After graduating from the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in 1997, Oussama Ghanam left Damascus for a period and went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne University of Paris. His return to Damascus in 2005 coincided with a lecturer’s job in the Theater Studies Department of the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts. He taught trends in contemporary directing, as well as modern and contemporary theatre literature. His thoughts on cultural life in Damascus at that time were as follows:

“On the one hand, the ‘independent’ cultural sector in Syria before 2011 did not appear to be really or sufficiently independent. On the other hand, the state-funded institutions were the opposite: an unproductive cultural industry without glamour, ruled by a stifling bureaucracy, and detached from reality.”

Ghanam considered the situation of Syrian theatre as a paradox, since it was only a fringe section of a marginalized cultural scene. Nevertheless, over the course of more than three decades, the Dramatic Arts Institute has been able to establish itself as the most important institution on the cultural scene. It has produced acting stars and employees for the TV industry, which has dominated Syrian culture and society since the 1990s. At the same...