Walid Kowatli

Walid Kowatli aka Walid Al-Kowatli or Walid Al-Quwatli (Arabic: وليد القوتلي‎) is a Syrian theatre director and playwright, known for directing the Lak' bin Lak' written by Emile Habibi and Waiting for Barbarians an adaptation of Waiting for the Barbarians poem by Constantine P. Cavafy.

Early life and education Kowatli was born and grew up in Damascus, Syria. He obtained his degree in Theater Direction from the Institute of Art Studies (Krystov Sarafov, formerly) in Sofia, Bulgaria, class of 1973.

Career Kowatli headed the Acting Department at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus from 1991 to 1992, before heading the acting department he joined the institute as a teacher in 1979 to teach the art of acting, the basics of directing and the theater laboratory.

In March 2012, he headed the jury for theater days for the Colleges of Applied Sciences in Oman, and in the sixth Kalba Festival plays short in the UAE in 2017. In the same year, he received the Golden Shield commemorating the Syrian meeting in Dubai.

During the period from 2013 to 2017, he worked on a number of documents addressing Syrian children lost during wartime. His work was presented on stages such as the Syrian National Theater and Al-Kabbani Theater in Damascus and the Sorbonne Theater in Paris.

Kowatli directed nearly 30 predominantly experimental and poetic plays during his tenure in the theater career, and has worked with the rising generation artists in amateur bands such as Waha Al-Raheb.

In 2025, his name was included in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Theatre Directors.

Work Theatre 1974Al-Shabiba Theater 2008Amman Theater Festival - Jordan 2017Gaziantep - Turkey Istanbul - Turkey

Television and documentaries

2013: The Children of Syria Ascend to Heaven 2014: Bird of Fire 2015: Baptized with Fire 2016: Maram: The Assassination of a Dream

Translations The Fox and the Grapes — play by Guilherme Figueiredo (translated from English) Crazy Days — play by Nikolai Gogol (translated from Bulgarian) January — play by Yordan Radychkov (translated from Bulgarian) The Art of Theater — book by Boris Zakhava (translated from Bulgarian) With Water — poet by Salah Stétié (translated from French)