News at Eleven (Back Page): "We met 6,000 poets

from across the Arab states and produced a shortlist of 700, which we slimmed to 48 for the contest here in Abu Dhabi," she [Nashwa Al-Ruwaini] says. This pre-production stage was shown as a three-hour documentary before the contest began its run on December 7, 2006, in the 2,000-seat Al Raha Beach Theatre.

from The Guardian: Declaim academy

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