PRODUCER AND WRITER- Dr. Samah Sabawi
Dr. Samah Sabawi is an award winning playwright, scholar, commentator and poet who wages “beautiful resistance” through her writing and her art. Sabawi received a prestigious Green Room Award for best writing and was shortlisted for the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Her award-winning play THEM premiered at La Mama (2019), was selected for the Victorian Certificate of Education drama playlist. Samah Sabawi’s longest running play Tales of a City by the Sea first premiered at La Mama (2014), and has since been staged over 100 times worldwide. Sabawi’s other works include the ground breaking anthology Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, winner of the Patrick O’Neill Award, and I Remember My Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud and Jehan Bseiso, winner of Palestine Book Award. Dr. Sabawi was awarded a PhD from Victoria University in 2020 for her doctoral thesis titled Inheriting Exile: Transgenerational Trauma and Palestinian-Australian Identity. Samah is the Founder and Executive Producer of Hakawatieh Productions, a multi-media company that platforms Arab voices and artists globally who may otherwise be silenced.
PRODUCTION MANAGER- Rahaf Fasheh
Rahaf Fasheh is a Palestinian is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Toronto, Canada. Along with her Bachelor's Degree of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto specialising in Theatre and minoring in Psychology (2020), Rahaf trained under a variety of theatre companies; Notably Soulpepper’s City Youth Academy (2015) for collective creation, and Nightwood Theatre’s Innovators Program (2022) for producing, and Factory Theatres Training Enhancement Program for Directing (2023). As an educator, she facilitates workshops for young artists through Shakespeare in Action's (SIA), Tarragon Theatres Education Programs, and Stage Coach Drama School whilst teaching youth acting weekly with Young Peoples Theatre. As a director, Rahafs' debut sold-out a two-week independent run of Samah Sabawi's award-winning play Tales of a City by the Sea, at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto (2019). She continued to collaborate with Samah on developing and directing a digital exploration of her most recent script How We Fall in Love, under mentorship through Paprika Theatre's Directors Lab Program (2020). This ultimately led to her current Production Managing role for How We Fall in Love: the Animation, partly funded by Ontario Arts Council Development Grant to grow her skills within the new role (2022-23).
CREATIVE DIRECTOR- Amer Hlehel
Amer Hlehel is an Actor, Playwright and Director. His several scripts include internationally acclaimed “TAHA” (Best Production- Asian Arts Award- Edinburgh- 2017), “Lanterns of The King of Galilee” (Adapted from Ibrahim Nasrallah’s novel), and “What the Story is All About”. He appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company, as Caliban in “The Tempest”; David Farr’s production at The Royal Court Theatre; as Truffaldino in “A Servant of Two Masters”; as Dr. Roberto Miranda in “Death and the Maiden”; and as The Soldier in Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” at the Young Vic, and Diab in “Diab” (Best Actor and Best Solo-Performance- Masraheed Festival- Acco-2005). Hlehel’s film work includes: “Mediterranean Fever” winner of Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes International Film Festival- 2022; Al-Garib”; “Personal Affairs”; “The Idol”; “Amreeka”; and the Golden-Globe award-winning “Paradise Now”. Hlehel’s work as a director includes “What the Story is All About”, “Breaking News”, “Finding the Dream”, “Thanks”, “Prayer” and “Altagreeba. Amer's unique creative vision and long-standing reputation makes him the perfect Creative Director for the Animation, where he is responsible for directing the Voice-Over recording, and is in charge of imagining the overall world of the animation.
ART DIRECTOR - Mahmoud Abughalwa
Mahmoud Abu Ghalwa is an award-winning Palestinian multi-disciplinary producer, director and editor based in Istanbul, Turkey. With over 10 years of experience in the film industry, his notable experiences include Editor at Al Jazeera, Producer for multiple series at Al-Arabi Al Jaded Channel and 48 educational childrens episodes at United Nations Channel, as well as dozens of other TV Dramas, Commercial Advertisements, and Documentaries. Mahmoud produced and directed his first short film Paper Boat which premiered in multiple international film festivals in 2016 and 2017. He is also the founder of Bahar Animation Studios, composed of talented artists who are either besieged within the Occupied Gaza Strip, or Palestinian refugees residing in Turkey. Mahmouds’ wide range of skills and resources allows him to be the perfect Art Director for Hakawaiteh Productions’ 2022-2023 Animation Project How We Fall in Love. He will be responsible for the execution of the Animation by determining how to best represent and actualize the Creative Director and Writers concept and vision, along with his team of Sketch and Storyboard Artists, Animators, and Modellers within Bahar Animation Studios
MUSIC PRODUCER / COMPOSER- Nahed Elrayes
Nahed Elrayes is New York-based Palestinian composer and producer. Receiving such awards as the Margaret Schofield Composition Prize, featured on stations from Australia’s SBS to Jordan’s Donya ya Donya, and commissioned for such productions as THEM (2021), Elrayes blends musical languages in his work to explore new colours and emotional dimensions. Elrayes studied classical piano and composition for 18 years in Canada, Jordan, and Australia. At the ANU, Elrayes obtained a Bachelor of Music (BMus) in composition and music production, while writing for Ensemble Offspring and the ANU Chamber Orchestra. He joined bands such as Azim Zain and His Lovely Bones and Limited Express. Elrayes graduated in 2017. After teaching at Fortissimo Piano School, he then flew to Egypt for six months of 2018 to study Arab orchestral music. Nahed’s most recent major project is A Lover from Palestine. Inspired by poet Mahmoud Darwish, A Lover From Palestine was recorded in music studios in Palestine, Turkey and Australia by young Palestinian artists, all in their twenties, under siege in the homeland, refugees in Istanbul and born in exile and residing on the other end of the world in Australia. By its end, 45 Palestinians had worked on this project. The video clip, shot in all three locations, defies the tyranny of closed borders, the threat and impact of Covid-19 and the 2021 bombardment of Gaza.
