Caroline Hatem

Caroline Hatem (Lebanon) is a theatre director, dancer, actress, producer and writer. She studied Philosophy (Paris 8), acting (University of Arizona, Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, New-York) and specialized in dance in the United States (Ballet Arts, Trisha Brown Dance School in New York), in France (RIDC, Marc Jébéjian, Atsushi Takenoushi and in Lebanon (Alice Massabki). She's worked with choreographers Alice Massabki as a soloist (Rech Mayya, 2010-2011), Jack Wiley, Soraya Baghdadi, with theatre directors (Edwin Gerard, Vanessa Ford, Wissam Koteit/Joanna Andraos, Danielle Labaki, Nabil el Azan), and filmmakers (acting in films by Luke Stettner (Myron), Michael Stone (How he loved...), Jean-Claude Codsi, A Man of Honor, 2011, Fouad Alaywan, Asfouri, 2013, Lara Saba, Blind intersections, 2013, Shirin Abu Shakra Souleima (2014), Rana Maalouf, Triangle equilateral, 2014, Marwan Khneisser The Servants, 2017, Moe Sabbah Where there's nothing but the sea, 2014 and his long feature film Chronic, 2017, Anthony Yazbeck Un temps de chien, 2018, and Salomé Lamas, Fatamorgana, 2018). Acting in Arabic, French, English. She has created herself "Hor ch'è tempo di dormire", "How they thought a table is a table", The Joy Series, JoKaRi (Collective) and Solitude, with original music compositions by Joelle Khoury, Michael Ashjian, or Rabih Gebeile. A writer as well, she won the Silver Medal at the Jeux de la Francophonie and the Grand Prix de la Mediterranee for her short stories. She published Beyrouth ete 2006 (collective, Editions des Bords Perdus, France, 2007) and Beyrouth Aller Retour/ Beirut rawha rajaa, (short stories, bilingual Arabic/French, collective, Dar el Saqi, Beirut, 2010). Her text was partly used for Cauchemar en trois mouvements, a play performed in Paris and in the Avignon Off Festival (2008-2009) by the Lebanese/French actress Nadine Malo. She was invited as a writer in residency by the Tarmac Theatre (Paris) in 2013 - she completed there a long-feature film script "Cassandre", and a play: "Dans un coin de l'univers, la lune n'a pas de bornes". Her directorial debut in theatre was Al Beyt, a play by Arzé Khodr that was performed in Beirut (KED Beirut, Monnot theatre, Théâtre Béryte) and toured all over Lebanon (Tripoli, Zghorta, Zouk Mosbeh, Hammana, etc, 2018-now) and participated to Carthage International Theatre Festival (Tunis, 2018). Al Beyt was awarded Best actress, Best script and Special Jury Mention for best actress at the first edition of the Lebanese National Theatre Festival (Madina Theatre, 2018). Her second play, Al Zifaf, an adaptation of Brecht's A Respectable Wedding, represented Germany at the European Theatre Festival in Beirut in 2019. Caroline teaches dance and movement for actors at the Art&Movement Dance School since 2010 and at the Lebanese University's Theatre Department (Fine Arts) since 2015. She's co-founder and president of YAZAN, a platform for artists and art practitioners offering resources, support for their projects as well as pedagogic programs. Caroline writes, performs and teaches dance in Beirut.