ABSTRACT
In her article, the Egyptian choreographer, actress, theater director and playwright Nora Amin examines the history of the female voice in Egyptian theater. She explains that, until the 1990s, female characters generally adhered to “authorized” female images that restricted the scope of the female voice and permitted actresses only a limited number of vocal possibilities, such as the thin voice of the “innocent female,” the bass voice of the “respectable mother” or the snaky voice of the “seductive female.” According to Amin, the 1990s marked a historical turning point in Egyptian theater: female directors emerged, created their own independent theater companies and adapted contemporary world plays with the aim of representing the new liberal voice of the Egyptian woman. Analyzing—among other examples—her own performances of Henrik Ibsen’s plays, Amin demonstrates how these theater works contributed to what she calls the liberation of the female voice in Egypt.
