also said a number of undergraduate students asked if similar advanced Arabic courses were offered on New Cairo’s campus.  “I was very glad to see how the Egyptian and Arab undergraduate students seemed thrilled to see their own language so actively sought and so highly valued by others,” El Ezabi said. “Many expressed that this rekindled their interest in their own language which has been largely overshadowed by English, especially in their academic and professional pursuits.” 

Alternative Policy Solutions (APS) sits under the high ceilings of an unassuming office in the historic palace on AUC’s Tahrir Square campus. The think tank is home to policy researchers looking to influence the world of development through in-depth research, consultations and evidence-based policy solutions to some of the most difficult challenges facing Egypt. Rabab El Mahdi ’96, founding director of APS and associate professor of political science, heads the team of researchers and employs some unlikely policy practitioners: undergraduate students in her Introduction to Development class.“We’re challenging students in ways they haven’t experienced before,” El Mahdi stated, “There are so many benefits to having students at work at APS. They learn from the team, but also bring  fresh insights.” Class StructureThe Introduction to Development course is broken up into three parts: an introduction to development theory, a five-week practicum at AUC Tahrir Square and a final project to reflect on the experience. The students spend their Tuesdays in APS’s office, discussing policy with research professionals and learning firsthand the pace of working in a real policy office. They aid in the office’s operations, provide preliminary research for policy analysts and do background research for APS’s publications. Sitting in the APS office on the third floor of the palace, the student researchers brought a palpable energy to the airy office space. They were busy researching the development impacts of the Grand Egyptian Museum opening, Egypt’s involvement in debt swaps and possible programs to use for the APS podcast initiative. The hands-on experience of working on policy solutions in real time is unique to the program and a process that turns policy students into policy practitioners.“The excitement of being in an actual workplace gives them a different drive during their time in the office” said El Mahdi. Students around her buzzed, hard at work. “Hands-on learning has so many benefits in terms of furthering their theoretical understanding of the subject-matter, they apply concepts they learned to current developmental challenges. Plus, there's a different energy at the office than in a classroom.”Sitting in a cubicle in the corner of the office, junior Laila Mamdouh vigorously typed away at her assignment. “It’s making me learn so much so quickly, without it being stressful or overwhelming,” said Mamdouh. “It's not just a typical format where you go to class, take notes and then have an exam. We actually get to apply what we learn, which gives me so much more incentive.”The excitement for their work was notable across students. “We were surprised to see just how big of a project this is,” stated junior political science major Omar Fahim. His chair faced the window that revealed the vibrant gardens of the Tahrir Square campus. “APS talks directly to ministers and the government, so it makes me think that our work could be presented to officials. It motivates me to put my all into it.”More than just encouraging students to critically think about development concepts, the program offers real support to the small but mighty APS office. Mohamed Badereldin, a junior policy researcher at APS, complimented the students helping him on his policy papers. “It’s incredibly useful to have them here in the office,” he said. “Instead of going back and forth on email, I can tell them what I need instantly, and we can have a real conversation about the project. I also think it’s helpful for them to learn how to apply the theories they’ve been taught to real-world situations, which is exactly what we do every day at APS.”Development concepts might seem abstract in the classroom setting, but these students are learning firsthand how to extract their real-world applications. More than just learning the impact of their field, students felt the responsibility to use their education to help policy practitioners and rise to meet that challenge. Having the APS in-office experience was critical for students to understand what being a professional in an office environment is like. For many students, this was their first time personally experiencing office dynamics and expectations. “Dr. El Mahdi’s our professor, but she’s also our boss,” stated student Ginevra Hanna. “She’s treating us just like she treats her employees. It makes me feel grown up, like I can actually do the work.”Learning how to work in an office is just as important as learning to apply policy concepts to real-world scenarios. As an experience, it is something students will take into all future jobs, even if they end up working in different fields. “They get daily feedback from me and my colleagues, which helps them develop their research in real time. I’ve seen them grow tremendously,” added El Mahdi. “It’s important to encourage strong work ethic in AUC students. By putting them in this environment, we’re testing their limits and showing them what they’re capable of.”Tahrir as a Classroom The opportunity to work in Tahrir was a draw in itself for students, bringing them into the busy hustle of the city. “Tahrir is 45 minutes away from my house, so I don’t get to come out here very often,” Mamdouh stated. “It’s really nice to have something to bring me to this campus. The aesthetic of the office is just incredible with Tahrir Square as a phenomenal view; it really pushes me in the mindset of doing quality work. And since it’s part of class, it’s a win-win.”Other students echoed how much they enjoyed coming to the Tahrir Square campus and how a new environment encouraged them to give the class their focus and attention. “You know that if you’re coming all the way out here, you have to actually work hard,” shared Hanna. “If you don’t, then it feels like a waste.”The Introduction to Development’s practicum is part of AUC’s Tuesdays at Tahrir initiative, aiming to bridge the gap between the two University campuses. By providing transportation from New Cairo to Tahrir and vice versa, and encouraging students and faculty to use the Tahrir Square campus as a fixture of their academics, the University is displaying the unity of One University, Two Campuses. It’s also an opportunity to allow students to take advantage of the historic Tahrir Square campus, a landmark and cultural oasis in the heart of Cairo.“I love the Tahrir Square campus, but unfortunately, I don't come here enough. Sitting here doing work makes me feel like it’s my campus, my second home,” Mamdouh continued. “I’m thankful that AUC provides transportation because it motivates me not only to come to campus, but also to explore the Tahrir area, which is so interesting and historic.” The Tahrir Square campus, which has been AUC’s home since its establishment in 1919, hosts a number of AUC programs along with conferences, festivals and symposiums. Its grounds cover a decadent city block that sits parallel to Egypt’s central Tahrir Square. Inside the grounds is a lush lawn, the shade of many palm trees and the historic palace that hosts classrooms, theaters, a cafeteria and, of course, APS. The history of the building is evident in everything from the intricate wood-working detail to neo-Mamluk architecture and designs over the arched windows. The Tahrir Square campus wears its historical and political significance on its sleeve, something felt strongly by the class of politics students. “Bringing students downtown is not just a learning experience; it’s a life experience,” El Mahdi confirmed. “It has to do with working on their essential skills, how to navigate the space and deal with colleagues. Coming to Tahrir gets students familiar with the campus, which is important considering all the cultural events that are organized here. Having a course where the Tahrir Square campus is integral is an incredible opportunity because so many things, like consulting sessions with stakeholders, can only happen in Tahrir. This is the center of the city, and it’s a privilege to show that to students.”