Casablanca is preparing to host the eighth edition of its Amazigh theatre festival from September 30 to October 4, bringing performances, professional training and a new discussion about how Morocco preserves its theatrical memory.
The festival is organised by Espace Tafoukt for Creation in partnership with the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) and the Casablanca-Settat Regional Council. An official Morocco portal announcement says activities will be spread across theatres in the Casablanca-Settat region and will combine stage productions with workshops, intellectual meetings and cultural programming.
A central scholarly event will turn attention from the stage to the archive. According to a September 18 program report by Al Fania, a symposium titled “Investing in the Documentation of Moroccan Theatre: On the Need for a National Center for the Moroccan Theatre Collection” is scheduled for October 2 at 4 p.m. at the Casablanca-Settat Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services conference hall.
The subject gives the festival a practical cultural-policy dimension. Theatre depends on live performance, but scripts, photographs, recordings, posters, reviews and production records determine how that work can later be studied and remembered. The announced symposium is expected to bring researchers and cultural specialists into a discussion about creating a more durable institutional home for that material.
Training is another major strand of the program. Casa24’s detailed preview lists five workshops covering writing in Tifinagh, documenting theatre through photography, Amazigh theatrical vocabulary, storytelling for the stage and the physical language of performance. The workshops connect language development and artistic practice with the less visible work of recording and transmitting theatre.
The program also includes the theatre category of the National Amazigh Culture Prize. Le360’s festival report says four Amazigh theatre companies were selected to compete with productions from 2025. The edition will also welcome artistic participation from Morocco and other Arab countries, while a book exhibition organised with the Arab Theatre Authority will make theatre publications and studies available to visitors.
Organisers are presenting the eighth edition as part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Ajdir speech, a milestone in Morocco’s institutional recognition of Amazigh language and culture. The festival is dedicated to the memory of artist Abou Ali Abdelali, who was associated with the Tafoukt theatre community and Moroccan theatre.
The full venue-by-venue schedule, public admission arrangements and workshop registration details were not confirmed in the sources reviewed. Prospective visitors should check the organiser’s final program before travelling.