IN THE CULTURE OF ONE WORLD

On Human Rights & Censorship, World Cultures, Wanderlust and Media Criticism

IRAN REPORT | Foreign shows teem at annual Fajr International Theater Festival

Fadjr Theater Festival

Fadjr Theater Festival

TEHRAN |  The place to be right now is Tehran, which is holding the 32nd edition of the Fajr International Theater Festival. Some amazing world artists were invited to teach and share their knowledge. The Swiss director Stefan Kaegi will hold workshops under the title of “Transplanted Experts and the Audience on the Remote Control” on January 19 and 20. The Indian playwright and stage director Satish Vasant Alekar will hold seminars on contemporary and regional theater of India from January 19 to 21.

The Norwegian actress Juni Dahr is scheduled to hold a workshop on acting and directing. Dahr and her compatriot Helge Ronning will also hold a seminar on the impact of Henrik Ibsen’s theater on contemporary drama. The celebrated Polish director Wlodzimierz Staniewski will have a workshop on “Music of the Body.”

Two French international theater companies (“Made the World over Theater” and “Cultures & Performances Company”) will hold workshops on the Korean mask dance drama Bongsan Talchulm from January 16 to 20. Bongsan Talchum combines dialogue, dance, mime and music. Its uses quotations from classical poetry, which are interspersed with prose dialogue and chanted to drum rhythms.

Iran’s 32nd Fajr International Theater Festival runs from January 16 to February 1. Thirty-three troupes from Iran and other countries will be competing in the international section. Ten troupes come from countries around the world, and the rest are from Iran.

Iranian directors Arash Dadgar and Ofoq Iraji will stage William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, while Euripides’ Medea will be performed by a group directed by Milad Nikabadi. Akbar Zanjanpur will direct Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Socrates will be directed by Hamidreza Naeimi will also appear on stage.

A troupe led by Iranian director Mohammad Yaqubi is scheduled to perform Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Polish director Wlodzimierz Staniewski will direct the Gardzienice Theater Troupe in Pythian Oratorium.

Groups from Armenia, Canada, France, India, Norway South Korea and Spain will perform plays during the prestigious festival. Where are the Americans? Well, they forgot to invite me. Maybe next year Fajr organizers will ask me to come!

Okay that’s not fair. A Life in the Theatre by David Mamet will be directed by Kiumars Mazandarani, a local director.  But I doubt Mamet himself will show up.

Works staged at the 32nd edition of Iran’s Fajr International Theater Festival.tival have been required to focus on the promotion of intercultural “Tolerance and Respect.”  A non-competitive section will focus on the theme of “Iran’s Social Theater.”

Fadjr Theater Festival

Fadjr Theater Festival

About Randy Gener

Randy Gener is the Nathan Award-winning editor, writer, critic, playwright and visual artist in New York City. He is the author of the plays "Love Seats for Virginia Woolf," "Wait for Me at the Bottom of the Pool," "A Parliament of the Streets," and others. His conceptual installation, "In the Garden of One World" (designed by Nic Ularu), debuted in 2008 at La MaMa La Galleria in New York. He is a renowned lecturer and speaker in the arts and technology, appearing at such schools as the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center-Graduate Center, City University of New York, Montclair State University, University of South Carolina, Brooklyn College; U.S. and European festivals as Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Prague Quadrennial for World Scenography, William Inge Theatre Festival, Humana Festival of New American Plays; as well as such institutions as Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Hallmark Inc., Dramatists Guild of America, Odeon Theatre of Bucharest, Romanian Cultural Institute-New York, Long Wharf Theater Company, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and La MaMa E.T.C.

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This entry was posted on January 31, 2023 by in American Theater, Breaking News, Festival Watch, Middle East.

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