Founded in 1984, Dubai Drama Group is the UAE’s oldest theatre company. We are a non-profit community group for adults of all ages and backgrounds.
Our mission is to produce excellent theatre and to promote the dramatic arts in Dubai. To this end, we put on four scripted plays each year and hold monthly play readings and workshops.
Dubai Drama Group puts on several scripted plays each year. The scripts are usually either classics or well-received recent plays, although we also often produce newly-written scripts.
Each production begins life with the vision of a director (or occasionally a producer) who makes a proposal to the Committee, usually around six months before the anticipated production date. We don’t usually receive proposals from actors – but we love talented and industrious people bringing us ideas, so why not be the exception to that rule?
There is no formula for which proposals we accept, but in general, we look for commitment and insight on the part of the director, a play that could be cast and staged, and one that an audience would love to see.
Mostly, we look for prospects that could meet Dubai Drama Group’s mission to produce excellent theatre. Once a proposal is accepted, it’s all systems go! One of the first jobs of the production team is to select and book a venue. Although we put on most of our plays at the Courtyard Playhouse, we have no official corporate home, and choose the right venue for each production. Each play has a producer and a director, both reporting independently to the Committee, which provides support and guidance for rehearsals, publicity and marketing, and technical requirements, and generally makes sure that the production is an artistic and commercial success.
In short, our mission is to produce excellent theatre. If you have a vision for a production, we’d love to hear from you.
Membership of Dubai Drama Group costs AED 100, and is valid for one year. Members may act in, direct or produce our productions, and may attend our monthly play readings or workshops. The members of Dubai Drama Group who elect the Committee.
Committee
meet the Committee
John Thekanady
Catherine Broad
James Mitchinson Catherine Broad
Aileen Kelly
Pooja
Catrina Gailey
Remi
Glenn
John Thekanady
Catherine Broad
I still remember the night I saw The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre, London. Though I was already a lover of performing, this production showed me how powerful theatre can be. Working with a creative team to engage and challenge an audience is an absolute thrill.
James Mitchinson Catherine Broad
Aileen Kelly
Pooja
A trained classical dancer, Pooja has performed in few theatre plays as a dancer before recently exploring acting. Passionate about storytelling in all its forms, she has been loving her journey with the Dubai Drama Group and is excited to bring her energy, creativity and ideas to the committee. Beyond the stage, she continues her storytelling as a podcast producer.
Catrina Gailey
When I was four years old my mum very tentatively took me to see Les Miserable in London for my first ever taste of theatre, and to her utter amazement, I sat on the edge of my seat and I was hooked. Ever since I have taken every opportunity to study, explore and learn all genres of theatre and dance because those butterflies of excitement never go away.
Remi
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Glenn
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Kirin Hilliar
Hani Yakan
Daniel Mac Alistair Gott
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Kirin Hilliar
Theatre allows us to explore others’ lives, culture, relationships, history, fears, traumas, desires and more. It’s intoxicating. Generating a complete production from nothing, and working with fantastic people, is really satisfying.
Hani Yakan
Theatre is, by its nature, a fleeting moment in time. It has the power to elicit all kind of emotions and sensations in us mortal beings. It can lift us up or drop us deep into a bottomless pit. That’s how I felt as a young boy in Aleppo, Syria a long time ago when I saw the visiting New Shakespeare company perform “The Taming of the Shrew”. It was my first theatre experience. I was hooked back then and still am, always striving to feel some of those emotions in every play or performance I see or take part in.
Daniel Mac Alistair Gott
Graduate of BA (Hons) Actor Musicianship at Rose Bruford College, and MFA in Voice Studies at RCSSD in London. Career highlights as a performer include work at The Queens, Polka, and Rose theatres in London as an actor; a record deal with Decca Records with The Punchbowl Band including subsequent work on the Soundtrack for Sherlock Holmes (2009) under direction of Hans Zimmer; and a whole host of international concerts for celebrity and VIP clients as a singer and accordionist playing traditional Irish Music. As a Theatre Practitioner across a range of performance skills, he has taught at a plethora of drama schools and universities internationally, and was an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the UAE from 2021 – 2025.
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
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