Sabrina Mahfouz
Sabrina Mahfouz is a British Egyptian poet, playwright, performer and writer from South London, UK.
Education
Mahfouz studied a BA in English Literature and Classics at King's College, University of London and an MA in International Politics and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London.
Career
Sabrina began her career in the Her Majesty's Civil Service Fast Stream Programme, working with the Ministry of Defence and other departments.
She left the Civil Service to concentrate on creative writing and won a Westminster Prize for New Playwrights in 2010 for her first short play, That Boy, which was performed at Soho Theatre, London.
Mahfouz's poetry work and performances earned her a Creative in Residence Award in 2011 at The Hospital Club in London.
She was invited to New York with the Old Vic New Voices TS Eliot exchange program in 2011 and later that year produced her first solo show, Dry Ice, which premiered at Underbelly during Edinburgh Festival 2011. Dry Ice was directed by David Schwimmer, receiving critical acclaim and a nomination for The Stage Award for Best Solo Performance. It later transferred to The Bush Theatre in London and Contact Theatre in Manchester.[1]
In 2012, her play One Hour Only was chosen by Old Vic New Voices and IdeasTap for their Edinburgh Award and played at the Underbelly. That year she also wrote a short play called Clean for Traverse Theatre as part of The Breakfast Plays 2012, which won a Herald Angel Award.
In 2013, Clean was commissioned as a longer piece and played at Traverse Theatre and Oran Mor in Glasgow, transferring to 59e59 Theater in New York during 2014.
Mahfouz was awarded a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship in 2013, allowing her to produce new poetry work which was collected in a book The Clean Collection, published by Bloomsbury.[1]
The scholarship also enabled her to produce and write a new theatre show called Chef which played at Underbelly in 2014.
Chef won a Fringe First Award and was nominated for the Carol Tambor Best Of Edinburgh New York Award; the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence and the Holden Street Theatre Adelaide Award. The performer was Jade Anouka, who received The Stage Award for Acting Excellence.
In 2014, her play about free speech in Egypt was commissioned by and performed at The National Theatre by young people for the annual National Theatre Connections Festival.
Mahfouz has been a Playwright in Residence at the Bush Theatre; Poet in Residence at Cape Farewell, a Writer at Liberty for Liberty UK and a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum.
Sabrina Mahfouz's popular themes are gender equality and social injustice.
| Year | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Arts Foundation Fellowship for Performance Poetry | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Fringe First Award for Chef | Won |
| 2014 | Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award for Chef | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence for Chef | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Holden Street Theatre Award for Chef | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Sky Academy Arts Scholarship for Poetry | Won |
| 2013 | Herald Angel Award for The Breakfast Plays including Clean | Won |
| 2012 | Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Award | Won |
| 2011 | UK Young Artists Award for Point Blank Poets | Won |
| 2011 | The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, Best Solo Performance, for Dry Ice | Nomination |
| 2010 | Westminster Prize for New Playwrights for That Boy | Won (2nd) |
References
Bloomsbury Publishing Website [1]