fbpx HKarmali | HowlRound Theatre Commons
Profile picture for user HKarmali
Hafiz Karmali

Director/Designer, Performer, Translator

Most recently, Hafiz directed War & Peace, an anti-war farce by Tawfiq al-Hakim and Rumi x 7 = Tales from the Masnavi in circus style with clowns and acrobats at the ReOrient 2012 Festival held by Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco.

To commemorate the Aga Khan's golden jubilee as spiritual leader, Hafiz co-wrote, designed and directed an international touring theatre production, Ali to Karim – A Tribute to the Ismaili Imams. At the ReOrient Festival in 2009, Hafiz directed three new plays (Abaga by Torange Yeghiazarian; The Review (a Skype play) and an Egyptian adaptation of Chekhov's The Marriage Proposal by Yussef el-Guindi. Hafiz was also a member of a panel on theatre and peace-building.

Mr. Karmali has a special interest in cross-cultural performances with a view to showcasing indigenous performing arts of the Islamic world. With esoteric fables such as Attar's Conference of the Birds (Ismaili Centre, London) and the Ikhwan al-Safa'sIsland of Animals (Golden Thread Productions) Hafiz seeks to promote a better understanding of the arts and ideas of the Muslim world.

After pursuing his MFA (Directing) at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama Hafiz served an apprenticeship at the American Repertory Theatre where he assisted internationally renowned directors Robert Wilson and Andrei Serban. While at the A.R.T., he was a Teaching Fellow in the English Department at Harvard University for courses taught by Professor Robert Brustein.

www.hafizkarmali.com

Performing Arts in the Islamic World
Essay

Performing Arts in the Islamic World

The Divine Spark

4 January 2015

Muslim theater artist Hafiz Karmali discusses the 12th-century Persian poem The Conference of the Birds and the overlap of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian performance traditions.