Syed Jamil Ahmed

Syed Jamil Ahmed is a director and designer in theatre and an Associate Professor at the Department of Theatre and Music, University of Dhaka. Born in 1955, he graduated from the National School of Drama (New Delhi, India) in 1978, earned his MA in Theatre from the University of Warwick (Coventry, England) in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) in 1997. His reputation is well established as a director with credits such as Chaka (Dhaka), Bishad Sindhu (Dhaka), Ek Hazar Aur EK Thi Rate (Karachi), and also as a designer with credits such as Achalayatan (Dhaka), Kittankhola (Dhaka), Keramat Mangal (Dhaka), Good Woman of Setzuan (Calcutta). The distinction of his work is in the sharp contemporary relevance he succeeds in providing to 'traditional' material, and his poetic blending of Euro-American theatre practice with elements drawn from the indigenous theatre of Bangladesh in particular and Asian theatre in general. The founding chair of his department, Jamil Ahmed has a number of research papers on the indigenous theatre of Bangladesh and has travelled extensively in Asia, Europe and North America, where he has taught, and given seminars and workshops.