Chrystèle Khodr
Chrystèle Khodr is a theater performer, writer and director based in Beirut. She studied theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts, Lebanese University and was trained in physical theatre at l’École Internationale de Théâtre LASSAAD Brussels – Jacques Lecoq pedagogy. Her work springs from the emergency to reconstitute the collective memory from personal stories. In her most recent projects, Chrystèle is increasingly concerned with the movement of History and its impact on time and narrativity as a basic formal dimension of theatre.
Chrystèle Khodr, Happy Ever After (still), 2021, single-channel video, sound. Commissioned by Beirut Art Center and Firstdraft, with the support of the Keir Foundation. Courtesy the artist.
Between 2009 and 2012 she has created small format plays and solos: Bayt Byout, 2007 or how I smashed my bubble envelopes and Beirut Sepia, all of which were shown in several festivals and venues in Lebanon, Egypt, France and Belgium. Her latest production Augurs premiered in May 2021 in Beirut and will be touring across Europe starting October.
As well as an independent maker she has collaborated and performed with several artists from multiple disciplines. In the framework of her artistic collaboration with Zoukak Theater Company, she has performed in the company’s devised performances: He who saw everything, Death comes through the eyes and The Battle Scene.
In 2017 she collaborated with theatre director Waël Ali with whom she wrote and directed Temporary Stay, which was performed in festivals and venues across Europe such as Les Subsistances in Lyon, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Kaaistudio in Brussels. She created alongside visual artist and set designer Bissane Al-Charif the installation I once entered a garden which was shown in galleries and venues in Lebanon – Zoukak and Dar el Nimer, Italy – Napoli International Theater Festival, Belgium – Moussem:Cities, and Holland – Noorderzon Festival Groningen. She also took part in two Sundance Theater Labs in the Mena region as a dramaturg.
Chrystèle was awarded the Ibsen Scholarship to create an adaptation of the playwright’s text The Pretenders, and is currently working on a new research cycle around the economical speculation and its impact on narrativity.
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