Krefeld and Moenchengladbach. The devastating explosion at the port of Beirut in August 2020 also severely damaged the premises of the Zoukak Theater Company. The building in the Karantina district near the port was still standing, but the auditorium, office and rehearsal rooms were devastated. Windows and doors, headlights, computers and other equipment were destroyed. This catastrophe hit the Zoukak Theater Company at a time that was already economically and politically difficult for Lebanon.
In order to help the company rebuild its studio theater and continue its diverse theater activities, actors from the community theater organized financial support at the time – in the ensemble, in the theatre, with the audience and in the German theater landscape. In this way, donations of 20,000 euros were collected. Patron of this solidarity campaign was Krefeld’s Lord Mayor Frank Meyer.
The infrastructure has now been restored. Actress Eva Spott, one of the initiators of the successful fundraiser, visited Maya Zbib in Beirut in December 2022. She was impressed by the energy with which her Lebanese colleagues implemented her creative and innovative ideas despite all the adverse circumstances. One focus of the Zoukak Theater Company is youth work. “The living conditions in Beirut are extreme. Young people in particular therefore have a great need to counteract their everyday life. Theatrical offerings to deal with trauma, to empower young women and to discover their own creativity bring meaning and stability to their lives, which are shaped by insecurities,” says Eva Spott.
Maya Zbib, director and founding member of the Zoukak theater collective, staged “A Memory for Forgetting” at the Krefeld and Mönchengladbach theaters in the 2013/14 season and worked on Heiner Müller’s play “Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome. A Commentary on Shakespeare”, which is currently being played at the Heeder factory in Krefeld.
Founded in 2006, Zoukak Theater Company is one of the most popular cultural centers in Beirut and Lebanon, with an international reputation. Productions by Maya Zbib and other Zoukak members have been invited to festivals around the world, in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and South Asia.
