Issam Abdel-Masih Mahfouz (also written 'Isam/Essam Mahfood/Mahfuz') (12 September 1939 – 3 February 2006) was a Lebanese playwright, poet, journalist, author, translator, and critic. His literary works include dozens of books on politics, culture, and theater, as well as “dialogues” - imagined exchanges with historical figures. During his lifetime he was also well known as a Professor of Dramatic Arts at the Lebanese University and for his writing in the Lebanese newspaper al-Nahār, particularly its culture section. Mahfouz is best known for his call to reform theater in the Arab world. In 1968 he published “The First Theater Manifesto” in which he proposed changing the language used in the theater from classical Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic or fuṣ’ḥa) to the local dialect to reflect the language of the street as “it is closer to the hearts of the people”. He also called for the themes of theatrical pieces to be international rather than local. In 1991 he altered his language proposal from the use of the local dialect to the development of a hybrid form of fuṣ’ḥa that would be comprehensible throughout the Arab world while still retaining the immediacy of the dialect. He subsequently translated all his plays into this “popular fuṣ’ḥa” (al-fuṣ’ḥa al-sha’abīyah). Mahfouz's own plays met immediate critical and popular success, and inaugurated a new era of theatrical production in the Arab world. Most recently, his play "The Dictator" was awarded the Sultan Award at the Arab Theater Film Festival in Doha in 2013. A translated version of “The Dictator” was selected by the Between the Seas Festival in New York for 2015 production. Family background Mahfouz was born on September 12, 1939 in the southern Lebanese town of Jdeideh Marjeyoun, to a culturally active family. His mother, Monifa Shadid, was a schoolteacher before marriage. His grandfather Eid managed a popular brass band that played music during ceremonies. His father, Abdel-Masiḥ, was educated in Jerusalem and began producing plays in Marjayoun with the backing of his brother Ramez, although he earned his living as a dentist. In the 1930s, the brothers introduced cinema to the region with the establishment of the Haramoun Cinema and Theater in Marjayoun which drew audiences from the entire region, including Syria and Palestine. Abdel-Masiḥ was also one of the founders of ‘The Marjayoun Awakening’ (al-Nahḍah al-Marj’āyūnīyah), a weekly newspaper focused on socio-economic conditions in the country. In 1937 he published “Symbolism”, a