Theater Needs State Support to Be Vibrant

Pourzand has a shining career of cooperating with noted directors such as Mohammad Rahmanian and Hamid Pourazari.

A cinema, theater and television actor, Pourzand holds a bachelor degree from Art and Architecture University.

'The Colonel', which is written and directed by Kheirollah Tagianipour, tries to picture part of Iran contemporary history (the Qajar dynasty) and dominance of ignorance, dependency and lack of patriotism among Iranians during the era. Atabak Nader who stars in 'The Colonel' understands his role as Amin-odoleh very well.

The 100-minute play has performance every day except for Saturdays at 19:30 at main auditorium of the City Theater Complex.

Hossein Pakdel, Shahram Haghighatdoust, Atabak Naderi, Cyrus Hemmati, Arash Asefi, Mona Farjad, Atiyeh Javid, Mostafa Sassani, Javad Pourzand, Vahid Nafar, Alireza Nasehi, Elaheh Shahparast, Hossein Shafiee, Mohammad Shokri, Siamak Toudeh-Fallah, Mohsen Mehri, Anahita Khosrawi, Samira Salimi, Zaynab Qamari, Milad Ebrahimi, Mahyar Tahmasbi, Hamed Badiee, Negar Jafari, Sarvenaz Jamshidi, Amir Baadbedast and Aysan Haddad are the cast.

Salar Aghili has song some tracks for 'The Colonel'. Babak Zarrin is the composer.

Pourzand talks about his role.

You have cooperated with Kheirollah Taghianipour in theater including in his latest work ‘The Colonel’ as well as in his ‘Laughter Clinic’ series which ended in television recently.

I have cooperated with his group since my first performances and have reached them a common language and effective cooperation. Taghianpour talks his expectation of any role and the actor is free in forming the character. Most cast of ‘Laughter Clinic’ have been working in a theater group for years and they can easily work together and in coordination.

The audience of a TV series can reach millions but theater has a few thousand spectators?

Anyone who says he hates to become famous, he is telling lies. Fame is pleasant and sweet. Television can bring such fame.

 

Theater has been a rich source for cinema and television for actors. What happened that we see a disruption in this trend within the past three years?

Now the matter is contrary. The economy of theater and launch of private theater has paved the way for cinema and television celebrities to act in theater. The producers prefer to employ them to be certain of the return of their investment. Theater needs state support for to be vibrant and not be concerned of financial problems. Such supports of theater exist all over the world.

 

Do you regard yourself a comedian?

I have played in any genre. The quality of role matters first.